Simdist: a distribution system for easy parallelization of evolutionary computation

This article introduces Simdist, a software tool for parallel execution of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) in a master-slave configuration on cluster architectures. Clusters have become a cost-effective parallel solution, and the potential computational capabilities are phenomenal. However, the transition from traditional R&D on a personal computer to parallel development and deployment can be a major step. Simdist simplifies this transition considerably, by separating the task of distributing data across the cluster network from the actual EA-related processing performed on the master and slave nodes. Simdist is constructed in the vein of traditional Unix command line tools; it runs in a separate process and communicates with EA child processes via standard input and output. As a result, Simdist is oblivious to the programming language(s) used in the EA, and the EA is similarly oblivious to the internals of Simdist.