BEATNP: a tool for partitioning Boolean networks

BEATNP (BoolEAn Tools Network Partitioner) was designed to extend the application size capability of the BOLD (Boulder Optimal Logic Design) system. BEATNP partitions a Boolean network into subnetworks which satisfy user specified size constraints. Most of the tools in the BOLD tools suite solve problems which are in NP or Co-NP, so they can be assumed to have exponential complexity. Because the BEATNP algorithms have log-linear worst-case complexity, the CPU time requirements of optimization tools can be reduced greatly in difficult cases. When used with the BOLD minimizer on a set of well known benchmark examples, BEATNP reduced CPU time by 1 to 3 orders of magnitude while retaining a significant majority of the optimization savings available in the unpartitioned case.<<ETX>>