Effective lower bounding techniques for pseudo-Boolean optimization [EDA applications]

Linear pseudo-Boolean optimization (PBO) is a widely used modeling framework in electronic design automation (EDA). Due to significant advances in Boolean satisfiability (SAT), new algorithms for PBO have emerged, which are effective on highly constrained instances. However, these algorithms fail to handle effectively the information provided by the cost function of PBO. This paper addresses the integration of lower bound estimation methods with SAT-related techniques in PBO solvers. Moreover, the paper shows that the utilization of lower bound estimates can dramatically improve the overall performance of PBO solvers for most existing benchmarks from EDA.