OpenEye Supports HP Systems Based on Itanium 2 Architecture
OpenEye Scientific Software, developer of molecular modeling solutions for drug discovery, will support Intel Itanium 2-based HP systems running both Linux and HP-UX operating systems. OpenEye’s software, including Filter, FRED, OEChem, OMEGA, ROCS, Shape, VIDA and Zap, already runs on HP’s PA-RISC-based systems running HP-UX, Alpha systems running Tru64 UNIX and 32-bit x86 systems running Linux. Thus the extension to the Itanium 2 architecture will complete OpenEye’s support coverage of HP servers and workstations.
“We try to be platform agnostic,” says Anthony Nicholls, President and Founder of OpenEye, “We will port to any reasonable platform that our customers want. HP has been exceptionally helpful toward that philosophy.” HP works with leading computational chemistry software developers to enhance application efficiency. HP maintains a worldwide team to support the characterization and optimization of key applications.
“Our collaboration with OpenEye not only demonstrates HP’s commitment to the advancement of research and development in the life sciences, but also speaks to the growing momentum for Itanium 2 in the industry,” said Winston Prather, vice president and general manager of the High Performance Technical Computing Division at HP. “We are pleased to be working with an innovative company like OpenEye and are proud that its software runs across our broad portfolio of systems.”
HP’s Itanium 2-based systems offer 64-bit processing, which is required for optimal performance of a wide range of Life Science applications. “The port to Itanium 2 will clearly improve our software’s performance,” says Nicholls, “In the case of FRED, which performs bit operations in critical routines, 64-bit processing could effectively cut runtimes in half.” FRED, which does docking searches of ligand binding within an active site based on shape complementarity, is already at least an order of magnitude faster than its competitors.