Parallel computation with helper threads in pqR

One innovative feature of pqR (my new, faster, version of R), is that it can perform some numeric computations in “helper” threads, in parallel with other such numeric computations, and with interpretive operations performed in the “master” thread. This can potentially speed up your computations by a factor as large as the number of processor cores your system has, with no change to your R programs. Of course, this is a best-case scenario — you may see little or no speed improvement if your R program operates only on small objects, or is structured in a way that inhibits pqR from scheduling computations in parallel. Below, I’ll explain a bit about helper threads, and illustrate when they do and do not produce good speed ups.