Sandia National Laboratories is offering free downloads of its Acro 1.0 package, which is based on several alternative algorithms
Acro 1.0 optimisation software, developed by a Sandia National Laboratories team led by Bill Hart, has been released to the public and is available at no charge.
Optimisation software can be used to answer questions such as: How will a drug molecule bind to a target protein? How should the military distribute spare parts to maximise the reliability of its combat equipment? What is the lightest configuration for a mechanism?
Such questions require the selection of a best alternative from an enormous set of possibilities.
Acro puts together different optimisation software applications into one large packagemaking it easier to solve large-scale engineering and scientific problems Hart says.
Acro integrates many optimisation software applications, with most written in the C++ programming language. Users can combine various optimisation components to develop an optimisation capability that meets a particular need. This flexibility makes Acro a valuable tool for problem solving, particularly for applications that need to integrate an optimisation capability into their existing application software.
Primary Acro users are academics and commercial companies seeking to solve specific science and engineering problems such as engineering design, inventory management, and molecular prediction. Acro is part of DOE’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) efforts and supports interactions with the Department of Homeland Security, computing activities in a water initiative with the Environmental Protection Agency, and military logistics operations with Lockheed Martin.
Hart says he and his team have been developing Acro for the past year-and-a-half. Both Sandia-developed and off-the-shelf software are included in Acro. In particular, Acro integrates Sandia’s Appspack, Coliny, OPT++ and Pico optimisation software. Acro includes optimisation techniques like linear programming, mixed-integer linear programming, derivative-free local search, and genetic algorithms.
Sandia, a USA National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory, is giving Acro away free to encourage external collaborators to use it and make suggestions for improvements. Acro Version 1.0 is available for download under the terms of the Lesser GNU licence.
For more information, visit http://software.sandia.gov/Acro
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