基于CPU-GPU混合计算平台的RNA二级结构预测算法并行化研究

RNA二级结构预测是生物信息学领域重要的研究方向,基于最小自由能模型的Zuker算法是目前该领域最典型使用最广泛的算法之一。本文基于CPU GPU的混合计算平台实现了对Zuker算法的并行和加速。根据CPU和GPU计算性能的差异,通过合理的任务分配策略,实现二者之间的并行协作计算和处理单元间的负载平衡；针对CPU和GPU的不同硬件特性,对Zuker算法在CPU和GPU上的实现分别采取了不同的并行优化方法,提高了混合加速系统的计算性能。实验结果表明,CPU处理单元在混合系统中承担了14%以上的计算任务,与传统的多核CPU并行方案相比,采用混合并行加速方法可获得15.93的全局加速比；与最优的单纯GPU加速方案相比,可获得16%的性能提升,并且该混合计算方案可用于对其它生物信息学序列分析应用的并行和加速。

Accelerating RNA secondary structure prediction applications based on CPU-GPU hybrid platforms

Prediction of ribonucleic acid (RNA) secondary structure remains one of the most important research areas in bioinformatics. The Zuker algorithm is one of the most popular methods of free energy minimization for RNA secondary structure prediction. However, general-purpose computers including parallel computers or multi-core computers exhibit parallel efficiency of no more than 50% on Zuker. In this paper, a CPU-GPU hybrid computing system that accelerates the Zuker algorithm applications for RNA secondary structure prediction is proposed. The computing tasks are allocated between CPU and GPU for parallel cooperate execution. Performance differences between the CPU and the GPU in the task-allocation scheme are considered to obtain workload balance. To improve the hybrid system performance, the Zuker algorithm is optimally implemented with special methods for CPU and GPU architecture. A speedup of 15.93? over optimized multi-core SIMD CPU implementation and performance advantage of 16% over optimized GPU implementation are shown in the experimental results. More than 14% of the sequences are executed on CPU in the hybrid system. To the best of our knowledge, our implementation combining CPU and GPU is the only accelerator platform implementing the complete Zuker algorithm. Moreover, the hybrid computing system is proven to be promising and can be applied to accelerate other bioinformatics applications.