StataMP

StataMP is the multi-processor edition of Stata, designed for shared-memory (SMP) systems. It enables parallel processing on machines with multiple CPUs, allowing certain data-management and statistical procedures to run faster by distributing work across cores. The syntax remains identical to standard Stata, and existing programs can be run with StataMP without modification, subject to the commands used and the degree of parallelization supported by those commands.

StataMP relies on hardware resources and licensing; the number of CPUs used is determined by the license and hardware, and performance gains are highly task-dependent. The parallelization capabilities are implemented for many, but not all, Stata operations, and some tasks may still run single-threaded or with limited speedups. Memory usage can increase with parallel execution, and overhead from managing multiple processes can affect gains for smaller tasks.

Typical use cases include large panel data analyses, bootstrap and simulation studies, resampling, and other computationally intensive estimation where parallelizable operations are available. Users may see faster computation for eligible commands and larger datasets, especially when running repetitive or iterative procedures.

Hardware and availability: StataMP runs on 64-bit Windows, macOS, and Linux, and requires a StataMP license sold separately from StataIC/SE. It is supported by current Stata versions. In practice, the choice between StataIC/SE and StataMP depends on dataset size, analysis needs, and whether parallel processing is beneficial for the user’s workload.