Instead of using a timeout, an optimization that can must be cut off if the cost is excessive can keep some kind of operation or size count, where the count is

Instead of using a timeout, an optimization that can must be cut off if the cost is excessive can keep some kind of operation or size count, where the count is strictly a function of the input. For example, an optimization based on binary decision diagrams (BDDs) can put a ceiling on the number of nodes in the BDD.