Regarding Fred Wolfe's question:
I don't know, and I wish I did know.
I have been in the situation of wanting to know how much memory I can 
request, without going in to virtual memory -- so as to handle a large 
dataset without the significant slowdown of virtual memory .  I suspect 
that this is what you are looking for.
From just experimentation, I have found that with 256mb of real memory, I 
can request about 230mb -- maybe as much as 234mb -- before invoking 
virtual memory.  That's about 90% of real memory.  (And the only way I know 
that I am using virtual memory is by the obvious slowing and all the disk 
activity.)
This may depend on what else is running and maybe what has recently been 
running.  It helps if no other programs are running; it may also help if 
you reboot just before starting your run (maybe).
I'm curious to learn what others have to say.
-- David
At 12:49 PM 3/30/2004 -0600, you wrote:
Does anyone know how to dynamically obtain the amount of memory Windows 
2000 or XP Pro has available? The goal is to set mem in Stata based on the 
OS availability?
Thanks,
Ferd Wolfe
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David Kantor
Institute for Policy Studies
Johns Hopkins University
[email protected]
410-516-5404
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