Parallel calculating of the goal function in metaheuristics using GPU

Abstract

We consider a metaheuristic optimization algorithm which uses single process (thread) to guide the search through the solution space. Thread performs in the cyclic way (iteratively) two main tasks: the goal function evaluation for a single solution or a set of solutions and management (solution filtering and selection, collection of history, updating). The latter task takes statistically 1-3% total iteration time, therefore we skip its acceleration as useless. The former task can be accelerated in parallel environments in various manners. We propose certain parallel small-grain calculation model providing the cost optimal method. Then, we carry out an experiment using Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to confirm our theoretical results. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.