Advanced Computation Group

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The Advanced Computation Group (ACG) is a group within Apple Inc. The ACG researches algorithms and high-performance issues relevant to Apple technology. ACG concentrates on Mac OS X for scientific applications, vectorization, tutorials, algorithm implementations for specific Apple products and joint research and development with outside partners.

One particularly high-profile project of the ACG is Apple/Genentech BLAST (an algorithm for comparing biological sequences, such as the amino-acid sequences of different proteins) which runs several times faster on Power Mac and Xserve than generic BLAST runs on other platforms. This implementation is open source software developed in cooperation with Genentech.

The ACG also developed Apple's Xgrid, which is clustering and distributed computing software for Macintosh computers, allowing processor-intensive applications to borrow processing power form other computers on their network.

Much of the work of the ACG has been directed toward advanced uses of PowerPC processors which have run Macintosh computers since the 1990s. Now that Apple has completed their transition to Intel processors, the ACG's work is increasingly focused on that new platform.

[edit] External links

• ACG web site
• ACG archive -primarily concerned with PPC architecture, but much is also applicable to Intel architecture
• A/G BLAST