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| CoinMP | |
|---|---|
| Name | CoinMP |
| Developer | COIN-OR Foundation |
| Released | 2000s |
| Latest release | (varies) |
| Programming language | C, C++ |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Genre | Mathematical optimization library |
| License | LGPL, proprietary options |
CoinMP CoinMP is a compact, portable solver library intended for interfacing optimization modeling systems and solvers. It provides a lightweight C API and executables to read, write, and solve mathematical programming instances, integrating with a range of linear, integer, and nonlinear back ends. CoinMP is associated with the COIN-OR project and has been used in conjunction with optimization systems, academic research, and industrial solvers.
CoinMP emerged from efforts within COIN-OR to offer a minimalist, stable interface between modeling systems and solver engines. The initiative followed earlier projects like AMPL connectors and work on open-source packages such as CBC (Coin-or branch and cut), CLP (Coin-or linear programming), and OSL integrations. Over time CoinMP evolved alongside solver developments at institutions like IBM Research and companies producing commercial solvers, tracing influence from standards such as the MPS format and interactions with the Netlib repository. Community contributions have come from academia and research labs including teams formerly affiliated with University of Waterloo, Lehigh University, and collaborators in the Operations Research community.
CoinMP is designed as a small C library that mediates between modeling front ends and solver back ends. Its architecture emphasizes a stable, procedural API layer that abstracts solver-specific calls into a uniform interface, inspired by interfaces in projects like MINOS and conventions used in GAMS driver layers. Internally the library handles problem I/O in formats related to MPS format and supports solver selection logic comparable to plugin models used in Julia's JuMP ecosystem and adapter layers in Pyomo. The design choices prioritize portability across platforms such as Linux, Windows, and macOS and interoperability with programming environments developed at institutions like Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
CoinMP targets classical mathematical programming formulations: linear programming, mixed-integer programming, and quadratic programming. It interfaces with solvers historically connected to the COIN-OR ecosystem, including CBC (Coin-or branch and cut), CLP (Coin-or linear programming), and accepts integration with commercial packages developed by firms like Gurobi and CPLEX when licensing permits. The library can be used to pass problem instances for algorithms such as branch-and-bound, simplex variants, and interior-point methods implemented by these solver projects. Compatibility considerations reflect solver capabilities found in standards from NEOS Server clients and solver suites used at research centers such as Argonne National Laboratory.
Performance assessment for CoinMP often focuses on the overhead of its API layer relative to direct solver invocation. Benchmarks historically compare model transfer times, memory usage, and solution latency against direct-linkage approaches used by front ends like AMPL, Pyomo, and JuMP. Comparative studies reference public benchmark collections such as problems from Netlib and MIPLIB to evaluate total solve time when using back ends like CBC (Coin-or branch and cut), CLP (Coin-or linear programming), Gurobi, and CPLEX. Results typically show minimal overhead for large-scale solves but potential relative cost for many small instances, a pattern noted in performance analyses from institutions like Sandia National Laboratories and university optimization labs.
CoinMP exposes a C API intended for straightforward bindings to higher-level languages. Community members and projects have created wrappers enabling use from environments such as Python via adapter projects reminiscent of bindings used in SciPy and CVXOPT, and from R using approaches similar to packages like Rmosek. The interface model aligns with foreign-function interface practices used in languages developed at organizations like Bell Labs and in ecosystems such as GNU. Bindings facilitate integration with modeling systems and GUIs developed by groups including Zuse Institute Berlin contributors and academic researchers at University of California, Berkeley.
Distribution of CoinMP has followed COIN-OR norms with open-source licensing for many components and proprietary licensing routes for binary redistributions. The project aligns with licensing frameworks used by institutions like Eclipse Foundation and foundations such as Apache Software Foundation in distinguishing permissive and copyleft components. Users often obtain CoinMP through source repositories maintained in coordination with COIN-OR infrastructure and may encounter platform-specific binary packaging by third parties in repositories used by Debian and Homebrew communities.
CoinMP is used as a lightweight bridge in academic research on algorithm development, in teaching contexts for courses at universities such as Stanford University and MIT, and in industrial workflows requiring solver interoperability. Typical applications include production planning models like those studied in Operations Research curricula, logistics problems comparable to instances in MIPLIB, and energy system optimization problems researched at labs such as National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The library’s small footprint makes it suitable for embedding in solver selection frameworks used in cloud services like NEOS Server and in prototype systems developed by research groups at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Category:Optimization software