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How to reduce memory usage of the MathKernel.exe?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg92992] How to reduce memory usage of the MathKernel.exe?
• From: Janneke Baetens <jan.baetens at ugent.be>
• Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:38:39 -0400 (EDT)

Hi all,

Currently, I'm using Mathematica 6.0 on a Windows XP machine which has 2 Gb of RAM to perform massive numerical computations. It all works great but sometimes the Kernel needs to shut because it's out of memory. I can follow this memory depletion in the Windows task manager. 

First, I thought this would be caused be wanting to store too much variables consisting of millions of elements. Because of that I tried to clear the memory after each individual computation by using the command ClearSystemCache, though this doesn't seem to affect the memory needed by the MathKernel. Even if I used that command and clear all variables the kernel keeps on needing   the same amount of memory as I can see in the Windows Task Manager. 

Only by killing the kernel and afterwards starting a new one it's possible to execute a new massive computation. I think there must be a more subtle manner to reduce the memory use by the Kernel but so far I didn't find any.

I wonder whether anyone on this list has a good suggestion.

Best regards,

Jan Baetens
Ghent University