What's New in Optimization and Simulation

[January 2010] Frontline Systems is shipping Risk Solver Platform V9.6 with a new feature called Guided Mode, to help users understand and use the software's advanced capabilities, especially for stochastic optimization.  Guided Mode, which can be easily switched on or off, is designed to help users who are too busy to read the User Guide or Help, but who still need to know the properties of their models (e.g. linear or nonlinear, conventional or stochastic), why their models may be easy or difficult to solve, and which Solver Engines should be used.

[October 2009] Frontline Systems is shipping Solver Platform SDK V9.0 -- the latest version of our Software Development Kit for optimization and simulation -- and new Solver Engines V9.0 -- latest versions of our eight plug-in, large-scale Solver Engines for linear, quadratic, SOCP, nonlinear and non-smooth optimization problems.  A highlight is Gurobi Solver Engine V9.0, based on the Gurobi Solver 2.0 -- the new performance leader in solving linear mixed-integer (LP/MIP) problems.  Solver Platform SDK V9.0 features built-in parallelized algorithms for both simulation and optimization, to take advantage of multi-core processors -- with no extra work on your part!  See What's New in SDK Version 9.0 for details.

[June 2009] Frontline Systems is shipping Risk Solver Platform V9.5 -- the latest version of our new integrated "super-product" that includes all the features of Premium Solver Platform for optimization, Risk Solver for Monte Carlo simulation, powerful methods for finding robust optimal solutions to problems with uncertainty -- and much more!  V9.5 is a major new release, with a deeply parallelized software design to exploit the multi-core processors in modern PCs to analyze and solve much larger models, faster than ever before.  It includes new sensitivity analysis and decision tree features, greatly improved online Help and easy-to-access examples, and a new, simplified process for obtaining license codes.  See What's New in Version 9.5.

Frontline is also shipping new V9.5 versions of Premium Solver Platform, Premium Solver, Risk Solver Premium and Risk Solver -- compatible subsets of Risk Solver Platform V9.5 -- as well as updated versions of our eight plug-in large-scale Solver Engines V8.2.x.  If your main interest is just optimization or just simulation, you can download and run RSPSetup.exe to install the software, but run the subset product you want during your free trial, to see exactly what's included.  Read the Risk Solver Platform V9.5 User Guide for a complete overview of the new features and performance enhancements -- or Download a free trial today!

[March 2009] Frontline Systems is shipping a new version of the KNITRO Solver Engine with greatly improved capabilities for solving convex nonlinear mixed-integer problems.  KNITRO now uses an enhanced Branch and Bound search that alternates between solving simplified / linearized relaxations and full nonlinear relaxations of the problem.  It also features improved performance on "bound-constrained" nonlinear models (with only bounds on the variables).

[February 2009] Frontline Systems has made the Gurobi Solver Engine, a new high performance Solver for linear mixed-integer (LP/MIP) problems, available for free trial download, with a special Gurobi Solver Evaluation Kit that can be used to solve models in MPS, LP and OSiL format files "out of the box."  Like our other Solver Engines, the Gurobi Solver Engine "plugs into" Risk Solver Platform, Premium Solver Platform, and Solver Platform SDK, making it easy to solve LP/MIP models defined in Excel, or in C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, VB.NET, Java or MATLAB.

[November 2008] Frontline Systems is shipping new Risk Solver V9.0, Premium Solver V9.0, Premium Solver Platform V9.0, our new integrated product Risk Solver Premium V9.0, and our new integrated "super-product" Risk Solver Platform V9.0 -- plus seven Solver Engines V8.2 with multiple enhancements that "plug into" Risk Solver Platform V9.0 and Premium Solver Platform V9.0.  Risk Solver Platform integrates all the features of Risk Solver, all the features of Premium Solver Platform Stochastic Edition, and a wide range of new features for multiple parameterized optimizations and simulations, in a new unified user interface that makes it easier and faster to create both simulation and optimization models.  Download a free trial today!

