A HEAT QUENCH ALGORITHM FOR THE MINIMIZATION OF MULTIPLE-VALUED PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC-ARRAYS

Simulated annealing has been used extensively to solve combinatorial p roblems. Although it does not guarantee optimum results, results are o ften optimum or near optimum. The primary disadvantage is slow speed. It has been suggested [1] that quenching (rapid cooling) yields result s that are far from optimum. We challenge this perception by showing a context in which quenching yields good solutions with good computatio n speeds. In this paper, we present an algorithm in which quenching is combined with rapid heating. We have successfully applied this algori thm to the multiple-valued logic minimization problem. Our results sug gest that this algorithm holds promise for problems where moves exist that leave the cost of the current solution unchanged.