Originally posted by: SystemAdmin
[Tom said:]
[b]Q: Why are the product names ?ILOG CP Optimizer? and ?ILOG CP? so similar?[/b]
A: Both products are optimization engines based on constraint programming technology. However, ILOG CP Optimizer is called an optimizer because it is an automatic constraint programming engine. It contains an optimization engine that automatically defines a search strategy based on the model and the data, which finds feasible solutions and improves them until it finds the best one. ILOG CP is a classic constraint programming engine, for which the user has to ?program? a search strategy.
[b]Q: Why is an ILOG CP Optimizer application easy to maintain?[/b]
A: Because an ILOG CP Optimizer application contains only the model (the decision variables, the objective, the constraints), and does not need a procedural search strategy to find a solution. In traditional CP applications, the procedural search strategy must often be adapted after a change in the model or even in the data. Since there is no need for a procedural search in a CP Optimizer application, there is no need to adapt it after each change in the model or the data.
[b]Q: Can I use ILOG CP Optimizer from OPL-CPLEX?[/b]
A: Yes. Any OPL-CPLEX customer will be able to develop models using either the ILOG CPLEX engine or the ILOG CP Optimizer engine.
[b]Q: Can I use ILOG CP Optimizer outside of OPL?[/b]
A: Yes. If you purchase development licenses of ILOG CP Optimizer you have access to the APIs of ILOG CP Optimizer in C++, Java or .net.
[b]Q: Can I deploy ILOG CP Optimizer applications with ILOG ODM?[/b]
A: Yes. The current version of ILOG ODM supports OPL models using the ILOG CP Optimizer engine.
[b]Q: Does the license for ILOG CP include a license for ILOG CP Optimizer? And vice versa, does the license for ILOG CP Optimizer include a license for the ILOG CP?[/b]
A: No, the licenses for ILOG CP Optimizer and ILOG CP are different. However, ILOG CP customers can buy an upgrade for ILOG OPL-CPLEX Development System. This gives them a premium price to access to CP Optimizer, OPL-CPLEX, and CPLEX for development.
[b]Q: What if I want to use the old ILOG Solver, ILOG Scheduler and ILOG Dispatcher libraries that are now called ILOG CP? Can I still license them?[/b]
A: Yes, ILOG Solver, ILOG Scheduler and ILOG Dispatcher, now called ILOG CP, can still be licensed. In fact, this is our preferred solution for customers skilled in CP who want a full-featured CP engine for complex detailed scheduling problems and routing problems, which ILOG CP Optimizer does not yet solve.
[b]Q: I am an ILOG Solver user. What can ILOG CP Optimizer do for me?[/b]
A: You should try ILOG CP Optimizer as it removes the need to write search strategies, making your applications easier to maintain and debug. If you use ILOG CP Optimizer for teaching, you can use CP Optimizer from OPL-CPLEX, java, or .net. Thus, you don?t require your students to know how to develop in C++. Moreover, you can focus your teaching on the modeling aspects of CP, and avoid spending time on the development of procedural search strategies.
ILOG CP Optimizer is also fully integrated into the complete line of optimization tools and platforms offered by ILOG. ILOG CP Optimizer has been designed to take full advantage of the ILOG OPL-CPLEX Development System. Therefore, with ILOG ODM, CP models built with OPL-CPLEX can be quickly turned into interactive decision support applications for business users.
[b]Q: Can I migrate my existing applications from ILOG Solver to ILOG CP Optimizer?[/b]
A: In most cases, yes. The release notes of ILOG CP Optimizer contain a migration guide. There are few ILOG Solver features that are not supported by ILOG CP Optimizer but in most cases, there are workarounds.
[b]Q: Can I migrate my existing applications from ILOG Scheduler to ILOG CP Optimizer?[/b]
A: Not yet. But a future release of ILOG CP Optimizer will provide support for scheduling.
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