http://www.sgi.com/Headlines/1995/May/bristol_meyers.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
Bristol-Myers Squibb scientists are using three eight-processor POWER CHALLENGE supercomputers for macromolecular modeling -- each based on the 64-bit MIPS® R8000 RISC processor. The company also employs a 20-processor CHALLENGE server based on the MIPS® R4400 processor.
"The POWER CHALLENGE has delivered excellent performance in all the key areas - speed, memory, disk capacity, parallel programmability and software development tools," said Dr. Joseph Villafranco, executive director of the Macromolecular Structure Division of Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. "The large RAM capabilities have had an enormous impact in our macromolecular modeling work. We can solve larger problems, and we can handle more jobs without compromising interactive performance. The parallel efficiency has exceeded expectations, enabling us to achieve nearly an 18-fold speedup running one of our most important programs."Bristol-Myers Squibb is using the POWER CHALLENGE to advance the science of drug design. With the aid of Silicon Graphics supercomputers and workstations, the company's scientists can create computer-generated molecules and analyze their interaction with biological targets to determine if the compounds possess the characteristics necessary to fight specific diseases.
Computer-aided drug design, or "rational" drug design, offers great promise because scientists can test compounds at the molecular level, screening out drugs that don't bind properly with target molecules. In the past, scientists often relied on serendipity to create the precise compound needed to achieve a particular chemical effect, and screening drugs using only animal models was time consuming and costly.
"The new price and performance standards set by Silicon Graphics have enabled Bristol-Myers Squibb scientists to employ the POWER CHALLENGE system, resulting in their achieving a number of important computational chemistry objectives," said Ron Bernal, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Supercomputing Systems Division. "Ultimately, this technology is paving the way for the development of new scientific techniques that will enable their researchers to cut to the heart of the disease process, and fight mankind's most debilitating and deadly diseases at the molecular level."
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a diversified health and personal care company whose principal businesses are pharmaceuticals, consumer products, nutritionals and medical devices. It is among the world's leading makers of cardiovascular, anticancer, anti-infective, central nervous system and dermatological drug therapies and non-prescription medicines.
Silicon Graphics, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of high-performance visual computing systems. The company delivers interactive three-dimensional graphics, digital media, and multiprocessing and parallel supercomputing technologies to technical, scientific, creative and information management professionals. Its subsidiary, MIPS Technologies, Inc., designs and licenses the industry's leading RISC processor technology for the computer systems and embedded control markets. Silicon Graphics, Inc. has offices worldwide and headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Silicon Graphics and the Silicon Graphics logo are registered trademarks, and POWER Challenge and Challenge are trademarks, of Silicon Graphics, Inc. MIPS is a registered trademark, and R8000 is a trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc.
