{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]],"date-time":"2026-03-25T12:28:27Z","timestamp":1774441707694,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]],"date-time":"2026-03-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1774396800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Computers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Speculative parallelization has been proposed to accelerate computationally intensive reasoning tasks in constraint-based systems, particularly minimal conflict detection and preferred diagnosis computation. Parallel variants of QUICKXPLAIN enable concurrent conflict detection, while parallel FASTDIAG supports speculative diagnosis computation. Existing evaluations of these approaches primarily emphasize runtime reduction and speedup metrics. However, runtime alone does not fully characterize computational efficiency in multi-core environments, where synchronization overhead and speculative execution costs may significantly influence performance. This paper introduces a unified multi-dimensional cost model for analyzing speculative parallel conflict detection and diagnosis algorithms. Rather than proposing new algorithms, we reinterpret previously reported experimental results under a formal cost perspective integrating runtime, speedup, efficiency, parallel overhead, and conflict-normalized cost metrics. Our analysis reveals that speculative parallelization provides substantial benefits in high-cardinality conflict scenarios and complex diagnosis tasks, but scalability is limited by coordination overhead and diminishing efficiency as the number of parallel workers increases. We further identify parallel breakdown points beyond which additional workers degrade performance. The proposed framework offers a systematic basis for cost-aware evaluation of parallel reasoning strategies and provides practical insights into when parallelization is beneficial for conflict detection and diagnosis tasks in large-scale constraint systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/computers15040201","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]],"date-time":"2026-03-25T09:11:14Z","timestamp":1774429874000},"page":"201","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Unified Multi-Dimensional Cost Analysis of Speculative Parallel Conflict Detection and Diagnosis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6760-6061","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mariuxi","family":"Vinueza-Morales","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias e Ingenier\u00eda, Universidad Estatal de Milagro, Cdla. Universitaria Km 1.5 v\u00eda Km 26, Milagro 091706, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Miguel","family":"Tupac-Yupanqui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"EAP Ingenier\u00eda de Sistemas e Inform\u00e1tica, Universidad Continental, Huancayo 12000, Peru"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2371-8253","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicol\u00e1s","family":"M\u00e1rquez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela de Ingenier\u00eda Comercial, Facultad de Econom\u00eda y Negocios, Universidad Santo Tom\u00e1s, Talca 3460000, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Cristian","family":"Vidal-Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda y Negocios, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Manuel Montt 948, Providencia, Santiago 7500975, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(87)90062-2","article-title":"A Theory of Diagnosis from First Principles","volume":"32","author":"Reiter","year":"1987","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Junker, U. (2004). QUICKXPLAIN: Preferred Explanations and Relaxations for Over-Constrained Problems. Proceedings of the 19th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AAAI Press. AAAI\u201904."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ouyang, J., Huang, S., Chi, J., Zhang, L., and Zhao, X. (2025). Effective Fault Identification Approach for Model-Based Diagnosis. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Syst., early access.","DOI":"10.1109\/TSMC.2025.3649682"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Carri\u00f3n Le\u00f3n, D.I., Vidal-Silva, C., and M\u00e1rquez, N. (2025). Scalable Model-Based Diagnosis with FastDiag: A Dataset and Parallel Benchmark Framework. Data, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/data10090141"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"491","DOI":"10.1007\/s10844-021-00675-4","article-title":"Explanations for over-constrained problems using QuickXPlain with speculative executions","volume":"57","author":"Vidal","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Intell. Inf. Syst."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cabezas-Quinto, J.J., Vidal-Silva, C., Serrano-Malebr\u00e1n, J., and M\u00e1rquez, N. (2025). A Dataset and Experimental Evaluation of a Parallel Conflict Detection Solution for Model-Based Diagnosis. Data, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/data10090139"},{"key":"ref_7","first-page":"61647","article-title":"Scalable Parallel Reasoning for Large-Scale Constraint Systems","volume":"14","author":"Duarte","year":"2024","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"AlShekh, R.H., Dawwd, S.A., and Qassabbashi, F.N. (2025). Comparative Review of Multicore Architectures: Intel, AMD, and ARM in the Modern Computing Era. Chips, 4.","DOI":"10.3390\/chips4040044"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cui, M., and Pericas, M. (2025). Characterizing and Mitigating Performance Variability in Parallel Applications on Modern HPC Multicore Systems. Proceedings of the 22nd ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers (CF \u201925), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3719276.3725184"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3633331","article-title":"COWS for High Performance: Cost Aware Work Stealing for Irregular Parallel Loop","volume":"21","author":"Mishra","year":"2024","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Archit. Code Optim."