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To download a free Evaluation Version of the Premium Solver product family, click here to sign up (free of charge) for Frontline's Private Web for Solver Users. Then click on Download, scroll to the bottom and follow the link to Download Evaluation Version of Premium Solver Platform.
Click here for a comparison of the Premium Solver, Premium Solver Plus, and Premium Solver Platform.
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Frontline Systems is pleased to offer the Premium Solver Version 3.5 for Microsoft Excel 2000, Excel 97, Excel 95 and Excel 5.0. The Premium Solver is an upwardly compatible extension of the standard Microsoft Excel Solver, with the capacity to solve much larger problems -- up to 1,000 variables -- at speeds anywhere from three to 100 times faster than the standard Solver. If you've run up against the size limits of the standard Solver (200 decision variables) or found it too slow, or you need more power and features, upgrade to the Premium Solver today!
The Premium Solver is 100% upwardly compatible with the standard Solver. It replaces the standard Solver and appears when you select the usual Tools Solver... menu choice. You'll see a familiar Solver Parameters and Solver Options dialog with several new features. Your existing models can be solved with no changes, faster and more easily than before -- even if you use the new Evolutionary Solver! And your macro language and VBA code which uses the standard Solver will work as-is with the Premium Solver.
You'll be able to solve general nonlinear problems with twice the number of decision variables and constraints -- and the more common linear and integer problems with five times the number of variables (up to 1,000) and no limit on constraints. Just as important, larger problems which took minutes to solve with the standard Solver will often run from three to ten times faster. Speed gains are especially noticeable on linear problems with integer constraints.
Larger models which are linear problems often spend most of their time in problem setup, then reach a solution quickly. The Premium Solver will give you an immediate speedup -- often completing problem setup in half the time. But with a little work in designing your model to use certain common functions (like SUM and SUMPRODUCT), the Premium Solver can give you a really awesome speedup -- as much as 100 times faster!
The Premium Solver performs better on difficult models, too -- including those which are harder to solve because they involve both very large and very small values, such as a financial model with dollar amounts in millions and rates of return in percent. It automatically rescales both linear and nonlinear problems, and offers improved stopping conditions for nonlinear problems where the standard Solver stops due to slow improvement in the target cell.
The Evolutionary Solver included free with the Premium Solver allows you to solve non-smooth optimization problems that cannot be handled effectively by the standard Excel Solver. Even if your model uses IF, CHOOSE, LOOKUP and similar functions that cause difficulty for the standard Solver, you can obtain good solutions with the Evolutionary Solver. And where the standard Solver (using the nonlinear GRG Solver "engine") can find only a locally optimal solution, the Evolutionary Solver is much more likely to find a globally optimal (or near-optimal) solution.
The Premium Solver also includes a new Population Report for problems solved with the Evolutionary Solver. Where the Answer Report gives you detailed information about the single "best solution" returned by the Solver, the Population Report gives you summary information about the entire population of candidate solutions maintained by the Evolutionary Solver at the end of the solution process. The Population Report can give you insight into the performance of the Evolutionary Solver as well as the characteristics of your model, and help you decide whether additional runs of the Evolutionary Solver are likely to yield even better solutions.
If you've found it difficult to enter your decision variable cells in the Solver because they are scattered around your worksheet, the Premium Solver is for you! It offers a variable cell list box entry alternative that allows you to enter an unlimited number of cell ranges. If you're tired of entering the very common "non-negativity" constraints on variables, just use the new Assume Non-Negative check box! And you'll also find it faster and more convenient to define yes/no decisions (binary integer variables) in one step with a new "bin" dropdown choice.
If you need fine-grained control, the Premium Solver lets you adjust the most critical tolerances in both the linear Simplex and nonlinear GRG solvers. And you can speed up the solution of problems with integer constraints by supplying an "integer cutoff" value -- often known from a previous run.
If online Help in Excel 97 or Excel 95, or the short chapter on the Solver in the Excel 5.0 User Guide has left you with more questions than answers, you'll appreciate the comprehensive 144-page User Guide that comes with the Premium Solver. It provides complete information on Solver options and reports, the various messages which the Solver can return, how to diagnose problems, and how to control the Solver from Visual Basic or the Excel macro language.
If you've ever received the message "The conditions for Assume Linear Model are not satisfied," but you couldn't find the problem in your model, the Premium Solver V3.5 is for you! It features a new Linearity Report, which shows you whether the objective and each constraint is a linear or nonlinear function of the variables. It also summarizes which variables occur linearly, and which occur nonlinearly in the objective and constraints. With this report, you can pinpoint and, if desired, eliminate nonlinear formulas in your models, thereby gaining the extra speed and reliability available with all-linear Solver models.
When the Solver reports that it cannot find a "feasible solution" (one which satisfies all of the constraints), this often means that you’ve made a mistake in defining some constraint, for example by choosing <= when you meant >=. But if you have hundreds of constraints, it can be difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem. The Premium Solver V3.5's new Feasibility Report can help! This report eliminates constraints which do not contribute to the infeasibility, and highlights a minimal set of constraints which are conflicting. With the Feasibility Report, you can quickly locate the error or condition that makes the problem infeasible.
In the Premium Solver V3.5, all five reports (Answer, Sensitivity, Limits, Linearity and Feasibility) can be optionally, automatically outlined. The outlined groups of variables and constraints correspond directly to the cell ranges you entered in the Solver Parameters dialog. If you have large numbers of variables and constraints, outlining can make it much easier for you to find and display the information you need in the Solver reports.
Have you ever wondered just how long "Setting Up Problem..." would take? If so, you'll appreciate the new progress reporting in the Premium Solver V3.5, which shows an estimated "nn% Done" for both problem setup and generation of the Limits and Feasibility Reports, which can be time-consuming for larger models.
If you're tired of selecting Tools Solver... from the menu bar over and over as you solve various problems, you'll appreciate the "Return to Solver Parameters" check box in the Solver Results dialog, which lets you "stay within the Solver dialogs" until you need to work directly on your spreadsheet. And if your problem includes integer constraints, you can obtain a quick solution of the "relaxation" (temporarily ignoring the integer constraints) without having to delete these constraints and then re-enter them later.
The Premium Solver V3.5 is priced at $495. It comes packaged with both a 32-bit version for Excel 2000, Excel 97 and Excel 95 (Excel 7.0) on Windows 95 or Windows NT, and a 16-bit version for Excel 5.0 on Windows 3.1. And it includes 90 days of knowledgeable technical support and automatic upgrades to new versions. You can order today with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If you have an earlier version of the Premium Solver, you'll receive an automatic upgrade to V3.5 at no extra charge if you are current on maintenance (if you aren't current, see our instructions for "catching up"). If you own another "Solver" product for Microsoft Excel, email or call us for the good news on competitive upgrade pricing!
CONTACT US TODAY: Send us email, call us at (775) 831-0300, or send a fax to (775) 831-0314.
