TITLE: Minion: a fast, scalable constraint solver

PRESENTER: Dr. Ian Miguel, Royal Academy of Engineering/EPSRC Research Fellow, http://www.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~ianm/, ianm@dcs.st-and.ac.uk

AFFILIATION:School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, http://www.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/

DATE: Friday 14th July 2006

TIME: 12:00:00

PLACE: CSE Seminar Room, Level 1, K17

ABSTRACT:

We present Minion, a new constraint solver. Empirical results on
standard benchmarks show orders of magnitude performance gains over
state-of-the-art constraint toolkits. These gains increase with
problem size. Minion is a general-purpose con-straint solver, with an
expressive input language based on the common constraint modelling
device of matrix models. Focussing on matrix models supports a
highly-optimised implementation, exploiting the properties of modern
processors. This contrasts with current constraint toolkits, which,
in order to provide ever more modelling and solving options, have become
progressively more complex at the cost of both performance and usability.
Minion is a black box from the user point of view, deliberately
providing few options. This, combined its raw speed, makes Minion
a substantial step towards Puget "Model and Run" paradigm.

BIOGRAPHY OF SPEAKER:

Ian Miguel is a RAEng/EPSRC Research Fellow at the University of
St Andrews, working on "An Automated Constraint Modelling Assistant".
Previously, he worked on the implied constraints EPSRC grant, held by
Toby Walsh and Alan Frisch at the University of York. He is a member
of the APES and CPPod multi-site research groups.

Host:

Toby Walsh

Seminar Convenor:

Van Hai Ho