Greetings GenBank Users,
Due to changes in the method by which the flatfile representations
of GenBank sequence records are stored at NCBI, there will be
about a 10% increase in the overall number of files in GenBank
Release 169.0, compared to Release 168.0 in October. This will be in
addition to the normal increase in files caused by the addition of
new records.
The sizes of the files in each division will also vary more than
previously (although most files will still be in the 250MB to 350MB
size range).
These changes are the costs of an improvement in overall flatfile
processing. Among the benefits: large-scale changes which affect
many records (flatfile format changes; changes to widely
used organism names) can now be handled much more quickly, and
the preparation of certain GB release files now requires much
less time.
These changes, and others that are underway, should ultimately
translate into a much faster release generation process in 2009.
Mark Cavanaugh
GenBank
NCBI/NLM/NIH/HHS