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"F\u00e9, I., Matos, R., Dantas, J., Melo, C., Nguyen, T.A., Min, D., Choi, E., Silva, F.A., and Maciel, P.R.M. (2022). Performance-Cost Trade-Off in Auto-Scaling Mechanisms for Cloud Computing. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22031221"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109768","DOI":"10.1016\/j.engappai.2024.109768","article-title":"A Novel Approach to Model-Based Diagnosis with Multiple Observations","volume":"141","author":"Tai","year":"2025","journal-title":"Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Felfernig, A., Garber, D., Le, V.M., and Lubos, S. (2025). Causality-based Explanations for Feature Model Configuration. Proceedings of the 19th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS \u201925), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3715340.3715438"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4426","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-025-34507-0","article-title":"A Causal Discovery-Based Adaptive Fusion Algorithm for Multi-Source Heterogeneous Knowledge Graphs","volume":"16","author":"Wang","year":"2026","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1002\/spip.213","article-title":"Formalizing Cardinality-Based Feature Models and Their Specialization","volume":"10","author":"Czarnecki","year":"2005","journal-title":"Softw. Process. Improv. Pract."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tolk, A., and Jain, L.C. (2009). Feature Modeling: Managing Variability in Complex Systems. Complex Systems in Knowledge-Based Environments: Theory, Models and Applications, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-88075-2"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Benitez, F.S., Galindo, J.A., Romero Organv\u00eddez, D., and Benavides, D. (2025). UVL Web-Based Editing and Analysis with flamapy.ide. Proceedings of the 19th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS \u201925), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3715340.3715436"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Galindo Duarte, J.A., Benavides Cuevas, D.F., and Segura Rueda, S. (2010, January 20). Debian Packages Repositories as Software Product Line Models: Towards Automated Analysis. Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Automated Configuration and Tailoring of Applications (ACOTA 2010), Antwerp, Belgium."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Galindo, J.A., Dominguez, A.J., White, J., and Benavides, D. (2023). Large Language Models to Generate Meaningful Feature Model Instances. Proceedings of the 27th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference\u2014Volume A (SPLC \u201923), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3579027.3608973"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"387","DOI":"10.1007\/s00607-018-0646-1","article-title":"Automated Analysis of Feature Models: Quo Vadis?","volume":"101","author":"Galindo","year":"2019","journal-title":"Computing"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1017\/S0890060411000011","article-title":"An efficient diagnosis algorithm for inconsistent constraint sets","volume":"26","author":"Felfernig","year":"2012","journal-title":"Artif. Intell. Eng. Des. Anal. Manuf."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Felfernig, A., Benavides, D., Galindo, J., and Reinfrank, F.C. (2013, January 29\u201330). Towards Anomaly Explanation in Feature Models. Proceedings of the 2013 Workshop on Configuration, Wien, Austria."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Stevens, P., and W\u0105sowski, A. (2016). Mind the Gap! Automated Anomaly Detection for Potentially Unbounded Cardinality-Based Feature Models. Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, Springer."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Helic, D., Leitner, G., Stettinger, M., Felfernig, A., and Ra\u015b, Z.W. (2020). A Parallelized Variant of Junker\u2019s QuickXPlain Algorithm. Proceedings of the Foundations of Intelligent Systems, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-59491-6"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Singh, K., Banda, L., and Manjul, M. (2023). Advanced Computer Science Applications: Recent Trends in AI, Machine Learning, and Network Security, Apple Academic Press. [1st ed.].","DOI":"10.1201\/9781003369066"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11764","DOI":"10.1002\/int.23062","article-title":"An Efficient Hardware Supported and Parallelization Architecture for Intelligent Systems to Overcome Speculative Overheads","volume":"37","author":"Kumar","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. J. Intell. Syst."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"152","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-023-10338-3","article-title":"Performance Evolution of Configurable Software Systems: An Empirical Study","volume":"28","author":"Kaltenecker","year":"2023","journal-title":"Empir. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Qi, H., Dai, L., Chen, W., Jia, Z., and Lu, X. (2023). Performance Characterization of Large Language Models on High-Speed Interconnects. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE Symposium on High-Performance Interconnects (HOTI), IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/HOTI59126.2023.00022"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aimoniotis, P., Kvalsvik, A.B., Chen, X., Sj\u00e4lander, M., and Kaxiras, S. (2023). ReCon: Efficient Detection, Management, and Use of Non-Speculative Information Leakage. Proceedings of the 56th Annual IEEE\/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO \u201923), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3613424.3623770"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e7877","DOI":"10.1002\/cpe.7877","article-title":"Cost- and performance-aware resource selection for parallel software on heterogeneous cloud","volume":"36","author":"Bystrov","year":"2024","journal-title":"Concurr. Comput. Pract. Exp."