requirements for parallel computing toolbox

In order to utilize the parallel toolbox do we need an i7 or i5 processor? or do we need something a lotta-bit more expensive like a xeon processor? Simply put what were the folks at mathworks envisioning when they created the toolbox?

Thanks

Answer 1

[Jason Ross]

The Parallel Computing Toolbox will run on any of the systems you mention. There's no specific hardware requirement beyond the base MATLAB system requirements. That said, the hardware requirements (RAM, number of cores, number of machines in the cluster, etc) are more driven by the problems that are trying to be solved than any specific hardware spec. A very generic starting point is one worker per core, and 2 GB of RAM for each worker -- but it's very easy to find reasons to need more RAM or to find out there are other bottlenecks that change the solution time. It depends on if you are running examples and learning, which you can do on pretty much any system, or if you start doing analysis with larger matrix sizes, which will start to require more RAM, and if possible, you might want to split the work up over more cores or more systems.

Another thing that PCT opens the door to is GPU computing, as well.

You might find this previous discussion interesting: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/27749-cores-vs-speed-tradeoff-for-a-matlab-computer

[William]

I am running a 2.5Ghz i7 processor with 16G if Ram. Should be faster than an XP machine with a pentium M and 2G of Ram

[Jason Ross]

Yes, it should be! Enjoy!