A Generic Framework for Population-Based Algorithms, Implemented on Multiple FPGAs

Many bio-inspired algorithms (evolutionary algorithms, artificial immune systems, particle swarm optimisation, ant colony optimisation, ...) are based on populations of agents. Stepney et al [2005] argue for the use of conceptual frameworks and meta-frameworks to capture the principles and commonalities underlying these, and other bio-inspired algorithms. Here we outline a generic framework that captures a collection of population-based algorithms, allowing commonalities to be factored out, and properties previously thought particular to one class of algorithms to be applied uniformly across all the algorithms. We then describe a prototype proof-of-concept implementation of this framework on a small grid of FPGA (field programmable gate array) chips, thus demonstrating a generic architecture for both parallelism (on a single chip) and distribution (across the grid of chips) of the algorithms.