Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Synthesizeable Heterogeneous FPGA Fabrics

The design and physical implementation of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) is a lengthy and expensive process that must be repeated for each new semiconductor technology. Prior FPGA generators have automated some of this process, but have not included the heterogeneous elements FPGA user designs rely on. We augment an existing FPGA RTL generation framework built into the open-source VTR/VPR FPGA CAD suite with heterogeneous functional blocks and carry chains. VTR is leveraged to provide programming support for the new heterogeneous elements. A synthesis methodology is detailed which implements the generated FPGA RTL source in the FreePDK45 process technology. We compare the performance and area of a generated Stratix IV-style FPGA with carry chains, DSPs, and BRAMs against a commercial Stratix IV device. The average area and performance gap observed between the fully synthesizable and commercial fabrics is 2.2x and 2.9x, respectively.M.A.S