[December 2007] Frontline Systems is shipping new Premium Solver Platform V8.0 Stochastic Edition -- the first and only complete toolkit for finding optimal solutions to models with uncertainty.  Easily define models with uncertain parameters (using PSI functions like Risk Solver), normal and recourse decisions, normal and chance constraints, and expected value and risk measure objectives.  Find optimal solutions using robust optimization, stochastic programming, and simulation optimization methods.  Models that once requires huge budgets, teams of experts, and months of effort can now be created and solved by smart business users in Excel!

[December 2007] Frontline Systems is shipping Premium Solver Platform V8.0 -- faster than ever on LP/MIP models, with new support for semi-continuous variables, and a new, simpler but more powerful Solver Parameters dialog; Risk Solver V8.0 with advanced support for simulation optimization, Overlay charts, Scatter Plot charts, and Chart Markers, and a new Chart View Control toolbar to magnify, reduce, shift, and rotate charts; and seven Solver Engines V8.0 with across-the-board speed improvements on linear, mixed-integer, and smooth nonlinear problems.  Selected Solver Engines V8.0 now take advantage of dual-core and quad-core processors.  Download a free trial today!

[April 2007] Frontline Systems is shipping Risk Solver V7.0 -- the easiest, fastest, and most powerful tool you can buy for risk analysis of your Excel models.  Designed from the ground up for the power of modern PCs and Excel 2007, it's a true "industrial strength" risk analysis tool -- the first new choice to appear in many years.  And it also works great in Excel 2003, XP and 2000!  Login and download a free trial version today!

• Only Risk Solver has instant, interactive risk analysis based on PSI Technology™, with lightning-fast simulations and instantly updated charts and statistics, each time you change a number. 
• Only Risk Solver empowers you to explore the new discipline of Probability Management. 
• Only Risk Solver works with our leading-edge Premium Solver to give you breakthrough speed for simulation optimization. 
• And only Risk Solver includes a runtime package, Risk Solver Engine, making it easy for you to develop and deploy your applications to end users.

[March 2007] Frontline Systems is shipping Risk Solver Engine V7.1 with new easy-to-use features for publishing and using Certified Distributions and aids for exchanging models with other users, as well more probability distributions, enhanced numerics for existing distributions, more extensive distribution fitting, new aids for creating rank correlation matrices, and licensing support for Windows Vista.

[February 2007] Frontline Systems is shipping the Solver Platform SDK V7.1 for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and 32-bit and 64-bit Linux, with greatly enhanced support for Monte Carlo simulation and simulation optimization, new support for OSiL, the XML-based "instance language" of the Optimization Services initiative, and enhanced developer aids.  Also shipping is the Premium Solver Platform V7.1 -- both products include new licensing support for Windows Vista.

Risk Solver Platform is an integrated superset of Premium Solver Platform and Risk Solver with best-of-breed simulation, best-of-breed optimization, and new stochastic programming and robust optimization capabilities you can't get anywhere else.

Premium Solver Platform, our premier tool for conventional optimization, uses new PSI Technology to automatically analyze and transform your Excel model. It solves every type and size of problem, using built-in and plug-in Solver Engines.

Premium Solver, our basic upgrade for the Excel Solver, solves up to 10X larger problems at much higher speed, and solves new kinds of problems with our Evolutionary Solver.

Risk Solver Platform is an integrated superset of Premium Solver Platform and Risk Solver with best-of-breed simulation, best-of-breed optimization, and new stochastic programming and robust optimization capabilities you can't get anywhere else.

Risk Solver Premium integrates all the features of Premium Solver and Risk Solver, with far superior optimization and higher performance, easier to use simulation, for about the same price as competitive products for Monte Carlo simulation.

Risk Solver is the easiest and fastest tool available for risk analysis of your Excel models, using Monte Carlo simulation. Evaluate thousands of scenarios in seconds, and see instantly updated charts and statistics, each time you ask "what if".

Software Developer Tools:

Solver Platform SDK makes it easy to solve any type or size of optimization problem in your Visual Basic, VB.NET, C/C++, C#, Java, or MATLAB program. And it's easy to deploy your application with our flexible licensing for software vendors and corporate developers.