Premium Solver Platform 9.0
Capabilities
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 widely used linear, quadratic, 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.
Solve New Kinds of Problems
The SOCP Barrier Solver in the Premium Solver Platform -- one of the first and only commercial Solvers of its kind -- enables you to solve new second order cone programming (SOCP) problems -- the natural generalisation of linear and quadratic programming -- to obtain robust solutions to problems in finance and engineering design. And it also solves quadratically constrained (QCP) problems that go beyond conventional quadratic programming (QP). Just select this Solver from the Solver Engines dropdown list and click the Solve button.
The hybrid Evolutionary Solver in the Premium Solver Platform -- a unique combination of genetic algorithms and classical nonlinear optimisation methods -- enables you to optimise models with any Excel functions -- even user-written functions. The Solver outperforms other spreadsheet optimizers based on genetic algorithms, yet it is easier to use and fully compatible with existing models created with the standard Excel Solver that Frontline developed for Microsoft. Just select this Solver from the Solver Engines dropdown list and click the Solve button.
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.
Solve New Kinds of Problems
The SOCP Barrier Solver in Premium Solver Platform - one of the first and only commercial Solvers of its kind - enables you to solve new second order cone programming (SOCP) problems - the natural generalisation of linear and quadratic programming - to obtain robust solutions to problems in finance and engineering design. Also, it also solves quadratically constrained (QCP) problems that go beyond conventional quadratic programming (QP). Just select this Solver from the Solver Engines dropdown list and click the Solve button.
The hybrid Evolutionary Solver in Premium Solver Platform - a unique combination of genetic algorithms and classical nonlinear optimisation methods - can optimise models with any Excel functions - even user-written functions. It outperforms other spreadsheet optimisers based on genetic algorithms, yet it is easier to use and fully compatible with existing models created with the standard Excel Solver. Just select this Solver from the Solver Engines dropdown list and click the Solve button.
Full Support for Excel 2007
Premium Solver Platform includes includes full support for Excel 2007 -- the biggest Excel upgrade in at least 10 years, with everything from a new "ribbon" based user interface to huge worksheets with 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows – far beyond the 256 column and 65,536 row limits in previous Excel releases. This makes it much easier to lay out your models on a worksheet, without having to split up large tables of information.
Automatic Detection of Linearity and Convexity
The Premium Solver Platform's Polymorphic Spreadsheet Interpreter can analyze the formulas in your Excel model, to determine if they are linear, quadratic, smooth nonlinear, or non-smooth functions of the decision variables. Also, the Platform can often determine whether your smooth nonlinear functions are convex - the key property that makes it possible to solve your model quickly and reliably, to very large sizes.
To analyse your model, you simply click the Model button in the main Solver Parameters dialog, to display the Solver Model dialog. Click the Check Model button to determine your model's Gradients, Structure or Convexity.
This diagnosis of the EXAMPLE1 model shipped with the Premium Solver Platform shows that it is an LP Convex (linear programming) problem, with 3 variables that always occur linearly in the objective and constraints, and 6 linear functions.
If we deliberately modify the calculation of Chassis parts used so this formula is no longer linear, and re-check the model, it is diagnosed as NLP NonCvx (nonlinear and non-convex), with 5 out of 6 functions linear, and 1 out of 3 variables occurring linearly (since the Speakers variable doesn't occur in the calculation of Chassis parts used).
In a large model with hundreds or thousands of variables and constraints, finding a single nonlinear or nonsmooth formula is like finding a needle in a haystack - but the Premium Solver Platform will find it for you. On the Options tab, select Linear for Desired Model, and check the box to Show Exceptions to Desired Model, then click the Check Model button again.
This inserts a Structure Report into your workbook:
This report shows one formula that is an exception to a linear model, at cell C11 on worksheet EXAMPLE1, involving variables D9 and E9. The formula reference is a hyperlink -- you can click it to jump directly to the formula in question, where you can quickly see why it is a nonlinear function of D9 and E9. The Premium Solver Platform's ability to diagnose your model can save you hours of time trying to find a problem by manual inspection.