Fusion-io Technology Advances Bioinformatics Research at San Diego Supercomputer Center
By Fusion-io, PRNETuesday, June 21, 2011
HAMBURG, Germany, June 22, 2011 -
Fusion’s Data
Center Memory Technology Accelerates MySQL Database Queries
Conducted by Protein Data Bank Researchers at SDSC
[International Supercomputing Conference Stand 850] - Fusion-io
(NYSE: FIO), provider of a next-generation shared data
decentralization platform, today announced that its technology has
been utilized to realize significant performance improvements in
MySQL database queries for bioinformatics research. The Protein
Data Bank (PDB) research is being conducted at the University of
California, San Diego, in collaboration with the San Diego
Supercomputer Center (SDSC). Researchers at SDSC noted that
replacing hard drive disks (HDDs) with Fusion-io technology in
their database infrastructure reduced query times from 30 minutes
to three minutes.
Fusion’s ioMemory technology is being utilized by the SDSC, an
organized research unit of UC San Diego, in its data-intensive
computing initiatives. As part of these efforts, researchers are
using the technology to advance research on the Protein Data Bank,
the world’s most comprehensive repository for three-dimensional
structures of large molecules and nucleic acids. The research
carried out for the PDB serves as a foundation for accelerating the
development of life-saving drugs, synthetic proteins used in
medicine and other treatments for illnesses.
“As SDSC strives to serve as a center for research excellence,
we focus heavily on evaluating how flash-based technologies can
improve scientific discovery,” said Allan Snavely, Associate
Director of SDSC and co-Principal Investigator of the Center’s
upcoming data-intensive high-performance computing (HPC) system,
Gordon, which is currently in development. “Through our
research, we are finding that storage memory products like those
offered by Fusion-io are considerably faster than hard drive disks
for many large memory and data-intensive problems, and that
flash-based storage memory has the potential to make
supercomputing-level results accessible outside the traditional
user base.”
Using Fusion’s server-deployed technologies, researchers were
able to reduce the time required to conduct complex MySQL database
queries that determine relationships between proteins and the
effects proteins can have on each other. Using traditional hard
drive disks, a query analyzing more than 200 million protein
structures took 30 minutes.
“With Fusion’s shared data decentralization technologies - which
place the storage memory medium right next to the processor to
significantly reduce latency and increase processing speed - the
same query took just three minutes,” said Robert Sinkovits, SDSC
computational scientist and Gordon Applications Lead.
Spencer Bliven, a graduate student in the Bioinformatics and
Systems Biology Department at UC San Diego working with Allen
Snavely on the research, said, “The PBD is helping us gain a more
theoretical and practical understanding of the foundations of
biological science. With the reduced query times I’ve seen in
conducting tests with Fusion’s ioMemory technology, I’m able to
stay more focused on my research. This allows the scientific
discovery process to be more spontaneous and greatly helps me in
eliminating potential errors.”
The computer used to realize the performance gains includes two
quad-core Intel Xeon E5530 2.40 GHz processors and 48 GB of
DDR3-1066 memory. It includes four 320 GB ioDrives mounted and
configured as a single 1.2 TB RAID 0 device running an XFS file
system.
“Storing crucial data in the server where it is processed can
greatly accelerate the analysis of large data sets to enable new
scientific discoveries,” said Neil Carson, Chief Technology Officer
of Fusion-io. “It’s inspiring to see how SDSC is leveraging the
performance gains and reduced latency made possible by Fusion-io
technology to advance complex biological research that serves as
the foundation for many improvements in science and medicine.”
To learn more about Fusion-io, go to
Fusion-io on Twitter at
and on Facebook at
About Fusion-io
Fusion-io has pioneered a next generation storage memory
platform for shared data decentralization that significantly
improves the processing capabilities within a datacenter by
relocating process-critical, or “active”, data from centralized
storage to the server where it is being processed, a methodology
referred to as data decentralization. Fusion’s integrated hardware
and software solutions leverage non-volatile memory to
significantly increase datacenter efficiency and offers enterprise
grade performance, reliability, availability and manageability.
Fusion’s data decentralization platform can transform legacy
architectures into next generation datacenters and allows
enterprises to consolidate or significantly reduce complex and
expensive high performance storage, high performance networking and
memory-rich servers. Fusion’s platform enables enterprises to
increase the utilization, performance and efficiency of their
datacenter resources and extract greater value from their
information assets.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this release may constitute
“forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, including, but are not limited to,
statements concerning the deployment of our technology by SDSC and
the effect of that deployment on the SDSC’s computing initiatives
and research. These statements are based on current
expectations and assumptions regarding future events and business
performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those contained,
anticipated, or implied in any forward-looking statement,
including, but not limited to, the risk that the SDSC may not
realize the advantages it expects from deploying our technology,
and such other risks set forth in the registration statements and
reports that Fusion-io files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission, which are available on the Investor Relations section
of our website at www.fusionio.com. You should not
rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future
events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected
in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot
guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance
or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking
statements will be achieved or will occur. Fusion-io
undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking
statement for any reason after the date of this press release.
Robert Brumfield
MARCOM Media Relations Director
Fusion-io
+1-917-224-7769
.
Tags: Fusion-io, Germany, Hamburg, June 22
