NEW YORK, Sept. 26-Celera Genomics and Applied Biosystems are overhauling their joint computer infrastructure with hardware and operating systems from IBM and storage systems from EMC Corporation, the companies said today.
With this deal, the two Applera companies bid goodbye to Compaq, their longtime computing partner.
Beginning this month, IBM will install a supercomputer structure in the companies' Rockville headquarters that includes 12 p690 systems running AIX, IBM's UNIX system. With a projected peak speed of two teraflops, the fully installed system is expected to be one of the fastest in the world.
The Applera businesses have also purchased 150 terabytes of networked storage from EMC, and will use EMC open software for data management, creating a global storage area network that will consolidate its massive biological databases.
Financial specifics of the two deals were not revealed.
Celera will use the new IBM system to identify and validate drug targets and potential diagnostic markers. ABI will rely on the infrastructure to support its database and information products, including the Celera DiscoverySystem mammalian genome platform.
The two Applera businesses also plan to work collaboratively with the computer giant to improve drug target discovery and develop and co-market new life sciences applications for IBM products.
The overhaul will better suit Applera's newly reorganized divisions, said a company representative in a statement. Last spring, Celera gave up the gene sequencing business to focus on drug discovery.