New memory exhausted problem

[jpswensen]

I recently have run into a repeatable memory exhausted problem.  I am
using Fedora Core 5 with the 2.9.9 version distributed iwht FC5.
GNU Octave, version 2.9.9 (i686-redhat-linux-gnu).

The following is the sequence of commands that causes the error:
octave:1> a = zeros(640,210,1800); octave:2> b = zeros(640,210,1800);
error: memory exhausted -- trying to return to prompt
octave:2>

While octave was still running, I ran the 'free' command in a different
window.
address@hidden Tools]$ free
            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       3624816    1338440    2286376          0     157252     957628
-/+ buffers/cache:     223560    3401256
Swap:      4096564          0    4096564


Clearly I still have over 2GB of free RAM and the swap disk hasn't even
been touched.  Any suggestions as to what is causing the problem?

John Swensen