Main memory used

At run-time, max_diff_nc allocates main memory for each new NetCDF variable it compares, then deallocates memory when it finishes comparing this variable. So main memory use will vary during execution of max_diff_nc, depending on the size of the currently compared NetCDF variable. Let us call v the memory occupied by a given NetCDF variable. v = 4 bytes times its number of elements if it is NC_FLOAT, 8 bytes times its number of elements if it is NC_DOUBLE. For a given NetCDF variable, main memory use will normally be:

  • without computation of average order of magnitude: about 8 v if the variable is of type NC_FLOAT, 6.5 v if it is NC_DOUBLE;
  • with computation of average order of magnitude: about 11 v if the variable is of type NC_FLOAT, 7.5 v if it is NC_DOUBLE.