in reply to RAM: It isn't free . . .
You really are incapable of taking a hint! I've ignored your posts on this subject because they are irrelevant to my problem!
This is a research project; nothing to do with "production".
It will never "run out of ram" or move into swapping because the size of the -- runtime generated -- dataset is controlled by a command line parameter; which will be set specifically to prevent that.
It will only ever run on research hardware. Currently my machine during development; but once optimised, on a whole bunch of purchased cloud instances specially configured for research purposes!
Probably, though it depends on which cloud provider is offering the best terms at the time, AWS EC2 R3.8xlarge instances.
A few noteable highlights: "r3.8xlarge 32 cores 244 GiB ram 2 x 320 SSD".
And:
Use Cases: We recommend memory-optimized instances for high performance databases, distributed memory caches, in-memory analytics, genome assembly and analysis, larger deployments of SAP, Microsoft SharePoint, and other enterprise applications.
And no amount of you banging on about ancient history, extant wisdoms nor inapplicable generic truths changes the fact that I know my problem space and its requirements; and you know nothing.
(About this or anything contemporary or useful!)
(After all, magnetic doughnuts could be made only so small, and they had to be strung upon three tiny wires by hand.)
And that really explains the Sundial in your user handle and company name:
Sundial; as-in antiquated technology that was grossly inaccurate, and only came close to being correct about twice a year