[Biodevelopers] Altivec enhanced codes?

[Chris Dwan (CCGB)]

Can anyone enlighten me as to the "real deal" on Altivec (or
otherwise) enhanced codes and patents related to them?  I was recently
pointed to an enhanced version of Bill Pearson's FASTA tools, which
turned out to have been de-enhanced at the request of lawyers from a
company called Sencel.

Sencel appears to have patented a vectorized implementation of
Smith-Waterman, and is (seemingly) using that patent aggressively.  I
was disappointed to note that they do not offer any products that actually
make use of the Altivec technology (at present).

Note:  I'm waiting on a response from Sencel as to their point of view.

In general though:  Is this the sort of thing we're going to see more of?

-Chris Dwan
 University of Minnesota