Celera's Paracel Unit Introduces GeneMatcher 2: New Supercomputer for Sequence Similarity Analysis.Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers PASADENA, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 17, 2001 Paracel Inc., a Celera Genomics business, today introduced GeneMatcher2(TM), a new generation high-throughput supercomputer supercomputer, a state-of-the-art, extremely powerful computer capable of manipulating massive amounts of data in a relatively short time. Supercomputers are very expensive and are employed for specialized scientific and engineering applications that must handle very offering increased sensitivity and performance in sequence similarity analysis. A single GeneMatcher2, about the size of an average suitcase, contains more than 27,000 programmable parallel processors. It executes some of the most sensitive and selective algorithms, such as Smith-Waterman and Hidden Markov Models A hidden Markov model (HMM) is a statistical model in which the system being modeled is assumed to be a Markov process with unknown parameters, and the challenge is to determine the hidden parameters from the observable parameters. , for biological data searches, analysis and gene finding at speeds thousands of times faster than the latest generation microprocessor. "Over the past two years, industrial-scale, automated sequencing has accelerated the sequencing of the human genome The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is composed of 24 distinct pairs of chromosomes (22 autosomal + X + Y) with a total of approximately 3 billion DNA base pairs containing an estimated 20,000–25,000 genes. and biological research in general," said Kwang-I Yu, Ph.D., president of Paracel. "The issues now are to compare, annotate annotate - annotation , and understand the massive amounts of data being generated. To do so effectively, we need to leapfrog current computing technology, and build tools that can keep pace with databases that are doubling in size every few months. GeneMatcher2 makes it feasible to apply some of the most sensitive algorithms to industrial-scale genomic problems, yielding results in a matter of minutes A Matter of Minutes is an episode from the television series The New Twilight Zone. Cast
GeneMatcher2 incorporates the latest electronic and bioinformatics technology, as well as lessons learned from its predecessors - GeneMatcher1 and GeneMatcher-Plus. GeneMatcher-Plus, currently operating at 40 pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic sites worldwide, is the leading bioinformatics hardware accelerator. GeneMatcher2 offers increased acceleration, higher throughput, better price/performance ratio In economics and engineering, the price/performance ratio refers to a product's ability to deliver performance, of any sort, for its price. For instance, if you have a whole day to travel 100 km, spending $50 to do the journey in two hours is a better price/performance ratio than , lower start-up costs and more configuration options. Introduced in 1997, Paracel's GeneMatcher was the first computer designed for commercial use with custom application-specific integrated circuit (hardware) Application-Specific Integrated Circuit - (ASIC) An integrated circuit designed to perform a particular function by defining the interconnection of a set of basic circuit building blocks drawn from a library provided by the circuit manufacturer. (ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. ) technology to specifically analyze genetic information. GeneMatcher computers precisely analyze similarities and differences of DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. or protein sequences in relation to other sequences of known genetic location and function. These comparisons provide researchers with critical insights for drug discovery and other genetic research applications. The GeneMatcher system is a plug-and-play computation server that can be connected to any network. It is delivered with a full suite of software tools from Paracel allowing GeneMatcher to be easily used in any bioinformatics environment. Paracel provides high-performance genomic data and text analysis systems for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and government markets. Paracel is a business unit of Celera Genomics, an Applera Corporation business. Paracel is headquartered in Pasadena, Calif. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.paracel.com, or by calling Paracel at 626-744-2000. |
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