FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Frontline Unveils Premium Solver V3.0 and Premium Solver Plus
Enhanced Versions of Microsoft Excel Solver Improve Diagnostics, Speed Solutions

INCLINE VILLAGE, NV – October 1, 1997 – Frontline Systems Inc., developer of the Solver in all three major spreadsheets, is shipping this month a new release, Version 3.0 of its Premium Solver for Microsoft Excel, and a new product, the Premium Solver Plus.

The Premium Solver products are upwardly compatible, higher performance versions of the Microsoft Excel Solver, which Frontline developed for Microsoft. The Solver is a what-if analysis tool that can automatically find the best way to allocate scarce resources – such as money, raw materials, equipment or people time – to maximize profits or minimize costs, while operating within specified limits, called constraints, on their use.

"Our users are building larger, more ambitious Solver models in Excel," said Daniel H. Fylstra, president of Frontline Systems. "These new products deliver both the performance and the diagnostic help that users need to accomplish their goals."

New Releases Build on the Premium Solver for Excel

The new product releases build upon the Premium Solver, which has an enthusiastic following among serious Excel Solver users. The Premium Solver offers four times the capacity (800 decision variables) of the standard Excel Solver for linear problems, and twice the capacity (400 variables) for nonlinear problems, plus solution speeds 2 to 10 times better than the standard Solver.

The new Premium Solver releases are the first since the shipment of Excel 97 in November 1996. They work with Excel 97 and Excel 95 on both Windows 95 and Windows NT systems. Also included are versions supporting 16-bit Excel 5.0 on Windows 3.1. The Premium Solver Version 3.0 is priced at $495, and the Premium Solver Plus is $750. Volume discounts are available for quantity purchases.

Premium Solver V3.0 Offers New Diagnostic Reports

Frontline’s new Premium Solver Version 3.0 offers two new reports, in addition to the standard Answer, Sensitivity and Limits Reports, meeting oft-expressed needs of users who are building complex resource allocation models. Both reports provide previously-unavailable information about the constraints in a Solver model. (See the Backgrounder on Feasibility and Linearity in Solver Models for details.)

• The Linearity Report shows whether the objective and each of the constraints is a linear or nonlinear function of the decision variables. It also summarizes which variables occur linearly, and which occur nonlinearly in the objective and constraints. With this report, users can pinpoint and, if desired, eliminate nonlinear formulas in their models, thereby gaining the extra speed and reliability available with all-linear Solver models.
• The Feasibility Report may be produced when the Solver finds that there is no "feasible solution" (one which satisfies all of the constraints). This condition usually occurs when the user has made a mistake in defining some constraint. The report eliminates constraints which do not contribute to the infeasibility, and highlights a minimal set of constraints which are conflicting. With this report, users can quickly locate the error or condition that makes the whole problem infeasible.

Premium Solver Plus Delivers New Standard of Performance

The Premium Solver Plus (which starts at Version 3.0) focuses on faster solution of Solver models. It includes all of the features of the Premium Solver V3.0, plus a number of Solver "engine" enhancements for different types of problems:

• Nonlinear problems can be solved up to 50% faster, depending on how many decision variables occur linearly in these problems (which, of course, are nonlinear overall).
• Linear problems can typically be solved 50% to 100% (1.5 to 2 times) faster than the Premium Solver V3.0, which itself is 2 to 3 times faster than the standard Excel Solver.
• Problems with linear constraints and a quadratic objective can be solved several times faster, and to higher accuracy, using the Quadratic Solver "engine" included with the Premium Solver Plus. An important problem of this type, called portfolio optimization, is one of the most popular applications of the Excel Solver, among investment managers and other financial institutions.
• Linear problems with integer constraints can be solved 5 to 10 times faster than the Premium Solver V3.0, which itself is 5 to 10 times faster than the standard Excel Solver. Speedups of 100 times or more over the standard Solver can be realized on many models.

(See the Backgrounder on Integer Constraints in Solver Models for further details.) The Premium Solver Plus and Premium Solver V3.0 also include fast problem setup, a Version 2.0 feature which can make "problem setup" 10 to 50 times faster than the standard Solver on appropriate models.

Free 15-Day Evaluation Versions Available for Download

Frontline will make available free 15-day evaluation versions of the Premium Solver V3.0 and the Premium Solver Plus on its World Wide Web site, http://www.frontsys.com. The evaluation versions are fully functional, and have the full capacity and speed of the paid-license versions, but are limited to 15 days of use from the date of installation. Users with questions about the Premium Solver products can contact Frontline Systems’ technical support at (702) 831-0300 or by email at info@frontsys.com.

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Last modified: July 11, 2000