A resource allocation framework is described herein which allocates items (conceptualized as balls) to item-receiving slots (conceptualized as bins) in a domain-agnostic manner. A user instantiates the resource allocation framework to a particular allocation problem by generating a specification that describes the allocation problem in a declarative fashion. Among other features, the specification maps real-world entities to the balls and bins, and describes the constraints associated with the allocation problem. The specification also provides a utilization function that computes the consumption of resources for a proposed assignment of a particular ball to a particular bin. According to another aspect, the resource allocation framework uses many processing elements (e.g., GPU threads, CPU threads, etc.), operating in parallel, to attempt to find a solution to the allocation problem. In this search for a solution, the resource allocation framework operates in any combination of an explore mode and an exploit mode.
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