Xpress-Parallel

Xpress-Parallel is Dash's premium MIP Optimizer using parallel computing technology. It runs on multi-processors machines to solve MIP problems more quickly than is possible otherwise. It has all the advantages of the Xpress's serial MIP optimizer - finding good solutions or proving optimality quickly - but in even shorter time. The key advantage is the ability to solve time-critical MIP problems in as short as time as possible.

Xpress-Parallel works by breaking up the search space, and executing the optimizer code simultaneously on different processors. Each processor works on its own part of the search space, using the same intelligent branching strategy that makes Dash's serial MIP Optimizer so successful. Global information, such as a new MIP solution, or an improved bound, is shared between all processors, so that no computing effort is wasted.

Xpress-Parallel is available on a range multi-processor computers including Microsoft Windows and UNIX. Details of exactly which operating systems are supported are given here.

The white paper gives more details of its optimization strategies, and has some performance results.