Algorithm choice

Given the results of section 4.2 (page ), and the results of the above sections regarding the property of delay, power and area functions in real circuits, the most suitable algorithm to be applied is the Powell's scheme. Briefly, it is fast, reliable, even in presence of multiple minima, and (perhaps first of all) it does not require the knowledge of the first derivative of the function to be minimized.
While some other algorithms could give the same quality of accuracy in finding the minimum (namely the simulation annealing algorithm is practically the only one), the Powell's one outperform all the others in the terms of number of iteration, and hence in execution time, reaching the best solution.

The Powell's algorithm is the first choice in all the optimization examples found in this chapter. As an example, performing the same optimization of table 5.3 with the simulated annealing will require an execution time by the optimizer²of about ten times of that required by the Powell's algorithm.