Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
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Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
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Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#2"Combining the computer hardware speed increase of 4,000 times with the solver software performance improvement of 5 million times, the total improvement from 1989 to 2024 is a factor of 20 billion times faster!"
No wonder people have started making jokes that programmers no longer know how to program! We can get away with a lot more now.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#3A bit disappointed that there were no reimplementation and real benchmarking happening.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#4"Combining the computer hardware speed increase of 4,000 times with the solver software performance improvement of 5 million times, the total improvement from 1989 to 2024 is a factor of 20 billion times faster!" No wonder people have started making jokes that programmers no longer know how to program! We can get away with a lot more now.
The software improvements are on an order of 1000x more than the hardware improvements.
IE: The software matters more. As in, today's programmers know more about this subject.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#5A bit disappointed that there were no reimplementation and real benchmarking happening.
Next article apparently. I was very much looking forward to that, too.
> In our next article, we'll look to compile crosswords using a MILP model.
and
> In the next article, we attempt to formulate and solve a MILP to compile crossword puzzles. This is still a difficult problem, though given the improvement in computer and solver speed, there is some basis for optimism that the task is now possible.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#6"Combining the computer hardware speed increase of 4,000 times with the solver software performance improvement of 5 million times, the total improvement from 1989 to 2024 is a factor of 20 billion times faster!" No wonder people have started making jokes that programmers no longer know how to program! We can get away with a lot more now.
Of course, it takes knowing how to program to take advantage of the solver improvements. I find that most programs do not, in fact, use any solver techniques. More, I think I can program, but I would also have trouble using solvers in a lot of my programs.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#7These solvers really show that NP-hardness is no reason to give up. For example, they can solve surprisingly large Traveling Salesmen instances to proven optimality.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#8These solvers really show that NP-hardness is no reason to give up. For example, they can solve surprisingly large Traveling Salesmen instances to proven optimality.
NP-hard problems commonly come up as human-solvable puzzles. Like Sudoku... or perhaps a more applicable problem... layout and routing of electronic components on a PCB and/or chip. Or even assembly-language register allocation (coloring and packing problem).
Trained Humans are surprisingly good at these problems, far better than expected given how much computational power we have today. So its clear we don't understand something fundamental with regards to NP-hardness. And that's why the research continues, to bring human-like intuition into these problems and provide more automation to these tasks.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#9Sadly, the field is still mostly dominated by commercial solvers. There are a few open source ones but their performance is nowhere near the commercial ones which is kind of expected given the number of people working on them and the little funding they have. It is really a pity that the OR world hasn't embraced open source as much as ML world.
Re: Solver Performance: 1989 vs. 2024
#10"Combining the computer hardware speed increase of 4,000 times with the solver software performance improvement of 5 million times, the total improvement from 1989 to 2024 is a factor of 20 billion times faster!" No wonder people have started making jokes that programmers no longer know how to program! We can get away with a lot more now.
The software improvements are on an order of 1000x more than the hardware improvements. IE: The software matters more. As in, today's programmers know more about this subject.
I'd say on average programmers know less about writing optimal code now, but certainly the best in the field know a lot more.