Diemo Schwarz

Hi, I have a patch that does some heave off-line sound analysis, and on 

mono-processor machines I throttle the CPU load a little, but for multi-core 

machines it can and should go at full speed.

Is there a way to get the number of CPU cores in Max (still 4.6.3 as long as I 

don't have a second processor to render all these heavy graphics...)?

                                ...Diemo

IRCAM - Centre Pompidou -- 1, place Igor-Stravinsky, 75004 Paris, France

Phone +33-1-4478-4879 -- Fax +33-1-4478-1540

Hi, I have a patch that does some heave off-line sound analysis, and on 
mono-processor machines I throttle the CPU load a little, but for multi-core 
machines it can and should go at full speed.

Is there a way to get the number of CPU cores in Max (still 4.6.3 as long as I 
don't have a second processor to render all these heavy graphics...)?

-- 
Diemo Schwarz, PhD -- http://diemo.concatenative.net
Real-Time Music Interaction Team -- http://imtr.ircam.fr
IRCAM - Centre Pompidou -- 1, place Igor-Stravinsky, 75004 Paris, France
Phone +33-1-4478-4879 -- Fax +33-1-4478-1540


how-to-find-out-the-number-of-processor-cores

If I'm not wrong, and I'm sorry if I am, Max is not a multi core software. If you put Max running you can see on (win) task manager that it uses all cores, but not in the way we all like it to do!

A check box on all objects inspector to force object to run on a specific(s) core(s) is great, but it's very hard to program Max like that... very hard!

probably only on Max6.... in 20 years from now!

If I'm not wrong, and I'm sorry if I am, Max is not a multi core software. If you put Max running you can see on (win) task manager that it uses all cores, but not in the way we all like it to do!
A check box on all objects inspector to force object to run on a specific(s) core(s) is great, but it's very hard to program Max like that... very hard!
probably only on Max6.... in 20 years from now!


On 6 juin 08, at 19:48, Fernando Silva wrote:

> If I'm not wrong, and I'm sorry if I am, Max is not a multi core 

> software. If you put Max running you can see on (win) task manager 

> that it uses all cores, but not in the way we all like it to do!

> A check box on all objects inspector to force object to run on a 

> specific(s) core(s) is great, but it's very hard to program Max like 

> probably only on Max6.... in 20 years from now!

You can forget about that dream. It's not how multi core architectures 

works nowadays. Since Jitter 1.5, some processes are parallelized 

which makes that it will take advantage of the multiple core when you 

have such kind of computer. Since Max 5, audio processes can be 

(automatically) assigned to different threads with the use of the 

For Diemo question, AFAIK there's no standard way to get the number of 

cores at least with objects. You can do that via C for sure.

> Forget!
>
> If I'm not wrong, and I'm sorry if I am, Max is not a multi core  
> software. If you put Max running you can see on (win) task manager  
> that it uses all cores, but not in the way we all like it to do!
> A check box on all objects inspector to force object to run on a  
> specific(s) core(s) is great, but it's very hard to program Max like  
> that... very hard!
> probably only on Max6.... in 20 years from now!

You can forget about that dream. It's not how multi core architectures  
works nowadays. Since Jitter 1.5, some processes are parallelized  
which makes that it will take advantage of the multiple core when you  
have such kind of computer. Since Max 5, audio processes can be  
(automatically) assigned to different threads with the use of the  
parallel attribute in poly~.

For Diemo question, AFAIK there's no standard way to get the number of  
cores at least with objects. You can do that via C for sure.

Thanks for your answer, Fernando, although that was not my question.

The situation is simpler: I do off-line batch sound analysis on the event level,

and in order to keep a mono-processor machine responsive, I need to insert short

breaks, so that the gui can get updated, sound can run, etc. On

multi-processors, these latter do run indeed in separate threads, so the breaks

are not necessary, and analysis can be faster.

Emmanuel, this is how to find out on UNIX (= OSX, dunno about Windows), I'll add

ret = sysctl(mib, 2, &ncpu, &intsize, NULL, 0);

    printf("sysctl error %dn", ret);    

>> Hi, I have a patch that does some heave off-line sound analysis, and on mono-processor machines I throttle the CPU load a little, but for multi-core machines it can and should go at full speed.

> > Is there a way to get the number of CPU cores in Max (still 4.6.3 as long as 

I don't have a second processor to render all these heavy graphics...)?

> On 6 juin 08, at 19:48, Fernando Silva wrote:

>> If I'm not wrong, and I'm sorry if I am, Max is not a multi core 

>> software. If you put Max running you can see on (win) task manager 

>> that it uses all cores, but not in the way we all like it to do!

>> A check box on all objects inspector to force object to run on a 

>> specific(s) core(s) is great, but it's very hard to program Max like 

>> probably only on Max6.... in 20 years from now!

> You can forget about that dream. It's not how multi core architectures 

> works nowadays. Since Jitter 1.5, some processes are parallelized which 

> makes that it will take advantage of the multiple core when you have 

> such kind of computer. Since Max 5, audio processes can be 

> (automatically) assigned to different threads with the use of the 

> For Diemo question, AFAIK there's no standard way to get the number of 

> cores at least with objects. You can do that via C for sure.

The situation is simpler: I do off-line batch sound analysis on the event level,
and in order to keep a mono-processor machine responsive, I need to insert short
breaks, so that the gui can get updated, sound can run, etc.  On
multi-processors, these latter do run indeed in separate threads, so the breaks
are not necessary, and analysis can be faster.

Emmanuel, this is how to find out on UNIX (= OSX, dunno about Windows), I'll add
that as a function to ftm:

void main ()
{
     int mib[2];
     int ncpu, ret;
     size_t intsize = sizeof(int);

     mib[0] = CTL_HW;
     mib[1] = HW_NCPU;

     ret = sysctl(mib, 2, &ncpu, &intsize, NULL, 0);

     if (ret == 0)
	printf("#proc %dn", ncpu);
     else
	printf("sysctl error %dn", ret);	
}

Emmanuel Jourdan wrote:
> Diemo wrote
>> Hi, I have a patch that does some heave off-line sound analysis, and on mono-processor machines I throttle the CPU load a little, but for multi-core machines it can and should go at full speed.
>>
> > Is there a way to get the number of CPU cores in Max (still 4.6.3 as long as 
I don't have a second processor to render all these heavy graphics...)?
>>
>> Cheers...
>>                                 ...Diemo
>
> On 6 juin 08, at 19:48, Fernando Silva wrote:
>
>> Forget!
>>
>> If I'm not wrong, and I'm sorry if I am, Max is not a multi core 
>> software. If you put Max running you can see on (win) task manager 
>> that it uses all cores, but not in the way we all like it to do!
>> A check box on all objects inspector to force object to run on a 
>> specific(s) core(s) is great, but it's very hard to program Max like 
>> that... very hard!
>> probably only on Max6.... in 20 years from now!
>
> You can forget about that dream. It's not how multi core architectures 
> works nowadays. Since Jitter 1.5, some processes are parallelized which 
> makes that it will take advantage of the multiple core when you have 
> such kind of computer. Since Max 5, audio processes can be 
> (automatically) assigned to different threads with the use of the 
> parallel attribute in poly~.
>
> For Diemo question, AFAIK there's no standard way to get the number of 
> cores at least with objects. You can do that via C for sure.
>
> ej
>
>

How to find out the number of processor cores?