Using Multiple Cores for Scheduling

The Maroma solver in Studio NPVS+ can take advantage of multiple cores to reduce the time taken to provide a scheduled solution. This is done using the Scheduling Setup: Options screen.

Number of cores determines the number of parallel cores the solver can use. More cores should increase the speed but reduces the amount of memory available to each core. So, it may be necessry to run your own tests to determine what is the optimal number of cores to use on your particular system configuration.

Note: Using a large number of cores may impact the performance of other applications running on your PC.

The results obtained from two identical projects but with different numbers of cores are not guaranteed to be identical.

Nevertheless, the solver obtains a solution within the optimality tolerance (the Optimality gap option). Some randomness occurs in obtaining this solution. Before the first run of a project, Maroma generates a sequence of random numbers which are used in all subsequent project runs.

If a single core is used, running the project twice will use the same set of random numbers and will result in an identical solution. However, when multiple cores are used, the order in which the set of random numbers is accessed cannot be guaranteed due to other activity on the PC. Therefore, the solutions obtained need not be identical because there are many schedules which satisfy the constraints of the problem.