1. A method configured for execution by a first processing unit, the method comprising: obtaining a query sequence to align with a database sequence, wherein the query sequence comprises a string of symbols having a query sequence length, wherein the database sequence comprises a string of symbols having a database sequence length, and wherein the database sequence is segmented into at least a first stripe and a second stripe; computing, utilizing the first processing unit, Smith-Waterman values for the first stripe of the database sequence across the query sequence based on a cost function that models biological similarity between sequences, wherein Smith-Waterman values for the second stripe of the database sequence across the query sequence are computed utilizing a second processing unit; and re-computing, utilizing the first processing unit, a subset of the Smith-Waterman values for the second stripe of the database sequence across the query sequence based on the cost function, wherein the subset of the Smith-Waterman values to be re-computed are determined based on the query sequence length and the cost function.