binary input and memory address passing

[Eric Carlson]

Hello,

I can open, read, and convert data to a numeric (double) array from a 
binary file using

nc = #something given
nr = #something given
f_o=open('junk.bin','rb')
x=reshape(array('d',f_o.read()),(nr,nc))

Is there a way in python that gives better performance? These commands 
take three to 4 times longer than loading the data into an array in (for 
example) octave.

Also, is there a way to pass the address of a block of memory, and then 
access the data located there (pass by reference and let the python 
program know what data type to use)?

My situation: I have two programs that can not communicate directly, but 
I can get memory addresses for any data in my programs. I currently save 
to a file, then load the data from file into my other program. Clearly 
it would be much faster if I could access the block of memory directly 
rather than making a copy.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Eric Carlson