Monday, December 18, 2000

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MSNBC Supercomputer tackles DNA project
"The world’s fastest commercial supercomputer will soon be devoted exclusively to solving the world’s most powerful puzzle. A new IBM supercomputer will be made available to companies trying to ask questions of the recently decoded human genome."

"The new supercomputer will be capable of performing 7 1/2 trillion calculations per second. That’s 600 times faster than the IBM computer that defeated chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. The machine — actually a cluster of computers — will consist of 1,250 IBM servers supported by 2.5 terabytes of memory, 50 terabytes of online disk storage and a high-bandwidth networking infrastructure."

GenomeWeb IBM Seeks 'Major Market Presence' with NuTec Supercomputer
"The 7.5-teraflop computing cluster that IBM is building for Atlanta-based NuTec Sciences will give IBM a “distinct advantage” in the genomics marketplace, an IBM spokesperson said Monday"

"Some market watchers speculated that IBM, whose computers are historically among the more expensive, might have cut NuTec a deal in order to secure a stronger foothold in the genomics sector.

IBM software for web application serving, information portals, and data integration will also be included in the system. NuTec Sciences will use the system to manage, mine and integrate genetic data from a wide variety of sources, and share this information via the Internet with the global life sciences community."

NuTec plans to run several massively parallel applications on the cluster. Morrissey said that a combinatorics algorithm that NuTec is developing in collaboration with the NIH to analyze disease-causing gene combinations is particularly compute-intensive. This algorithm is running as a test set on the company’s IBM computer in Houston, but Morrissey said they’re awaiting delivery of the supercomputer before it can be scaled up to optimal efficiency."

News.Com Genetics company buys mammoth IBM supercomputer
"While many genetic research techniques are the equivalent of monumental exercises in alphabetizing, the NuTec machine also will be useful for another sort of genetics research, into the creation of proteins, Morrissey said. Protein research typically exercises the mathematical abilities of a computer, something that chips from Compaq and IBM are better at handling than Intel chips.

Meanwhile, the Linux operating system is making headway in another type of supercomputer called a Beowulf cluster.

Linux Networx, based in Salt Lake City, has sold a 40-processor computer to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for genetics research, the company said Thursday.

The lab is using the cluster to analyze the genome of the fruit fly Drosophila, a common subject for genetics experiments.

Rosetta Inpharmatics also is using a Linux Networx system, spokesman Brad Rutledge said."

Enterprise Linux Today Inpharmatica installs largest European commercial bioinformatics processor platform
"Inpharmatica, a leading innovator in the application of structural bioinformatics in pharmaceutical research, announced today that it has more than doubled the power of its in-house computer facilities. Correctly-used computer power is an essential part of present and future techniques involved in discovering the drugs of tomorrow and in analysing the enormous amounts of data now generated by the Human Genome Project. Inpharmatica's 1,100 processor system is the most powerful commercial installation in Europe dedicated to bioinformatics, the use of computer techniques in drug discovery."

""Historically, companies wanting to do large scale processing-intensive computing have had to rely on specialist high performance computing vendors with high-cost proprietary solutions," said Pat Leach, IT director at Inpharmatica. "The use of Linux and the low cost of standard PC components has enabled Inpharmatica to achieve 'more for less'."

Enterprise Linux Today Linux NetworX Clusters to Power Genome Research at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
"The massive amount of data computation inherent in genome research requires either large supercomputers or cluster systems. Cluster technology links multiple inexpensive PCs together to form a powerful, unified system that delivers the computational performance of supercomputers for a fraction of the cost.

"The Linux NetworX cluster is much more cost efficient than the systems we've used in the past," said Erwin Frise, systems manager and biomedical scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Comparing the price/performance of the cluster to supercomputers and other options available on the market made Linux NetworX the obvious choice for our research.""

""Historically, companies wanting to do large scale processing-intensive computing have had to rely on specialist high performance computing vendors with high-cost proprietary solutions," said Pat Leach, IT director at Inpharmatica. "The use of Linux and the low cost of standard PC components has enabled Inpharmatica to achieve 'more for less'."