[Chimera-users] multi-threading

[Greg Couch]

On Tue, 2 Mar 2010, Jean-Paul Armache wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I know that this topic might've emerged earlier, but I was curious 
> whether there were any plans to implement multi-threading into Chimera ?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Jean-Paul Armache

The short answer is that chimera is already multi-threaded.

Chimera uses threads in some places, e.g., opening files so the GUI stays 
responsive.  Other uses of threads are being added on a case-by-case 
basis.  FYI, most of chimera is written in Python and the current Python 
implementation in C, that chimera uses, does not lend itself to 
multi-thread computational programming.  So most of the benefits from 
multi-threading will come from the third-party computational libraries 
that chimera incorporates, so whether chimera uses multi-threading or not 
depends on our "suppliers".  And there isn't much multi-thread use yet.
So lots of room for improvement.

If you're really asking if you should buy a multi-core computer to run 
chimera, the answer is that you're not going to see much of an improvement 
today.  You would be better off buying a faster computer with fewer cores 
than a slower computer with more cores.

 	- Greg