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Contact: Daniel Fylstra |
News Release |
INCLINE VILLAGE, NV - December 15, 2001 - Frontline Systems, Inc., developer of the Solver in all three major spreadsheets, is pleased to announce Version 4.0 of the Large-Scale LP Solver, Large-Scale GRG Solver, OptQuest Solver, and the XPRESS Solver -- all field-installable Solver Engines that "plug into" the Premium Solver Platform, Frontline's premier spreadsheet optimization product. Frontline is also pleased to introduce two new Solver Engines: The Large-Scale SQP Solver and the LGO Global Solver.
The Large-Scale SQP Solver is a powerful and versatile large-scale Solver Engine, capable of solving linear, quadratic, and smooth nonlinear problems of up to 100,000 variables and 100,000 constraints. The LGO Global Solver is a powerful optimizer aimed specifically at continuous global optimization problems of up to 1,000 variables and 1,000 constraints.
"We are especially excited about our two new Solver Engines," said Daniel H. Fylstra, President of Frontline Systems. "The Large-Scale SQP Solver is uniquely versatile -- No other Solver offers such high performance on large-scale linear, quadratic, and smooth nonlinear problems, in one package. And the LGO Global Solver opens up the potential to solve very challenging global optimization problems in Microsoft Excel."
Large-Scale SQP Solver Sets New Standards for Versatility and Performance
The Large-Scale SQP Solver is designed to solve large-scale, sparse, smooth nonlinear optimization problems, that may include many linear constraints, or linear terms in constraints that are nonlinear overall. Thanks to its sophisticated methods, the LSSQP Solver outperforms the Large-Scale LP Solver on linear programming problems, outperforms the Platform's LP/Quadratic Solver on quadratic programming problems, and outperforms the Large-Scale GRG Solver on smooth nonlinear programming problems. The Large-Scale SQP Solver is based on the Sparse Nonlinear Optimizer (SNOPT) developed by Phillip Gill at the University of California, San Diego, and Walter Murray and Michael Saunders, both at Stanford University. It is widely considered among the best available nonlinear optimizers, and the leading implementation of the powerful Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) method.
LGO Global Solver Offers Wide Array of Methods for Global Optimization Problems
The LGO Global Solver, developed in close cooperation with Pinter Consulting Services, Inc., includes a full repertoire of global and local scope search methods. The global methods include continuous branch and bound and adaptive random search; the local methods include an exact penalty function approach, a search based on sequential model linearization, and an exact primal (Generalized Reduced Gradient type) nonlinear search algorithm. These methods are invoked sequentially, in a fully automatic mode. The LGO Solver allows the objective and constraints to be general, convex or non-convex functions -- the only assumption made is that the functions are Lipschitz-continuous.The research effort leading to the LGO Global Solver Engine -- which was awarded the 2000 INFORMS Computing Society Prize for Research Excellence -- is discussed in the 1996 book Global Optimization in Action by Janos Pinter.
Pricing, Upgrades, Academic Versions, and Free Evaluations
The Large-Scale SQP Solver Engine V4.0 is priced at $4,995 for a single user license, and $1,500 for an academic license with certification. The LGO Global Solver V4.0 is priced at $995 for a single user license ($300 academic).The Large-Scale LP Solver V4.0 is offered in a standard version that solves problems of up to 16,000 variables and 16,000 constraints, priced at $995, and an extended version that handles up to 65,000 variables and 65,000 constraints, priced at $2,495. The Large-Scale GRG Solver V4.0 is offered in a standard version that solves problems of up to 4,000 variables and 4,000 constraints, priced at $995, and a new extended version that handles up to 12,000 variables and 12,000 constraints, priced at $2,495. The XPRESS Solver Engine V4.0 handles up to 200,000 variables and 200,000 constraints, and is priced at $6,995. Reduced prices are available for academic users with a written academic certification. Existing users of the Large-Scale LP Solver V3.5, Large-Scale GRG Solver V3.5, OptQuest Solver V3.5, and XPRESS Solver Engine V3.5 with current Annual Support Contracts will receive free upgrades to the new product versions. Users of the Large-Scale LP Solver and Large-Scale GRG Solver with current Annual Support Contracts have an opportunity to 'trade in' the Solver they are using for credit against the license price of the new Large-Scale SQP Solver.
Prospective users can download fully functional, full capacity and speed, free trial versions of the new products (limited to 15 days) from Frontline's Website at https://www.solver.com. For further information, contact Frontline Systems at info@frontsys.com or at 888-831-0333 (U.S. toll free) or 775-831-0300 (international).