In the paper, we propose using cellular automata (CAs) to solve a problem of scheduling tasks of a parallel program in the two-processor system. We examine a hypothesis that a nonlinear structure of a program graph can be approximated by a linear CA structure. Corresponding CAs solving the scheduling problem act according to some rules, which must be found. Searching effective rules is conducted with use of a genetic algorithm (GA). We show that for any initial allocation of tasks, a CA with discovered rules is able to find optimal or near-optimal solutions. Corresponding architecture of a CA is simpler than ones known in the literature.