Why Mathematica is crashing when there is plenty of RAM available ?

Questions
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1

I have the data of 1000 pictures where every picture size is 256x256. I try to display these pictures with their Fourier transform in pairs as ArrayPlots. If I just do the pictures, or just the Fourier transforms, Mathematica does not crash and shows 1000 pictures. When I pair them up then it crashes very quickly although there is plenty of RAM available. From the attached crash log it looks to me that not everything is 64 bit, so something hits hard the 4GB 32-bit limit. Then the OS simply kills Mathematica.
The list name is plots, nRow and nCol are 256. I tried with Table too and that crashed too.
Any good suggestions how to get around? I really would like to see them in pairs.

ParallelTable[{ArrayPlot[plots[[i, 1]], ImageSize -> Tiny , 
   PlotLabel -> {plots[[i, 2]], plots[[i, 3]], plots[[i, 4]], 
     plots[[i, 5]] }], 
  ArrayPlot[
   RotateRight[Fourier[plots[[i, 1]]], Floor[({nRow, nCol} - 1)/2] ]*
    Conjugate[
     RotateRight[Fourier[plots[[i, 1]]], 
      Floor[({nRow, nCol} - 1)/2] ]], ImageSize -> Tiny , 
   PlotLabel -> {plots[[i, 2]], plots[[i, 3]], plots[[i, 4]], 
     plots[[i, 5]] }]}, {i, 1, Length[plots]}]
2

One thing to keep in mind is that the OS X frontend is a 32-bit program.

3

So, then why the 64-bit requirement for OSX ?

It is a very bad situation. Wolfram already should have had a 64-bit frontend from OSX 10.0.

4

The system requirements page lists the platforms on which Mathematica (kernel, frontend, other system libraries and components) will run. It reflects the fact that PowerPC Macs and 32-bit Intel Macs are basically extinct, and support for them is discontinued.

The Mac developer team is well aware of the desirability of a native 64-bit frontend and is working towards a full Cocoa port. I would guess that, with a codebase going back 25+ years, this is not an entirely trivial transition.

The actual computations are done in the kernel, which has full 64-bit support and can make use of any amount of memory installed in the system.

5

According to a post from 8 years ago by Chris Hill,
http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=5735620
there was already 64-bit front ends for Windows.
Why is the Mac version is lagging so much behind? Apple has the tools to compile cross-platform and they regularly do it for their programs for both OS X and Windows. So, what is keeping Wolfram back?
Or only the Home Edition front end stayed at 32-bit?
Mathematica on my machine is crashing multiple times every day on tasks that should not be a problem for a 64-bit program. I hope Wolfram gets my crash reports from Apple at every single case.

Here is another note from 2008:Mathematica Latest Version and Quick Revision History
Mathematica 6.0.2 | 2008
New Virtual Book documentation with updated Mathematica Book content
New Function Navigator, an easily browsable overview of all Mathematica objects
Several additional documentation enhancements, including performance improvements, indexing, and link trails
Full 64-bit performance on Intel Macs

Looks to me that marketing is way ahead of the curve and the programmers are still unable to catch up with them.

6

As you scroll through the list of plot pairs, save the notebook occasionally. This reduces how much has to be kept in the Front End memory.