Frontline Systems is
excited to offer the new Premium Solver Platform Version 5.5 for
all recent versions of Microsoft Excel. The Premium Solver Platform
is our "flagship" spreadsheet optimization product --
the most powerful Solver we've ever offered. It has all the features
of the Premium Solver and much, much more.
The Premium Solver Platform
is an upwardly compatible extension of the standard Microsoft Excel
Solver, with capacity to solve much larger problems -- up to 2,000
variables -- at speeds five to twenty times faster than the standard
Solver. And the Premium Solver Platform is expandable with Field-Installable
Solver Engines to handle problems of virtually unlimited size -- currently
up to 100,000 decision variables for quadratic and nonlinear problems,
and up to 200,000 variables for linear programming problems!
Version 5.5 is a "watershed" release that dramatically
increases the power of the Premium Solver Platform by replacing
the core of Microsoft Excel -- the formula recalculator -- with
a new Parser and Interpreter that saves you effort in building models,
and greatly increases the speed and accuracy of virtually all Solver
engines.
Powerful for Professionals
LP/Quadratic Solver Handles Problems up to 2,000 Variables
-- Faster than Ever with New Dual Simplex Method
GRG Solver Handles Smooth Nonlinear Problems up to 500 Variables,
Finds Global Solutions Using Multistart Methods
Interval Global Solver Handles Global Optimization Problems,
Finds All Solutions to Systems of Nonlinear Equations
Hybrid Evolutionary/Classical Solver Handles Non-Smooth Problems
up to 500 Variables, with Hundreds of Constraints
New "Alldifferent" Constraint Eases Solution of Problems
Involving Ordering and Permutations
Fully Compatible
The Premium Solver Platform
is 100% upwardly compatible with the standard Excel Solver. It replaces
the standard Solver and appears when you select the usual Tools Solver...
menu choice. You'll see a familiar Solver Parameters and Solver Options
dialog with many new features. Your existing models can be solved
with no changes, faster and more easily than before -- even if you
use the new Evolutionary Solver or a Field-Installable Solver engine!
And your VBA code that uses the standard Solver will work as-is with
the Premium Solver Platform.
Greater Speed and Capacity
You'll be able to solve
general nonlinear problems with two and a half times the number of
decision variables and constraints -- and the more common linear and
integer problems with ten times the number of variables (up to 2,000)
and no limit on constraints. Just as important, larger problems which
took minutes to solve with the standard Solver will often run from
five to twenty times faster. Speed gains are especially noticeable
on nonlinear problems of all kinds, and on linear problems with integer
constraints.
Fast Problem Setup
Larger models which are linear problems often spend
most of their time in problem setup, then reach a solution quickly.
The Premium Solver Platform will give you an immediate speedup --
often completing problem setup in half the time. But with a little
work in designing your model to use certain common functions (like
SUM and SUMPRODUCT), the Premium Solver Platform can give you a really
awesome speedup -- as much as 100 times faster!
More Robust
The Premium Solver Platform
performs better on difficult models, too -- including those which
are harder to solve because they involve both very large and very
small values, such as a financial model with dollar amounts in millions
and rates of return in percent. It automatically rescales both linear
and nonlinear problems, and offers improved stopping conditions for
nonlinear problems where the standard Solver stops due to slow improvement
in the target cell.
