Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!bionet!bcm!pauling!klong
From: klong@pauling.bcm.tmc.edu (Kevin Long)
Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.genbank
Subject: Re: Distributing GenBank over the Internet
Message-ID: <1863@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>
Date: 19 Dec 89 00:35:04 GMT
References: <1989Dec7.213027.8591@phri.nyu.edu> <1364@uvm-gen.UUCP> <1989Dec11.160609.5436@phri.nyu.edu> <1855@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>
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In article <1855@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> sob@watson.bcm.tmc.edu (Stan 
 Barber) writes (whose comments are preceded by ">"):
>In article <1989Dec11.160609.5436@phri.nyu.edu> roy@alanine.UUCP (Roy 
 Smith) writes (whose comments are preceded by ">>"):

>>CD-ROM is nice, but doesn't really solve the problems that tape has.
>>You still have to get a physical object from point A to point B, and you
>>still have to produce those objects.  

>>How long does it take to press CDs
>>compared to the time it takes to cut tapes?  

There are service bureaus in the US that will press CD-ROMs overnight.
They typically charge $325 for an overnight check disk.  To press quantity 
100 disks (the smallest quantity any existing pressing plant will accomodate,
plan on $200 for premastering, $1000 for mastering, then $2-$2.50 per disk.
In other words, for 100 disks, total per-disk cost is $32 to $37.  Five
day turnaround for the pressing plant.

A real alternative is to buy the premastering system, which if equipped
with a Yamaha PDS drive, would let the agency cut CD-ROMs themselves,
one at a time. These systems start at a little over $10,000, but the
blank disks are still rather expensive, which keeps the per disk cost
higher than the service bureau method.

>>Also, from what I know of CDs,
>>they are much slower than magnetic hard disks.  

So are magnetic tapes. I'm confused by your argument.  Are you proposing 
we ship updates on hard disks?  You can copy off the contents of your slow 
CD-ROM to a fast hard disk as easily as you can copy a slow tape over to a 
fast hard disk. Besides, a typical CD-ROM drive has a transfer rate of 


>>Also, I'm not sure that CD-ROM is really practical yet.  Maybe in a 
>>couple of years, but it's still pretty much of a specialty item today.
>I don't agree with you. 

Neither do I.  CD-ROM drives are not only available, but they are generally
much less expensive than and requiring of less regular maintenance than
tape drives.  
     - No head cleaning, 
     - No threading tapes, 
     - No shipping heavy tapes back and forth, 
     - No protecting from magnetic fields, 
     - No special tape storage racks required  

There is every reason to move to CD-ROM:
     - It's newer technology, 
     - It's very reliable (error correction is built in to data stored
       in CD-ROM format)
     - CD-ROMs are as easy to use as floppy disks, 
     - A CD is extremely compact,
     - Drives are readily available at less than $2,000,
     - A single CD-ROM can hold up to 600MB of data.
     - Despite the price tag, I'd guess it's still cheaper than
       distributing the data on tapes.  Am I right?

I'd be happy to put together a proposal for the agency if they'd
like.

Regards,

    Kevin Long    
    IAIMS Development
    Baylor College of Medicine
    Office of the Vice President for Information Technology
    One Baylor Plaza
    Houston, TX 77030
    (713) 798-6116
    klong@bcm.tmc.edu