Customer question: “We have some doubts running ASREML on laptop with large datasets. 100,000 genotypes, millions in pedigree and data. Would that work on a standard laptop?”
Answer: The size of computer required for a particular job obviously depends on the specific model as well as the data size.
A standard animal model should easily run on a PC with 32Gb RAM. Speed depends on how many threads are available as well. My biggest machines have 32Gb RAM and 12 thread processing.
ASReml 4.2 is intended to utilize up to 96 Gb RAM and is being evaluated currently in that environment on some large GBLUP models (45 K individuals currently runs). ASReml 4.2 runs decidedly faster than ASReml 4.1 does on these large jobs.
ASReml also has the ability to TRIM an overly large pedigree. It also depends on whether your primary goal is PREDICTION of breeding values or estimation of genetic parameters or evaluation of ‘treatments’.