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On the reasons for average superlinear speedup in parallel backtrack search

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Computer Science Logic (CSL 1993)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 832))

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Abstract

Backtracking searches for one solution only can easily be parallelized: Each processor searches a subtree of the search tree and all processors stop when one of them has found a solution. It has raised some interest that the average speedup observable may be ≩ the number of processors, a phenomenon which is called average superlinear speedup. As this observation does not seem to be provable for principal reasons (stochastic dependencies) models from which the speedup is proved are developed. In the series of papers [MoSpVo 86], [SpMoVo 87], [Sp 88] a model to explain the speedup observable with the propositional satisfiability problem is presented. This model is based on the intuitively appealing assumption (which can be verified experimentally) that some processors search subtrees with a higher proportion of solutiòn leaves than others, i.e. the solution leaves are clustered within the search tree. A similar argument is given in [RaKu 88]. We give strong evidence that these models — at least with respect to the satisfiability problem — have serious defects and develop an improved model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät für Informatik, Technische Universität Chemnitz-Zwickau, Postfach 964, 09009, Chemnitz

    Andreas Goerdt

  2. Institut für Statistik und Wirtschaftsmathematik, RWTH Aachen, Wüllnerstr. 3, 52056, Aachen

    Udo Kamps

Authors
  1. Andreas Goerdt
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  2. Udo Kamps
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Egon Börger Yuri Gurevich Karl Meinke

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Goerdt, A., Kamps, U. (1994). On the reasons for average superlinear speedup in parallel backtrack search. In: Börger, E., Gurevich, Y., Meinke, K. (eds) Computer Science Logic. CSL 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 832. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0049327

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0049327

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58277-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48599-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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