I agree that perhaps a distributed system might help, but the time lag in the actual biology of the process allows plenty of time. At Berkeley Labs, there was plenty of time for the computers to crank through the algorithms. The hard part was getting the cells to divide, and to grow, and to cut the DNA at the right length, so the laser readers could analyze the contents. The lasers didn't do the cutting, in actuality, it was enzymes, and there is no real way of speeding those things up. When I left Berkeley, they were implementing robotic procedures for faster throughput, but, once again, the limiting factor wasn't the analysis, but the biology.
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I agree that perhaps a distributed system might help, but the time lag in the actual biology of the process allows plenty of time. At Berkeley Labs, there was plenty of time for the computers to crank through the algorithms. The hard part was getting the cells to divide, and to grow, and to cut the DNA at the right length, so the laser readers could analyze the contents. The lasers didn't do the cutting, in actuality, it was enzymes, and there is no real way of speeding those things up. When I left Berkeley, they were implementing robotic procedures for faster throughput, but, once again, the limiting factor wasn't the analysis, but the biology.