Ian P. Gent — Page 2

arXiv2011

Reliability of Computational Experiments on Virtualised Hardware

We present preliminary results of an investigation into the suitability of virtualised hardware -- in particular clouds -- for running computational experiments. Our main concern was that the reported CPU time would not be reliable and reproducible. The results demonstrate that while this is true in cases where many virtual machines are running on the same physical hardware, there is no inherent variation introduced by using virtualised hardware compared to non-virtualised hardware.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2011

Modelling Constraint Solver Architecture Design as a Constraint Problem

Designing component-based constraint solvers is a complex problem. Some components are required, some are optional and there are interdependencies between the components. Because of this, previous approaches to solver design and modification have been ad-hoc and limited. We present a system that transforms a description of the components and the characteristics of the target constraint solver into a constraint problem. Solving this problem yields the description of a valid solver. Our approach represents a significant step towards the automated design and synthesis of constraint solvers that are specialised for individual constraint problem classes or instances.

cs.AI↗