GeneCrunch: Experiences on the SGI POWER CHALLENGEarray with Bioinformatics applications

Analyzing genomic data is a computationally intensive and complicated process in which scientists must typically choose among multiple databases and analysis methods and make expert judgements inspecting multiple results. GeneQuiz, an automated software system for large scale genome analysis developed at the EMBL/EBI, tackles this problem by using an automated, rigorous, rule-based system to select among the results of sequence analysis and database searches, builds informative annotation and aims at predicting the function of new genes. In a demonstration project more than 6000 proteins from the Baker’s yeast, for which the complete genomic sequence was completed in 1996, were analyzed on a Silicon Graphics POWERCHALLENGEarray with 64 processors (R8000 @90 MHz) so that the analysis could be completed in 3 days. The results of the analysis were published on two web servers as they were computed.