Computing Resources

High-Performance Computing Resources

In addition to desktop workstations, a number of web and database servers, a 90 TB RAID array, and a 36-seat computer classroom, the faculty and students have access to the following computing clusters.

  • A 480-core RedHat Linux cluster based on Intel Nehalem quad-core processors with 3 GB RAM per core, Infiniband interconnect and a multi-tiered storage solution that includes 150 GB local storage on each compute node, a 10 TB Lustre parallel file system and 40 TB of network attached RAID. Contact Dr. Price at University Research Computing for more information on this cluster.
  • A recently installed 720-core RedHat Linux cluster based on the Intel Nehalem hex-core processors with 2 GB RAM per core. The cluster includes 56 TB of usable disc storage, and gigabit Ethernet interconnect with separate paths for data and parallel communication. Contact Dr. Price at University Research Computing for more information on this cluster.
  • A 384-core RedHat Linux Cluster based on Intel Nehalem six-core processors with 2 GB RAM per core and a total of 96 Nvidia Fermi GPUs. This cluster has a theoretical processing power of over 50 TFlops. The cluster also includes 26 TBs of network-attached storage and an Infiniband interconnect. Contact Dr. Price at University Research Computing for more information on this cluster.
  • A 240-core Debian Linux cluster based on Intel Nehalem hex-core processors with 8 GB RAM per core (96 GB per node) at the North Carolina Research Campus. The cluster has a 120TB raw Lustre file system and both a gigabit Ethernet interconnect for communication as well as a 10 GB interconnect for storage. Also part of the cluster are three Dell R910 high memory servers, one with 512 GB and 32 cores and two with 1TB of RAM and 24 cores. Contact Dr. Brouwer at the Bioinformatics Service Division for more information on this cluster.
  • A 4-processor Field Programmable Gate Array computer (see www.timelogic.com for details) for genomic analysis. Contact Scott Wood at CCI OTS for more information on this device.

Software Resources

The Bioinformatics Services Division has purchased a number of commercial software licenses to aid in data analysis. Some of the commercial licenses included:

  • GeneGo metacore, an integrated knowledge database and software suite for pathway analysis of experimental data and gene lists.
  • Linguamatics i2e, text mining software that enables the extraction of relevant facts and relationships from Medline.
  • CLC Bio, which provides some of the newest algorithms and analyses available for analyses of genomic, transcriptomic and epigenomic NGS data.
  • Geneious Pro, a software platform that is able to search, organize and analyze genomic and protein information.
  • Partek Genomics Suite, a single analysis solution for integrated genomics, which provides comprehensive support for microarrays and next generation sequencing.
  • DNASTAR’s Lasergene Core Suite, a comprehensive DNA and protein sequence analysis software suite comprised of eight applications, which include functions ranging from sequence assembly and SNP detection.
  • Umetrics SIMCA-P+, software is used for the process of designing experiments and also for multivariate data analysis.
  • SAS program package for statistical analyses.

In addition to the commercial software services, many excellent open source bioinformatics software tools are available and are implemented in Linux, MAC OS and Windows environments. Tools include a local instance of the Galaxy workflow system, numerous next generation DNA sequencing platforms, gene annotation software, transcriptome analysis tools and many more. In addition the Bioinformatics Division Services is able to develop custom software scripts and programs where necessary.