multi threading and optimize?

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Wed, 06/22/2011 - 11:15 am

It appears that the Optimize function is not multi-thread capable...is this really true? Are there any good workarounds that I could use (short of writing my own optimization algorithm in Igor)? I would love to be able to use all of the cores on my computer to crunch a massive data set...
If you have multiple datasets to analyze you can use multiple instances of Igor.

On Windows, as of about Igor Pro 6.20, if you double-click Igor.exe or a shortcut pointing to it, a new instance of Igor will launch. Previously this required pressing the Ctrl key while launching Igor.

On Macintosh the easiest way to run multiple instances is to clone the Igor application file.

June 22, 2011 at 01:04 pm - Permalink

Nothing quite like kicking in an open door: have you considered multithreading the function that Optimize calls? Sure, a poor substitute, but it might help out a bit.

June 22, 2011 at 07:57 pm - Permalink

741 wrote:
Nothing quite like kicking in an open door: have you considered multithreading the function that Optimize calls? Sure, a poor substitute, but it might help out a bit.

I have, and at present it can't be done. Multivariate Optimize is based on a large and old FORTRAN code that is not threadsafe, and not written by us. It will take a major effort to make Optimize threadsafe.

John Weeks
WaveMetrics, Inc.
support@wavemetrics.com

June 23, 2011 at 09:50 am - Permalink