An efficient algorithm for spare allocation problems

The spare allocation problem in redundant RAM is to replace faulty rows/columns of memory cells with spare rows/columns. To solve the problem, comparison-based search tree structures were used in traditional exact algorithms. These algorithms are not efficient for large problems because significant amounts of data have to be retained and copied in order to generate new partial solutions. Many data may need to be compared for the removal of each redundant partial solution. To overcome these drawbacks, an efficient algorithm is proposed in this paper. The algorithm transforms a spare allocation problem into Boolean functions, and the renowned BDD is used to manipulate them. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm is very efficient in terms of speed and memory requirements. It may also be useful for problems which can be modeled as constraint bipartite vertex cover problems.