Date: Feb. 25, 2002
Link: http://developer.apple.com/hardware/ve/acgresearch.html
Source Author or Organization: Apple Computer Advanced Computation Group (AUG), Genentech Inc., Stanford University Genetics Department

Apple/Genentech Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) is an open source, enhanced implementation of the standalone version of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST). The BLAST application performs DNA and protein similarity searches of all available sequence databases. The standalone version now offers XML output.

Apple/Genentech BLAST was developed as part of an Apple effort to make OS X the platform of choice for scientific applications. The Apple Advanced Computation Group (AUG) says Apple/Genentech BLAST running on a dual 1-GHz or better Macintosh under OS X delivers five times the performance of the nearest competing desktop system running standard NCBI BLAST.

This page provides links to the Apple/Genentech BLAST source code (AGBLAST.tar.gz, 8.7 Mb) and executable (blastall.gz, 2.3 Mb), and several white papers describing the incorporation of NeXT Zilla distributed computation and other technologies used in the Apple/Genentech BLAST project: Vector implementation of multiprecision arithmetic (G4multiprecision.pdf, 240k), Vector implementation of color-image wavelet transform (g4wavelet.pdf, 292k), Fast matrix algebra on Apple G4 (g4matrix.pdf, 216k), Supercomputer-style Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) library for Apple G4 (g4fft.pdf, 360k), NASA Langley Research Center Evaluation of PowerMac G4 Systems for FORTRAN-based Scientific Computing with Application to Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation (NASA_G4_Study.pdf, 172k), a description of the G4 Velocity Engine (PowerPC-G4velocityengine.pdf, 176k) and an overview of the ACG (acg.pdf, 60k).