[Eeglablist] Parallel Data Processing

[Richard Höchenberger]

Hello! We are planning to set up a server for running our EEG analyses
with EEGLAB. The Parallel Computing Toolbox (PCT) [1] in conjunction
with the Distributed Computing Server (DCS) [2] appears to be pretty
promising to me.

The PCT allows for the straightforward execution of calculations in a
parallel manner. In the most simple approach, 'for' loops could just
be replaced with 'parfor' loops, which would execute the loop
iterations independently on different workers.

Now I do understand that this approach only works if one iteration
does not depend on the results of another (because they are processed
in parallel). However, I was wondering

  o if EEGLAB keeps internal states (caches, heuristics, ...) during a
calculation, which might then have implications on a second
calculation running in parallel, and if so,
  o whether the worker processes are actual separate Matlab processes
completely independent of one another, meaning internal EEGLAB states
in one worker would not influence calculations in another. (I could
not find any documentation about this particular question on the
Matlab website.)

Thank you very much for your help!

    Richard


References:
[1] http://www.mathworks.com/products/parallel-computing/index.html
[2] http://www.mathworks.com/products/distriben/index.html