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Malla, I., Metsch, T., and Townend, P. (2026). Power Aware Cluster Orchestration: Taxonomy, Initial Results, and Challenges, Association for Computing Machinery. UCC \u201925.","DOI":"10.1145\/3773274.3774698"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.63282\/3117-5481\/AIJCST-V5I6P102","article-title":"Intelligent Resource Orchestration Using AI-Driven Predictive Algorithms for Scalable Cloud Systems","volume":"5","author":"Chileshe","year":"2023","journal-title":"Am. Int. J. Comput. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1007\/s00607-025-01535-7","article-title":"Cost and performance-effective dynamic VM type selection in auto-scaling using reinforcement learning","volume":"107","author":"Abdullah","year":"2025","journal-title":"Computing"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3700439","article-title":"On Efficient Training of Large-Scale Deep Learning Models","volume":"57","author":"Shen","year":"2024","journal-title":"ACM Comput. Surv."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.1038\/s43588-024-00753-x","article-title":"Efficient scaling of large language models with mixture of experts and 3D analog in-memory computing","volume":"5","author":"Vasilopoulos","year":"2025","journal-title":"Nat. Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhao, C., Deng, C., Ruan, C., Dai, D., Gao, H., Li, J., Zhang, L., Huang, P., Zhou, S., and Ma, S. (2025). Insights into DeepSeek-V3: Scaling Challenges and Reflections on Hardware for AI Architectures. Proceedings of the 52nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA \u201925), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3695053.3731412"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Maican, C.A., Pan\u0103, C.F., P\u0103tra\u0219cu-Pan\u0103, D.M., and R\u0103dulescu, V.M. (2025). Review of Fault Detection and Diagnosis Methods in Power Plants: Algorithms, Architectures, and Trends. Appl. Sci., 15.","DOI":"10.3390\/app15116334"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Horcas, J.M., Ballesteros, J., Pinto, M., and Fuentes, L. (2023). Elimination of Constraints for Parallel Analysis of Feature Models. Proceedings of the 27th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference (SPLC \u201923), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3579027.3608981"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112434","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2025.112434","article-title":"FMSans: An Efficient Approach for Constraints Removal and Parallel Analysis of Feature Models","volume":"227","author":"Horcas","year":"2025","journal-title":"J. Syst. Softw."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sundermann, C., Brancaccio, V.F., Kuiter, E., Krieter, S., Hess, T., and Thuem, T. (2024). Collecting Feature Models from the Literature: A Comprehensive Dataset for Benchmarking. Proceedings of the 28th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference (SPLC \u201924), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3646548.3672590"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kuiter, E. (2025). Towards Effective and Efficient Feature-Model Analyses for Evolving System Software. Proceedings of the 29th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference\u2014Volume B (SPLC-B \u201925), Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3748269.3748593"},{"key":"ref_42","first-page":"87","article-title":"How Configurable Is the Linux Kernel? Analyzing Two Decades of Feature-Model History\u2014RCR Report","volume":"35","author":"Kuiter","year":"2026","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Amdahl, G.M. (1967). Validity of the single processor approach to achieving large scale computing capabilities. Proceedings of the April 18\u201320, 1967, Spring Joint Computer Conference, Association for Computing Machinery. AFIPS \u201967 (Spring).","DOI":"10.1145\/1465482.1465560"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"532","DOI":"10.1145\/42411.42415","article-title":"Reevaluating Amdahl\u2019s law","volume":"31","author":"Gustafson","year":"1988","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Hennessy, J.L., and Patterson, D.A. (2017). Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Morgan Kaufmann. [6th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_46","first-page":"103","article-title":"Architectural and Software-Based Fault Tolerance in Multicore and Lockstep Processing Systems: A Comprehensive Reliability-Centric Analysis","volume":"10","author":"Keller","year":"2025","journal-title":"Acad. Res. Libr. Int. J. Comput. Sci. Inf. Syst."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rauber, T., and R\u00fcnger, G. (2023). Parallel Programming: For Multicore and Cluster Systems, Springer. [3rd ed.].","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-031-28924-8"},{"key":"ref_48","unstructured":"Gent, I.P., Jefferson, C., and Miguel, I. (2006). MINION: A Fast, Scalable, Constraint Solver. Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2006), IOS Press."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"720","DOI":"10.1145\/324133.324234","article-title":"Scheduling Multithreaded Computations by Work Stealing","volume":"46","author":"Blumofe","year":"1999","journal-title":"J. ACM"}],"container-title":["Computers"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-431X\/15\/4\/201\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]],"date-time":"2026-03-25T09:38:46Z","timestamp":1774431526000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-431X\/15\/4\/201"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]]},"references-count":49,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4]]}},"alternative-id":["computers15040201"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/computers15040201","relation":{},"ISSN":["2073-431X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2073-431X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]]}}}