I have a small program which builds random matrices for increasing matrix orders, inverts the matrix and checks the precision of the product.  At some point, one would expect operations to fail, when the memory capacity is exceeded.  In both Python 2.7 and 3.2 matrices of order 3,071 area handled, but not 6,143. 

Using wall-clock times, with win32, Python 3.2 is slower than Python 2.7.  The profiler indicates a problem in the solver.

Done on a Pentium, with 2.7 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM and 221 GB of free disk space.  Both Python 3.2.3 and Python 2.7.3 use numpy 1.6.2.

The results are show below.

Colin W.

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2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)]
order=    2   measure ofimprecision= 0.097   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.004143
order=    5   measure ofimprecision= 2.207   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.001514
order=   11   measure ofimprecision= 2.372   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.001455
order=   23   measure ofimprecision= 3.318   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.001608
order=   47   measure ofimprecision= 4.257   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.002339
order=   95   measure ofimprecision= 4.986   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.005747
order=  191   measure ofimprecision= 5.788   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.029974
order=  383   measure ofimprecision= 6.765   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.145339
order=  767   measure ofimprecision= 7.909   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.841142
order= 1535   measure ofimprecision= 8.532   Time elapsed (seconds)=  5.793630
order= 3071   measure ofimprecision= 9.774   Time elapsed (seconds)= 39.559540
order=  6143 Process terminated by a MemoryError

Above: 2.7.3  Below: Python 3.2.3

bbb_bbb
3.2.3 (default, Apr 11 2012, 07:15:24) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)]
order=    2   measure ofimprecision= 0.000   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.113930
order=    5   measure ofimprecision= 1.807   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.001373
order=   11   measure ofimprecision= 2.395   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.001468
order=   23   measure ofimprecision= 3.073   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.001609
order=   47   measure ofimprecision= 5.642   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.002687
order=   95   measure ofimprecision= 5.745   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.013510
order=  191   measure ofimprecision= 5.866   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.061560
order=  383   measure ofimprecision= 7.129   Time elapsed (seconds)=  0.418490
order=  767   measure ofimprecision= 8.240   Time elapsed (seconds)=  3.815713
order= 1535   measure ofimprecision= 8.735   Time elapsed (seconds)= 27.877270
order= 3071   measure ofimprecision= 9.996   Time elapsed (seconds)=212.545610
order=  6143 Process terminated by a MemoryError