Simple examples of how to use "multicore" and "SNOW" packages on the JAX rockhopper cluster.

Files:

• MCTest.bash: the main entry point for running the multicore example. Use qsub MCTest.bash to run this on the cluster. To run MCTest on your desktop just use source("MCTest.R", echo=T) from the R prompt.
• MCTest.R: the top-level R code for the multicore test
• SNOWTest.bash: the main entry point for running the SNOW example. Use qsub SNOWTest.bash to run this.
• SNOWTest.R: the top-level R code for the SNOW test
• Fibonacci.R: the test functions

Suggestions:

When to use multicore package:

• you want the simplest solution (SNOW takes a bit more configuration)
• large amounts of data must be transferred to parallel workers (eg: huge matrices)
• a single node (or workstation) is good enough

When to use SNOW:

• when you need to use more than one node on the cluster (because of memory, CPU... whatever)