MATLAB "Out of memory" problem

Hello,

I want to create a large matrix, for example:

zeros(65536, 65536)
Matlab responds:
  ??? Error using ==> zeros
  Out of memory. Type HELP MEMORY for your options.

How can I increase memory for Matlab use? I am on linux machine.

Answer 1

[Andreas Goser]

Try the key Technical Notes 1106 and 1107 for that.

Besides looking at increasing the memory use and decreasing the memory used, please always ask yourself the question "do I really need this amount of data to solve my scientific question?"

[REN]

Thanks Andreas!

"do I really need the to solve my scientific question?"

When I need create a large matrix, error like this occurs

[Andreas Goser]

I corrected my type - "do I really need this amount of data to solve my scientific question?" The point is that I observe often users that generate much more data than they need. E.g. what is the point of measuring room temperatures with 1000 Hz? But some people do and then ask what the shall do with GBytes of unneccessary data. No implication to you appplication but a thought for many users.

[REN]

Yeah, I should have done more smarter I'd accept your answer, for thanks...

And if I still can not figure out how in 2-3 days, I will start another post to ask how to represent large transition matrix of Graph in random walk'.

Answer 2

[REN]

and commands:
  memory
  ??? Error using ==> memory
  Function MEMORY is not available on this platform.

    feature('memstats')
    ??? Error using ==> feature
    An unknown feature was specified

They don't work for me.

[Andreas Goser]

MEMORY is not available for Linux

Answer 3

[Oleg Komarov]

You should REALLY consider what you're doing: 65536*65536 * 8 bytes = 32 gigabytes

I worked on server with more than 32 gb, but it really doesn't make sense to create such a huge matrix, often the calculations can be done avoiding such ways.

Oleg

[REN]

just an example 65536*65536

I didn't really crate a matrix that large. But yes should avoid that, to calculation other way.

[Oleg Komarov]

The next answer would be, what are you trying to calculate? Maybe we can help and pinpoint the appropriate numerical method.

[REN]

Thanks all. I try to create a matrix of transition probabilities:

Like P in the paper: http://www.cs.unibo.it/babaoglu/courses/cas/resources/tutorials/RandomWalks.pdf

page 3

[REN]

For a large collection of node set:

X=(x1, x2, x3, ..., xn) (n is a large number)

The matrix P, its (i,j) element(ith row, jth column) is: the probability node j reach to node i after t steps(iteration)

[REN]

since 1< = i, j <= n, P: n x n matrix, it has large size. Any other ways to do that?

[Walter Roberson]

What will you do with the large collection of transition probabilities after you create it?

[REN]

to calculate P^(m)(is the transition matrix of another Graph G(2)) in smooth graph: in page 2-3 of this paper:

http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~zhouxy/pakdd06.pdf

Answer 4

[Jiro Doke]

Read through the links in Andreas's answer. And I agree with Andreas and Oleg about the question of "why you need such a big matrix", but a solution would be (assuming you definitely need what you are asking for) to get a 64-bit OS with a lot of RAM and 64-bit MATLAB.

[mladen]

I have got 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit MATLAB R2013a and 16 GB of RAM. If that dose not cut it what does? This problem is really annoying, and prohibits me from doing my work with neural networks. I have looked everywhere I know of, and NOTHING. Up to this point I think the problem lies in the OS and the way it handles memory requests.

Answer 5

[Md. Ali Hossain]

yap I really need such a large array for my kernel PCA analysis. My array size is K(21025,21025), How can I solve it

[Walter Roberson]

If your task cannot be dealt with using sparse matrices, then as Jiro suggests, you need "a 64-bit OS with a lot of RAM and 64-bit MATLAB"

Answer 6

[mladen]

I managed to solve the problem by installing 64-bit Windows 8.1 and 64-bit Matlab 2013b.