Carlsbad, CA. (OBBeC). Active Motif has introduced the NextEngine accelerator, designed to generate 3 to 20-fold speed improvements in TimeLogics DeCypher and CodeQuest biocomputing systems.

The NextEngine utilizes larger Xilinx Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips and a faster PCIe interface to improve the processing of BLAST, Smith-Waterman, GeneDetective and Hidden Markov Model searches run on the TimeLogic systems.

More specifically, The NextEngine architecture speeds high-sensitivity Smith-Waterman searches for shorter sequences by up to 15-fold, mapping millions of short sequences (small RNAs, SNPs, short sequence reads, or microarray probes) to a genome with high sensitivity in a shorter time. Hidden Markov Model (HMM) comparisons used commonly for metagenomics research also run at much greater speeds – achieving a claimed 550 times increase in performance over HMMer software running on a 2.66 Ghz Xeon CPU core.

The claimed performance figures for systems using the NextEngine are comparable with systems costing in excess of €100,000. As such, smaller labs will surely find systems using the new FPGA accelerator an attractive prospect; having their own sequencing cores may now be financially viable.

Pricing and Availability:
TimeLogic systems utilizing the NextEngine are priced from €38,980 and are available now, directly from TimeLogic. Additionally, in-depth benchmark reports and custom tests on critical sequence comparisons.

>> www.timelogic.com