Genetic processing of the traveling salesman problem with the associative architecture AM3

This paper presents a genetic solving approach to the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), which can be significantly accelerated by using an associative processor architecture, called the AM³. To compile the genetic TSP algorithm, a C⁺⁺ programming environment containing an associative object library is needed as well as an AM³ code interpreter to count machine instructions. Further, a recombination operator, known in the literature as “Partially Mapped Crossover” (PMX), is employed. The associative character of this operator makes it possible to reduce its time complexity from quadratic to linear (from O(n²) to O(n)). This reduction is noticeable in practice, since genetical recombination demands an increasing portion of the total run-time with growing problem size. As the TSP can be seen as a typical representative of permutation problems, it is assumed that the combination of genetic and associative processing is suitable for similar applications