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new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 12:44 pm
by cooch
Gary has been working on the MARK code -- and you'll want to download the newest version fairly soon, especially if you're working with 'large dimension' problems (lots of occasions x lots of groups). Thee code related to use of multiple processors has been tweaked, significantly improving execution times for some problems.

Also, Gary has added a new 'preference', wherein you can force MARK to use the 32-bit version of mark.exe, even if you're using a 64-bit machine (MARK normally 'looks' at the architecture of your computer, and picks the version of mark.exe which equals the bit-length of the OS on the machine). But, for some technical reasons, especially for some problems, 32-bit mark.exe will run faster than 64-bit mark.exe. So, you can no force MARK to use 32-bit mark.exe, if you want.

You can download latest version of MARK here:

http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/downloads/

(Note: Linux version of MARK has also been updated. Mac OS/X version will be updated next week sometime).

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:33 am
by cooch
More details, and some even more recent changes (you'll want to update to versions posted December 28 or later). Meaning, even if you updated 2-3 days ago, you'll want to do so again.

Some particulars on the changes:

A rather severe problem was uncovered with the gfortran compiler when a "large" problem is optimized in the mark.exe code. The problem occurred on all machines running the gfortran code: PC, Cray, or Unix. Specifically, when a design matrix of dimension 460 X 460 was used, the cpu time to allocate thread-specific copies for the multiple threads was ~100 times what would take a run without multiple threads. Several changes were made to circumvent this problem. For analyses without individual covariates, only the original design matrix is needed -- not multiple copies -- so a test to determine this condition was added and processing without multiple copies then proceeds. Further, an option was added to not use parallel processing with a single thread, and thus avoid the overhead of the OpenMP with multiple threads. If you find that a "large" design matrix with individual covariates is taking an exorbitant amount of time, try specifying threads=1.


As you might surmise from the preceding, compiling for multiple threads/cores is non-trivial.

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 10:24 am
by cooch
cooch wrote:Mac OS/X version will be updated next week sometime)...


Update applied and upload 5 minutes ago...

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:52 pm
by dhpstroud
Is anyone else having trouble getting the new download up-and-running? I'm getting an error message that refers to line6 and line16.

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:06 pm
by cooch
dhpstroud wrote:Is anyone else having trouble getting the new download up-and-running? I'm getting an error message that refers to line6 and line16.


Runs fine for me on 5-6 different machines. Only suggestiojn is to uninstall, and re-download (using latest version):

http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/downloads/

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:20 pm
by cooch
dhpstroud wrote:Is anyone else having trouble getting the new download up-and-running? I'm getting an error message that refers to line6 and line16.


I'm assuming you mean the Windows version - yes?

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:02 pm
by dhpstroud
Hm. Yup, I've done that a few times now. I'm using windows 7. The issue must be on my end. This is a new machine and I haven't quite broken it in... :mrgreen:

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:54 pm
by dhpstroud
Huh. I'm still having issues over here. It's working beautifully elsewhere, but not on my work laptop. Maybe you could give me some direction. It installs just fine, but when I try and open it I get a windows error message:
----------------------------------------------------
Error Code: 11 ()
Subsystem: BASE
Description: Dynamic Memory Low (*sidenote, I checked my memory and there's no real issue*)
CallStack:
APP:START (Line:16)
START (Line:6)
-------------------------------------------------
Any ideas what this is about?

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:29 pm
by cooch
dhpstroud wrote:Huh. I'm still having issues over here. It's working beautifully elsewhere, but not on my work laptop. Maybe you could give me some direction. It installs just fine, but when I try and open it I get a windows error message:
----------------------------------------------------
Error Code: 11 ()
Subsystem: BASE
Description: Dynamic Memory Low (*sidenote, I checked my memory and there's no real issue*)
CallStack:
APP:START (Line:16)
START (Line:6)
-------------------------------------------------
Any ideas what this is about?


Works elsewhere, works for me (and a lot of people), but doesn't work on your laptop.

Deep scientific conclusion: the problem is your laptop.

Sorry, can't do much more than that. I suppose it could be some weird interaction with Windows 8 (if that applies), but beyond that.

Try booting the machine into SafeMode, and try running it from there.

Re: new MARK build

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 5:02 pm
by gwhite
This error sounds like you don't have enough memory on the notebook to run the version of MARK that I distribute. How much memory?

Gary