Memory For Python.exe On Windows 7 Python 32 - Numpy Uses Half Of The Available Memory Only?

I'm loading large h5 files into memory using numpy ndarray's. I read that my system (Win 7 prof., 6 GB RAM) is supposed to allow python.exe to use about 2 GB of physical memory. Ho

Solution 1:

This is probably happening because numpy array is using some C array library (for speed), that is somewhere calling a malloc. This then fails because it cannot allocate a contiguous 1GB of memory. I am further guessing that Python lists are implemented as a linked list, thus the memory needed for a list need not be contiguous. Hence, if you have enough memory available but it is fragmented, your array malloc would fail but your linked list would allow you to use all of the noncontiguous pieces.