[ome-devel] 32-bit File size limits

[Jason Swedlow]

Hi,

As you may know, OME views a single image as a 5D structure, comprising 
space, time, and spectral characteristic.  Compiling all associated 
frames into a single image often makes large files.  For example 256 x 
256 pixels x 24 optical sections x 500 timepoints x 2 bytes/pixel = 
1.57 Gbyte.

However, there are those of us making even large files, either by 
taking long timelapse data, or using high speed data collection.

An example mentioned by one of our commercial collaborators:

1024 x 1024 pixels/frame x 20 frames/sec x 1000 sec * 2 bytes/pixel = 
42 Gbyte

Ok, this is probably a bit extreme, and we can argue about the kind of 
experiment this would be over beers one day....

...but there are those of us pushing the 2.1 Gbyte file size barrier 
imposed by the 32-bit OS's we have.  So we will need to support 64 bit 
systems.

Question:  How critical is it for OME to support files larger than  2.1 
Gbyte?  If it is critical, when is support required-- this month?  this 
year? yesterday?  Systems are appearing that can help us past this, but 
my own feeling is that OME should wait til later this year when the 
64-bit hoorah settles down and we have stable OS's and libraries to 
work with.  Am I wrong?  Remember, we are pretty busy on stuff through 
Q2/04 (http://docs.openmicroscopy.org.uk).

Thanks,

Jason

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