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Computing power used in mapping of human genome pushing new frontiers

While commercials featuring sweaty young dancers and hip music have been the mainstay for many industries, computer server makers discovered long ago that a metal box stuffed with microchips and wires simply lacked sex appeal. So they turned to tests of raw computing power to prove their superiority, like when IBM's Deep Blue put chess champion Garry Kasparov in checkmate four years ago.

While IBM's muscle machine stood as a monument in its time, Compaq computer may have found the ultimate ad in this battle for computing power, the Human Genome project.

The mapping of the genetic code required the computing power to make over 500 million trillion base-to-base comparisons over a course of 20,000 super-computing hours. To ensure accuracy, the routine will have to be performed 10 more times and compared to the "original," according to Hsiao Kwang-jen (蕭廣仁), chairman of the Institute of Genetics at National Yang Ming University.

When US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the mapping of the human genome, attention quickly turned to the tools used in its discovery, Compaq's Alpha Servers.

"The race to map the human genome is over, and the winner is ... Compaq. At least from a computing standpoint," wrote one Forbes writer.

Now members of Compaq's Alpha team are in Taiwan to sell the product to Taiwan's burgeoning biotech sector.

"We expect big things from Taiwan in terms of genetics and telecom," said Compaq's Bruce Foster.

The Alpha servers designed for mapping the human genetic code along with competing servers made by Fujitsu, IBM, Sun Microsystems and others, fits well into President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) future vision of a knowledge-based economy for Taiwan.

The Alpha computer collects, analyzes and sorts data, performing whatever specific functions as directed by its programming. And it shows clearly how the information technology revolution is fueling the revolution in human knowledge. The mapping of the human genome itself "would not have been possible without information technology," according to Foster.

That computing power is now pushing into a burgeoning number of fields, including the collection of satellite data for improved weather prediction, mapping the universe in astronomy, computer aided design in construction projects, and seismic studies enabling people to better predict earthquakes and oil drilling sites.

"The development of seismic techniques and satellite surveillance to discover promising new oil reservoirs has more than doubled the drilling success rate for new field wildcat wells during the past decade," Alan Greenspan reportedly told members of the Cato Institute earlier this year.

Now it is Compaq's turn to run a victory lap. IBM estimated it received US$500 million of free publicity from the Deep Blue vs. Kasparov chess match, and its stock price added US$10 at the time -- setting a record high for the company.

Compaq said yesterday it had already received an order for a US$1 million supercomputer from one Asian government, and company officials value supercomputer sales for biotechnology research at US$2.4 billion per year, with expected sales growth of 75 percent annually.
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