Learned Clause Minimization in Parallel SAT Solvers

Abstract: Learned clauses minimization (LCM) let to performance improvements of modern SAT solvers especially in solving hard SAT instances. Despite the success of LCM approaches in sequential solvers, they are not widely incorporated in parallel SAT solvers. In this paper we explore the potential of LCM for parallel SAT solvers by defining multiple LCM approaches based on clause vivification, comparing their runtime in different SAT solvers and discussing reasons for performance gains and losses. Results show that LCM only boosts performance of parallel SAT solvers on a fraction of SAT instances. More commonly applying LCM decreases performance. Only certain LCM approaches are able to improve the overall performance of parallel SAT solvers.