Conference rusure::math

1249.0. "help with finding an fast lp solution" by BIGFOT::MCCAIN () Fri Jun 08 1990 12:13

This is an emergency request for someone with extensive experience in the 
operations research area to assist in a customer benchmark.

Background:
Harris Semiconductor Corporation (Melbourne Fla.) is implementing a chip 
scheduling system to minimize production costs. This system will take 
information from various sources (current inventory, customer orders, etc.)
a feed them into a linear programming package to produce a production schedule
for a group of products.

Harris has supplied a benchmark package in UNIX consisting of approximately
120 shell script files and 70 executable programs and a linear programming
package that was developed in a University environment. This benchmark was
converted to VMS and run on a VAX 9000 with a vector processor module. The
benchmark ran in approximately 5 hours 15 minutes with 4 hours 45 minutes
of the elasped time being CPU time. According to the accounting log the vector 
processor was utilized about 3 hours 50 minutes.

IBM was given the same benchmark package but decided to utilize their own 
internal LP problem solver on a R6000 platform. The run time for the LP
portion of the problem was 57 minutes. The customer is making plans to purchase 
six R6000 systems on witch to implement the solution.

Current Situation:
Harris is still willing to consider a Digital solution if we can match the 
performance of the R6000 with a reasonable platform (i.e., VAX 6000 with vector 
module or an Decstation 5000). We are in the process of seeking alternate
LP packages to benchmark on a VAX 6000 with vector processor. The two packages 
under consideration to benchmark are the OR package from SAS Institute and the  
LP/PROTRAN package from IMSL.

Action Required:
The level of expertise needed to bring in a competitive solution is not present 
at the Melbourne office. We need the assistance of someone with an extensive 
background in operations research and are familiar with current journals and 
work in this area. This person should be able to advise us of were to locate 
solutions either internally or outside the company that will give us the best 
results possible. This person should also be able to communicate with the 
customer on their requirements and be able to develop a solution that meets the 
customers needs.

The time frame that this person is needed is NOW .

        I hope that you are persuing this through a more formal
        channel than posting a note in the MATH conference!
        
        Dan

    Hi,
    
    There is an excellent LP platform being sold by CPLEX.  It has had
    **very** favorable runtimes.  It was developed under C and has been
    ported to ULTRIX.
    
    If you'd like more info, please don't hesitate to call.
    
    In the U.S.  800.283.2337 x05604
    
    Tim