[phenixbb] Windows installer now available

Ralf Grosse-Kunstleve rwgrosse-kunstleve at lbl.gov
Fri Apr 13 10:50:22 PDT 2012


We are using the Python multiprocessing module for parallelization within
phenix.refine. If you use the multiprocessing module naively it pickles all
inputs and outputs for each child process, which often undoes any gains
from parallel execution. Under Unix (both Linux and Mac) we can take
advantage of the copy-on-write feature of the system "fork" function to
avoid pickling of the inputs. Since Windows doesn't have fork there is no
way we can use this trick, and much more intrusive code changes are
required to make meaningful use of multiple cores.
Ralf

On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 10:42 AM, Dima Klenchin <klenchin at wisc.edu> wrote:

>
>  includes most of the Phenix components, including the GUI, and should run
>> on Windows XP or newer. Coot and PyMOL integration is supported if these
>> are installed. Details are available here:
>>
>>        http://www.phenix-online.org/**platforms/windows.html<http://www.phenix-online.org/platforms/windows.html>
>>
>> We encourage anyone using this to submit the automatic bug reports, or
>> email us concerning any other problems at bugs at phenix-online.org. An
>> official, fully supported Windows installer, including 64-bit version, will
>> be available later this year.
>>
>
> Excellent! Thank a lot, everyone in the Phenix team!
>
> Just out of curiosity:
>
>  Parallelization of phenix.refine is not supported; this is due to
>> built-in limitations of Windows and will not be fixed.
>>
>
> What are the limitations? Parallel Python seems to work fine in Windows.
> And some CCP4 Windows binaries also support SMP without a problem.
>
> - Dima
>
>
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>
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