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Contact: Daniel Fylstra |
News Release |
INCLINE VILLAGE, NV -- June 30, 2010 -- Frontline Systems is shipping Risk Solver Platform V10.0 for Microsoft Excel, the latest version of its integrated product featuring Monte Carlo simulation for risk analysis, optimization for resource allocation, and robust optimal decision-making under uncertainty -- plus RSP subset products Premium Solver Platform, Premium Solver, Risk Solver Premium, and Risk Solver, with support for 32-bit and 64-bit Excel 2010. It's available for download from https://www.solver.com.
The V10.0 product family is the latest generation of Frontline's powerful upgrades for the standard Solver in Excel, which Frontline Systems developed for Microsoft. V10.0 is upward compatible from the new Solver in Excel 2010 -- Solver models and VBA macros will run as-is without any changes. Users can solve problems hundreds to thousands of times larger than the standard Excel Solver, at speeds anywhere from several times to hundreds of times faster, and they can solve new types of problems with conic optimization, stochastic programming, and simulation optimization.
"With V10.0 and 64-bit Excel 2010, users can solve huge optimization and simulation models in Excel," said Daniel Fylstra, founder and president of Frontline Systems. "Even better, with our SDK these Excel models can be easily solved on an Intranet or Web server -- even on Linux."
64-Bit Excel 2010 Supports Huge Analytic Models
Users often create huge Excel workbooks to solve large, complex optimization and simulation models. Risk Solver Platform has the capacity and speed to handle these models, but in 32-bit Excel these models can use only 2 GB of memory -- a limit that a number of Frontline's customers have reached. Risk Solver Platform V10.0 supports the new 64-bit version of Excel 2010, which removes this limit -- enabling users to take advantage of their PC's full memory to solve larger models, and run more Monte Carlo trials, multiple simulations, and multiple optimizations than ever before.
Solving Optimization and Simulation Excel Models on Servers
Many users find it easiest to develop and test their optimization and simulation models in Excel on their desktop PCs. But once an optimization or simulation application is complete, they often want to "deploy" it to other users. While this can be done on desktop PCs wherever Excel is installed, many companies want to deploy such applications on Intranet or Web servers, or "in the cloud."
Risk Solver Platform V10.0 makes this easy, in combination with Frontline's Solver Platform SDK V10.0, which enables users to build optimization and simulation applications in a programming language such as C/C++, C#, VB.NET, Java or MATLAB. Users can simply save an Excel workbook on their desktop PC, load it into their SDK application, and run the optimization or simulation application -- almost anywhere from desktop to server to cloud, even on Linux.
Greater Performance and Analytic Capabilities
Each new release of Risk Solver Platform offers greater performance and new analytical power, and V10.0 is no exception. Frontline's algorithms are deeply parallelized to exploit today's multi-core PCs, from Monte Carlo simulation to nonlinear and non-smooth optimization to compute-intensive simulation optimization. V10.0 features a new capability for multiple discriminant analysis, a statistical technique for classifying observations into different groups, with many applications in financial services, consumer marketing, and other fields.
64-Bit Plug-in Solver Engines Offer Extra Power
Frontline is also shipping V10.0 of its family of eight plug-in, large-scale Solver Engines for challenging linear, mixed-integer, quadratic, nonlinear and non-smooth optimization problems, to further enhance Risk Solver Platform and Premium Solver Platform V10.0. Several of the world's best optimization Solvers, from Gurobi and Xpress-MP for LP/MIP problems to MOSEK and KNITRO for conic and nonlinear problems, are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Users have solved problems as large as 1.5 million decision variables in Excel with these Solver Engines.
Installation, Guided Mode, Help, User Guides Enhanced
V10.0 also enhances the nuts and bolts of installation, licensing, and getting up to speed. InstallShield 2010 technology and code-signing eases installation on many corporate PCs, and the latest Reprise License Manager makes it easy to activate licenses over the Internet, or share concurrent licenses across multiple users. A Welcome Screen with easy access to examples and videos, Guided Mode, and extensive Help enable users to get up to speed quickly, and a new Reference Guide complements the popular Risk Solver Platform User Guide.
Education Version Supports New Textbooks
Frontline is also shipping Risk Solver Platform V10.0 for Education (RSPE), a special version of the software (with problem size limits) licensed only for teaching use. RSPE is the successor to Frontline's very popular Premium Solver for Education. New editions of at least four textbooks to be published this Fall use RSPE throughout to teach key management science topics, ranging from optimization and Monte Carlo simulation to sensitivity analysis and use of decision trees.
About Frontline Systems, Inc.
Frontline Systems, Inc. (https://www.solver.com) is a leading developer of optimization and simulation software, and the leader in spreadsheet optimization software that helps analysts and managers optimally allocate scarce resources - money, equipment, and people - to realize substantial cost savings. Frontline developed the solvers/optimizers in Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro, distributed to more than 500 million spreadsheet users.
Founded in 1987, Frontline is headquartered in Incline Village, Nevada (775-831-0300 or info@solver.com).