Agri News, MN
02/07/06
Business news and notes
ISU scientists deciphering corn genome
AMES, Iowa -- Scientists at Iowa State University are using one of the nation's
10 most powerful computers to help decipher the corn genome, a project that
could allow them to expand the plant's uses in plastics, fuel and fiber.
To determine how a corn genome -- the basic genetic structure of the plant -- is
put together, scientists must assemble more than 60 million bits of genetic
material.
Scientists are planning to use the $1.25 million IBM BlueGene supercomputer,
unveiled Monday, which has the equivalent processing power of more than 2,000
home computers and a storage capacity more than 1,000 times greater. It
performs as many as 5.7 trillion calculations per second, said Srinivas Aluru,
professor of electrical and computer engineering.
The computer's speed enables scientists to shorten the time of processing data
that would have previously taken two t three months to just days, Aluru said.