|  |     There have been quite a few publications of his algorithm in the
    past several years.  The one that I could put my hands on immediately
    is:  "Karmarkar's Linear Programming Algorithm," Interfaces (16)4
    July-August 1986 pp. 75-90.  The projective scaling (or interior
    point) method is explained with examples. 
    
    That article (written by Hooker at CMU) references two of Karmarkar's
    papers:  "A new polynomial-time algorithm for linear programming,"
    Proceedings of the 16th Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of
    Computing, pp. 302-311; and a paper by the same title which appeared
    in Combinatorica, Vol 4, No. 4, pp 373-395.
    
    In addition there is a special issue of Algorithmica that addresses
    this topic.  It came out some time in early 1987 I believe.
    
    The algorithm has been tested and highly touted as a means for solution
    to special cases of linear progamming.  But you should note that
    the algorithm has been patented (that's right the ALGORITHM is
    PATENTED) and the only firm with rights to its use (other than AT&T,
    Karmarkar's employer, is IBM).  AT&T is threatening a researcher
    in Arizona for implementing the interior point method with a law
    suit if he proceeds with this research.  This could get real
    interesting!
    
    Is anybody currently working on interior points methods?
    
    
    Oh, I almost forgot.  In Boston on April 3-5 at the Park Plaza Hotel in
    Boston, the 3rd SIAM (Soc. of Indus. & Appl. Math.) Conference on
    Optimization is taking place.  Karmarker will be presenting two
    minisymposia at that time -- one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. (I am
    presenting my work at that conference and would enjoy meeting other
    employees interested in the same line of work.)
    
    Tim
    
     
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|  |     This is interesting - Dr. Roy Marsten at U. of Arizona has applied 
    to Digital for funding of work porting Karmarkar's algorithms to a
    VAX.  We looked at his application and decided not to fund it 
    (not based on suspicions that it was a patent infringement as we
    weren't aware until last week that Karmarkar's algorithm was patented).
    
    Other articles you might want to look at are the research proposal
    put forth by Roy Marsden (see the ERP notes conference), and
    
    Adler, Karmarkar, Resende, Veiga - An Implementation of Karmarkar's 
    Algorithm for Linear Programming, UC Berkeley, ORC 86-8
    
      
    
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