100% CPU with NONMEM

From: "Bonate, Peter" Subject: [NMusers] 100% CPU with NONMEM Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:33:53 -0500 This may not necessarily be a NONMEM problem but I thought maybe someone has seen this before. I just got two new 3.8 GHz HP PCs with 1.5 MB RAM. When I run NONMEM, it sucks up 100% of the CPU such that nothing else will run. Does anyone know how to adjust it so that say only 50% of the CPU is used at any one time or some other solution to this problem. Thanks, Pete Bonate Peter L. Bonate, PhD Genzyme Corporation Director, Pharmacokinetics 4545 Horizon Hill Blvd San Antonio, TX 78229 USA peter.bonate@genzyme.com phone: 210-949-8662 fax: 210-949-8219

From: mark.e.sale@gsk.com Subject: Re: [NMusers] 100% CPU with NONMEM Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 Sam, Sorry to disagree, but HT does not work for NONMEM. The multiple instruction paths on the Intel chips include only one for floating point operations, and 4 for integer operations. We have benchmarked NONMEM with and without HT, and it makes no difference, and makes no difference in responsiveness of the GUI. HT is basically intended for gamers Mark Sale M.D. Global Director, Research Modeling and Simulation GlaxoSmithKline 919-483-1808 Mobile 919-522-6668

From: "Peterson, Mark" markp@amgen.com Subject: Re: [NMusers] 100% CPU with NONMEM Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 09:01:26 -0800 Peter, I don't know how to do that, but you can set the priority below normal in the task manager (open task manager and right click on the "nonmem" process). Then when you open or use another app. the machine will cut back on CPU time to NONMEM and allow you to continue with your other work without as much delay. This assumes you are under Windows, I don't know about other OSs. Hope this helps, Mark Peterson

From: Sam Liao sliao@pharmaxresearch.com Subject: Re: [NMusers] 100% CPU with NONMEM Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 13:04:28 -0500 Hi Pete: I agree with Mark. Another alternative is to turn on the hyper-threading. This has to be done in PC setup soon after you power up your PC, use F2 key. You should be able to find hyper-threading set up under 'performance' or 'PC configuration'. My new Dell PC came with hyper-threading on. Turn hyper-threading on or enable will create two logical CPU and allow up to 50% of the CPU time to any application. Have fun with your new PC. Sam Liao Pharmax Research

From: Sam Liao sliao@pharmaxresearch.com Subject: Re: [NMusers] 100% CPU with NONMEM Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 13:37:09 -0500 Hi Mark: As I indicated, my Dell PC came with HT on and my NONMEM run only take up to 50% of the CPU for each job. I do not have to select "set priority" each time when I run NONMEM. Sam Liao Pharmax Research

From: Darin Perusich Darin.Perusich@cognigencorp.com Subject: Re: [NMusers] 100% CPU with NONMEM Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 14:59:44 -0500 you cannot allocating resources like this in windows, is just not possible. to my knowledge the only operating system which would allow you to assign a percentage of cpu to a process is solaris 10 via it's "Solaris Containers" feature. with solaris containers to can allocate say 33% of a cpu 1 nonmem process, 50% to a second nonmem process, etc. it's an extremely flexable system but from what i've seen it's not trivial to setup. howto guide on solaris containers. http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/howtoguides/containersLowRes.jsp

From: Nick Holford n.holford@auckland.ac.nz Subject: Re: [NMusers] 100% CPU with NONMEM Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 09:15:11 +1300 Peter, Instead of manually changing priority using the task manager you can start NONMEM with a low priority from within the DOS batch file you use to start the NONMEM executable e.g. instead of NONMEM.exe use this start /b /low /wait NONMEM.exe At a Windows Command Prompt type help start to see options for the start command Nick -- Nick Holford, Dept Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology University of Auckland, 85 Park Rd, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand email:n.holford@auckland.ac.nz tel:+64(9)373-7599x86730 fax:373-7556 http://www.health.auckland.ac.nz/pharmacology/staff/nholford/ _______________________________________________________