Argonne National Laboratory, Building 900, Industrial Technology Development Center, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439

A -- RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT POC Contact Paul Betten, Licensing Manager, 630-252-4962, fax 630-252-5230, betten@anl.gov Seeking licensees for PGAPack Developer's Kit Argonne National Laboratory is offering a developer's kit for licensees that wish to include or embed the Genetic Algorithm Package (PGAPack) Version 1.0 library into commercial software. PGAPack is a general-purpose, data-structure-neutral, parallel genetic algorithm library that has wide applications in a variety of engineering and optimization problems including: staff or shipment scheduling, medical or other database searching, drug design, circuit/chip design, robot control, etc. Its development took more than five person-years, is very easy to use, and provides most capabilities desired in a genetic algorithm library in an integrated, seamless, and portable manner. It has been extensively tested and can operate on any parallel or serial platform that has an ANSI C compiler, including MPPs and workstation networks. Parallel platforms require a message passing interface (MPI). It is recommended that personal computers have a minimum of 16 MB RAM available. Software details are provided at http://www.mcs.anl.gov/home/levine/PGAPack/index.html. Key library features include (1) callable from Fortran or C, (2) runs or uniprocessors, parallel computers, and workstation networks, multiple levels of access for users (MPI standard employed), (3) binary-, integer-, real-, and character-valued native data types, (4) object-oriented data structure neutral design, (5) multiple choices for selection, crossover, and mutation operators, (6) parameterized population replacement, (7) easy integration of hill-climbing heuristics, (8) a black-box interface for novices and application users, (9) access to library calls for expert users, (10) fully extensible to support custom operators and new data types, (11) extensive debugging facilities, (12) large set of example problems, and (13) detailed users guide. Commercial nonexclusive licenses are available as a Developer's Kit and include the rights for distribution or incorporation into a commercial software package. The one-time, non-refundable licensing fee, effective October 1997, is $5,000. Each commercial licensee will receive the following: (1) the PGAPack software, Version 1.0, including PGAPack source and on-line user's manual and documentation, (2) version upgrades, if any, and (3) a standard license agreement (under preparation). Contact Paul Betten, Licensing Manager, 630-252-4962, fax 630-252-5230, betten@anl.gov (0295)

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