ICSE 2026
Sun 12 - Sat 18 April 2026 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mon 13 Apr 2026 10:10 - 10:30 at Bora Bora IV - GI@ICSE 2026 Session 1 Chair(s): Vesna Nowack

We use evolution to speedup the Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) parallel interpreter for Peter Nordin’s linear genetic programming GPengine. MAGPIE (Machine Automated General Performance Improvement via Evolution of software) is provided with existing hand-optimised source code, its revision history and the Intel 256 bit SSE intrinsics documentation as XML. Fitness is measured via perf’s hardware instruction count, while validity and safety are enforced through systematic test cases and memory sandbox protection via Linux mprotect. In a matter of hours local search discovered small, non-obvious program modifications that improve the performance of 128 lines of SIMD C++ code by 2%, without sacrificing correctness. We see genetic improvement can effectively exploit Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) parallelism, automatically refining complex code that is difficult for human developers to optimise reliably.

Improving Parallel Linear GP Interpreters (langdon_2026_GI_slides.mp4)14.17MiB
[Presentation] Improving a Parallel C++ Intel SSE SIMD Linear Genetic Programming Interpreter (langdon_2026_GI_slides.pdf)433KiB

Mon 13 Apr

Displayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change

09:00 - 10:30
GI@ICSE 2026 Session 1GI at Bora Bora IV
Chair(s): Vesna Nowack Imperial College London
09:00
10m
Day opening
Welcome and Introductions
GI
Aymeric Blot University of Rennes, IRISA / INRIA
09:10
60m
Keynote
Genetic Improvement for Software Modernization: Synergy and Opportunities
GI
Wesley K.G. Assunção North Carolina State University
10:10
20m
Talk
Improving a Parallel C++ Intel SSE SIMD Linear Genetic Programming InterpreterVirtual Attendance
GI
William Langdon University College London, Carol Hanna University College London
DOI Pre-print Media Attached File Attached