Делаем следующий тест.

from numpy.random import *
from numpy.linalg import *
m=randn(1000,1000)

%time U,s,V=svd(m)
## it should work

m=randn(2000,2000)
%time U,s,V=svd(m)

Получаем:

ERROR: An unexpected error occurred while tokenizing input
The following traceback may be corrupted or invalid
The error message is: ('EOF in multi-line statement', (236, 0))

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MemoryError                               Traceback (most recent call last)

/home/va/<ipython console> in <module>()

/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/iplib.pyc in ipmagic(self, arg_s)
   1180         else:
   1181             magic_args = self.var_expand(magic_args,1)
-> 1182             return fn(magic_args)
   1183 
   1184     def ipalias(self,arg_s):

/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/Magic.pyc in magic_time(self, parameter_s)                                                                             
   1969         else:
   1970             st = clk()
-> 1971             exec code in glob
   1972             end = clk()
   1973             out = None

/home/va/<timed exec> in <module>()

/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/numpy/linalg/linalg.pyc in svd(a, full_matrices, compute_uv)                                                                   
   1314                                  work, -1, iwork, 0)
   1315         lwork = int(work[0])
-> 1316         work = zeros((lwork,), t)
   1317         results = lapack_routine(option, m, n, a, m, s, u, m, vt, nvt,
   1318                                  work, lwork, iwork, 0)

MemoryError: 

Модуль linalg из scipy с этой задачей справился.
Все это на 32бит сизифе из-под виртуалбокс (ему доступно 512Mb RAM) . 
python-module-numpy-2.0.0-alt1.svn20100607.1
python-module-scipy-0.9.0-alt1.svn20100607