You can actually set it even much larger. I'm running SPSS 11.5 on a 4G Win32 Vista and set workspace 8300000. is accepted set workspace 8400000. fails with: >Warning # 882 in column 15. Text: 8400000 >The parameter of the WORKSPACE subcommand of the SET command must be a >positive integer not larger than the computer's process memory limit.

Now I'd better set it back to something reasonable before I forget ;-)

On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 2:54 PM, Chris Poole <drchrispoole@gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks for the prompt reply David, > > I initially thought the same as you but didn't try such a big value for SET > WORKSPACE. > > There is a thread on IBM SPSS forum explaining how the number of computed > values increases nearly exponentially using the TIME program. In our case, > almost 20 billion are produced before the regression is computed. > > We're also going to try running SPSS on a very large Amazon EC2 instance to > improve performance. > > Will let you know how we get on. > > KR, > > Chris. > > On Monday, 20 February 2012, David Marso <david.marso@gmail.com> wrote: >> See if >> SET WORKSPACE=some large number helps. >> Default is 6144 (kbtes) . >> >> I thought most procedures just grabbed what is required but that may be a >> false assumption. Hard to keep track of what does what etc... >> I ran some *HUGE* MATRIX problems recently and my 4G machine happily >> allowed SET WORKSPACE=200000 (ie 200M) and my 5000x5000 matrix inversion >> test ran in about 30 minutes. >> HTH, David >> >> >> >> Dr Chris Poole wrote >>> >>> Dear Listers, >>> >>> Does anyone have any advice about memory requirements for running >>> time-dependent Cox regression analyses with large datasets. >>> >>> We have a dataset of 184,000 cases with a quarterly exposure variable >>> observed for upto twenty years (therefore 80 time segments). >>> >>> In SPSS v.18 on recently purchased desktop PCs we keep getting >>> 'Insufficient memory to process the command'. Annoying as this only seems >>> to happen after the time program has run for many minutes. >>> >>> I appreciate some others' experiences of t/d Cox regression and any >>> solutions they found to overcome memory problems. >>> >>> Kind regards, >>> >>> Chris. >>> >>> -- >>> Dr Chris Poole >>> Senior Lecturer in the Evaluation of Medicines >>> Department of Primary Care & Public Health >>> School of Medicine >>> Cardiff University >>> Cardiff MediCentre, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4UJ >>> +44 (0)29 2068 2102 >>> >> >> >> -- >> View this message in context: >> http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/Insufficient-memory-for-time-dependent-Cox-regression-tp5499500p5499561.html >> Sent from the SPSSX Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com. >> >> ===================== >> To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to >> LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the >> command. To leave the list, send the command >> SIGNOFF SPSSX-L >> For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command >> INFO REFCARD >> > > -- > Chris Poole > E: drchrispoole@gmail.com | P. +44(0)7733004258

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD