Patent ID: 7272707

Claim:
A computer readable medium containing an executable program for configuring a hardware computing system having a plurality of tunable parameters, where the program performs the steps of: formulating an optimal setting for the configuration of at least two of the plurality of tunable parameters as a black box optimization problem; and solving the black box optimization problem using a smart hill climbing method, where the optimal setting yields improved computing system performance, and wherein the smart hill climbing comprises: performing a global search; and performing a local search on a starting point identified by said global search, wherein at least one of the global and local searching steps comprises the steps of: establishing a local search neighborhood around an initial candidate point; generating a plurality of samples from within the local search neighborhood; updating information regarding optimal computing system parameter configuration, based on the plurality of samples generated; and processing the plurality of samples to generate a second candidate point for the solution to the black box optimization problem, wherein the step of processing the plurality of samples further comprises the steps of: constructing at least one quadratic fitting curve based on the generated samples, wherein each of the at least one quadratic fitting curve is constructed for each dimension; identifying a minimal point according to the quadratic fitting curve; and combining the minimal points for all dimensions to generate the second candidate point.