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.<div>
Ralf<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 10:42 AM, Dima Klenchin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:klenchin@wisc.edu">klenchin@wisc.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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:<br>
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<a href="http://www.phenix-online.org/platforms/windows.html" target="_blank">http://www.phenix-online.org/<u></u>platforms/windows.html</a><br>
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We encourage anyone using this to submit the automatic bug reports, or email us concerning any other problems at <a href="mailto:bugs@phenix-online.org" target="_blank">bugs@phenix-online.org</a>. An official, fully supported Windows installer, including 64-bit version, will be available later this year.<br>
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Excellent! Thank a lot, everyone in the Phenix team!<br>
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Just out of curiosity:<br>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Parallelization of phenix.refine is not supported; this is due to built-in limitations of Windows and will not be fixed.<br>
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What are the limitations? Parallel Python seems to work fine in Windows. And some CCP4 Windows binaries also support SMP without a problem.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
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- Dima</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
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