This document summarizes a parallel branch and bound algorithm for solving the quadratic assignment problem (QAP). Key points:
- The algorithm was implemented on a Cray X-MP asynchronous shared-memory multiprocessor.
- For problems of size n=10, the algorithm achieved near-linear speedup of around n using n processors. Good results were also obtained for a classic QAP problem of size n=12.
- The algorithm uses a "polytomic" branching rule to generate multiple successors at each node, constraining subproblems and allowing minimal information to be stored per node.