Chinese Lab Speeds Through Genome Processing With GPUs

Eric Smalley writes "The world's largest genome sequencing center once needed four days to analyze data describing a human genome. Now it needs just six hours. The trick is servers built with graphics chips — the sort of processors that were originally designed to draw images on your personal computer. They're called graphics processing units, or GPUs — a term coined by chip giant Nvidia. This fall, BGI — a mega lab headquartered in Shenzhen, China — switched to servers that use GPUs built by Nvidia, and this slashed its genome analysis time by more than an order of magnitude."

The Future Is Here!!

[mastershake82]

Sounds like these newfangled "GPUs" are gonna change the world.

News for nerds

[Anonymous Coward]

I always wondered what GPUs are. Thanks Slashdot!

Re:News for nerds

[galanom]

No, it's "Guinea Pig Units"

Re:News for nerds

[nevillethedevil]

I thought it was 'Gnomes Processing Underpants' and that we finally had that elusive missing step

1. Steal underpants
2. Process underpants
3. Profit

For the curious...

[Cow Jones]

... this is what a Chinese lab looks like [dogster.com].