On the Configuration of SAT Formulae

Abstract

It is well-known that the order in which clauses and literals are listed in a SAT formulae can have a strong impact on solvers' performance. In this work we investigate how the performance of SAT solvers can be improved by a specifically-designed SAT formulae configuration. We introduce a fully automated approach for this configuration task, that considers a number of criteria for optimising the order in which clauses and, within clauses, literals, are listed in a formula expressed using the Conjunctive Normal Form. Our experimental analysis, involving three state-of-the-art SAT solvers and six different benchmark sets, shows that the configurations identified by the proposed approach can have a significant positive impact on solvers' performance.