[Bioclusters] Xserve G5 memory

[Al Tucker]

>[I just finished composing this as Joe's post showed up]
>Under most modern operating systems, BLAST databases automatically
>get cached in memory by the OS as they are searched.  The operating
>system typically uses all available memory (unused by currently
>active applications) to cache frequently used data from files on
>disk.
<snip>
>
>To the best of my knowledge, NCBI's blastall code uses memory-mapped
>I/O whenever possible.

<snip>
>
>A quick hack to ensure the DB stays in memory would be creating a
>RAMdisk and copy the DB onto it.  I think OS X supports RAMdisks.(?)

I've been following this thread with interest.  I can contribute this 
- OS X doesn't have an inbuilt ramdisk option like Os 9 had, but 
there are 2 programs I know of (but have not used) that you can make 
a ramdisk with:  Disk Velox 
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24364> and Ram 
Disk Creator <http://www.donelleschi.com/ramdiskcreator/>


- Al