Parallel genetic algorithms: advances, computing trends, applications and perspectives

Summary form only given. This article gives a brief overview of theoretical advances, computing trends, applications and future perspectives in parallel genetic algorithms. It explains basic terms and behavior of (parallel) genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms are easily parallelized algorithms, therefore two kinds of possible parallelism, data parallelism and control parallelism, are mentioned and described towards them. Parallelism of genetic algorithms brings many advantages and gains. Classifications of these algorithms are often based on the type of computing model, a walk strategy and the used computing machinery. Afterwards significant milestones in the theory with latest advances are briefly mentioned. Then current trends in parallel computing with stress computer architectures of parallel systems, interconnection topologies, operating systems, parallel (genetic) libraries and programming paradigms are reviewed shortly. The sufficient space is devoted to the latest applications of parallel genetic algorithms. After the discussion section, perspectives of the algorithms are predicted till the year 2005. The information in the article is segregated into two periods before and after the year 2000 in all chapters. The second period is more interesting and of higher importance, because it highlights recent research efforts and gives some hints about possible future trends. That is why we devote much space to the second period. As there is no such an overview of the recent period of parallel genetic algorithms, our investigation could be appealing and useful in many aspects.