MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING AND SUPERCOMPUTERS

A RESEARCH PROJECT IS PROPOSED TO EXAMINE THE USE OF SUPERCOMPUTERS TO SOLVE LARGE SCALE MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS. MODELS OF THAT TYPE ARE WIDELY USED FOR PLANNING PURPOSES IN INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT BUT TEND TO BECOME VERY LARGE. THE USE OF PARALLEL AND/OR VECTOR PROCESSING IS AN ATTRACTIVE OPTION FOR INCREASING PROBLEM-SOLVING CAPABILITY. KETRON MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, INC. PROPOSES TO EXAMINE THE SUITABILITY OF THE VARIOUS MEMBERS OF THE NEW GENERATION OF SUPERCOMPUTERS TO CARRY OUT THE KIND OF SPARSE MATRIX CALCULATIONS NECESSARY FOR REAL APPLICATIONS, AND TO EXAMINE THE APPLICABILITY OF PARALLELISM TO THE NEW CLASS OF ALGORITHMS ANNOUNCED BY KARMARKAR.