PROOF-Lite (available starting from ROOT version 5.22/00) is a version of PROOF optimized for multicore desktops and laptops.

Note that PROOF-Lite is not yet available for Windows OS; the porting is under way.

PROOF-Lite does not require any additional configuration. To start a PROOF-Lite session, open a ROOT session and type TProof::Open(""):

$ root -l
root [0] TProof::Open("")
+++ Starting PROOF-Lite with 4 workers +++
Opening connections to workers: OK (4 workers)
Setting up worker servers: OK (4 workers)
PROOF set to parallel mode (4 workers)
(class TProof*)0xa84f50
root [1]

The default number of workers is the number of cores of the machine. One can force a different number of cores with the parameter workers:

$ root -l
root [0] TProof::Open("workers=2")
 +++ Starting PROOF-Lite with 2 workers +++
Opening connections to workers: OK (2 workers)
Setting up worker servers: OK (2 workers)
PROOF set to parallel mode (2 workers)
(class TProof*)0xa85250
root [1]

For testing purposes (or if using a ROOT version older than 5.22/00) it is of course still possible to start a standard local PROOF installation.