Increasing GP Computing Power for Free via Desktop GRID Computing and Virtualization

This paper presents how it is possible to increase the genetic programming (GP) computing power (CP) for free, via volunteer computing (VC), using the well known framework BOINC plus a new ``virtualization´´ layer which adds all the benefits from the virtualization paradigm. Two different experiments, employing a standard GP tool and a complex GP system, are performed -with distributed PCs over several cities- to show the free achieved CP by means of VC, without the necessity of modifying or adapting the original GP source code. The methodology can be easily extended to evolutionary algorithms (EAs).