Contact:  Daniel Fylstra
Frontline Systems 775-831-0300
press@solver.com

News Release

INCLINE VILLAGE, NV -- August 28, 2006 -- The Premium Solver V7.0 and field-installable Solver Engines V7.0 feature a wide range of enhancements over previous versions.

Premium Solver Platform Bundled Solver Engines

The Premium Solver Platform V7.0 includes five bundled Solver Engines for optimization, including a powerful Simplex Solver for LP/QP/MIP (linear, quadratic and mixed integer) problems up to 8,000 variables, a Barrier Solver for QCP/SOCP (quadratically constrained and second order cone programming) problems up to 2,000 variables, a GRG Nonlinear Solver for NLP (smooth nonlinear) problems up to 500 variables, Frontline's Interval Global Solver for challenging global optimization problems, and its leading Evolutionary Solver for arbitrary NSP (non-smooth) problems up to 500 variables.

Premium Solver Entry-Level Product Enhancements

The Premium Solver V7.0, Frontline's 'first step' upgrade for the standard Solver in Excel, offers improved Solver Engines for linear programming and non-linear optimization, plus Frontline's Evolutionary Solver, based on genetic algorithms, for optimizing arbitrary Excel models. It is enhanced in Version 7.0 to support 16 thousand columns and 1 million rows in Excel 2007, simulation optimization with Risk Solver Engine, function-based models on the active worksheet, Interactive Optimization, and the new object-oriented API.

Large-Scale LP/QP Solver, MOSEK Solver, and XPRESS Solver Enhancements

Frontline's Large-Scale LP/QP Solver Engine, which has been used to solve problems up to 2.4 million variables in V6.5, features several enhancements including new LP/MIP cut generation options in V7.0.Frontline's MOSEK Solver Engine for LP, QP and SOCP problems, based on the code from MOSEK ApS in Denmark, features an improved primal Simplex method, a new dual Simplex method, an automatic 'dualizer,' and a more numerically stable Barrier method. Frontline's XPRESS Solver Engine, based on the XpressMP code from Dash Optimization in Great Britain, features greatly improved performance across the board - especially in finding quick integer solutions to very large, challenging LP/MIP problems.

Large-Scale SQP Solver and KNITRO Solver Enhancements

Frontline's Large-Scale SQP Solver Engine, based on Phillip Gill's SNOPT code, is greatly enhanced in Version 7.0. Where the LSSQP Solver V6.5 was designed to handle large nonlinear problems with only a limited number (say 2000) of degrees of freedom, V7.0 has been successfully used on problems with as many as 20,000 degrees of freedom. Frontline's KNITRO Solver Engine, based on the KNITRO code from Ziena Optimization Inc., is also greatly enhanced in Version 7.0. New in this release - and unique among nonlinear Solvers - is an automatic crossover procedure from the Barrier method to the Active Set method, yielding sensitivity analysis information at the solution.

OptQuest Solver Enhancements

Frontline's OptQuest Solver Engine, based on tabu search and scatter search methods pioneered at the University of Colorado and OptTek Systems Inc., is enhanced with new, faster algorithmic methods and a new Solutions Report that displays multiple, ranked solutions drawn from the final population of candidate solutions.

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 400 million spreadsheet users.

Founded in 1987, Frontline is headquartered in Incline Village, Nevada (775-831-0300 or info@solver.com).

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