Dual Processor Support ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter rpirtle
  • Start date Start date
R

rpirtle

We are running simulations in Excel that are limited by
clock speed.

I will be getting a dual processor running on Windows XP.
I understand Windows XP must be used to support dual
processors. I also understand that a program must be
written to support this (something to do with multi-
threading... I don't know).

Will I get the benefit of the dual processor on my new
machine if I am running Excel 97? How about if I was
running a newer version of Excel?

I appreciate any help I can get.
Best Regards,
Randy
 
We are running simulations in Excel that are limited by
clock speed. ...
Will I get the benefit of the dual processor on my new
machine if I am running Excel 97? How about if I was
running a newer version of Excel?
Click to expand...

Maybe newer versions of Excel would take advantage of dual processors for many
things, but if RAND() calls are the core of your simulations, then it's unlikely
you'd derive much benefit because of the way pseudorandom number generators are
typically implemented. If RAND() uses static memory to store the previous state,
then it couldn't handle asynchronous calls. In which case, you'd be static
memory-bound, which would be indistinguishable from processor-bound.

If you're running really large simulations, you should be using a dedicated
stats package rather than Excel. Based on personal experience on the same
machine, R can run billions of simulations (summarized, not individually stored)
in the time it takes Excel to run millions.
 
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