Genbank FASTA server -> NCBI?

[Test account for LANL Update at genome.lanl.gov]

mathog at seqvax.caltech.edu (David Mathog) writes:
: Is the NCBI going to continue the Genbank Fasta e-mail server?

David,

  NCBI plans to provide only the BLAST programs (BLASTN, BLASTP,
  BLASTX, and TBLASTN) on an e-mail server.  The BLAST server's
  address is:  blast at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov  (The word 'help' in the
  body of a message to this address will retrieve documentation
  on using the server.)
: 
: If yes, could someone please post the details?
: 
: If no, why not?

  The primary reason is machine resources.  We have BLAST running
  on a parallelized version of an 8-processor Silicon Graphics.
  This provides very rapid turn-around for searches and allows us
  to handle the daily load of between 1000 and 2000 searches per
  day, including hundreds of BLASTX and TBLASTN searches which are
  heavily CPU-intensive.  We simply would not have the capacity to
  accommodate FASTA searches in addition to this machine load and
  still provide reasonable response times.

  Besides the EMBL FASTA server that Dave Kristofferson mentioned,
  there is a server in Japan at the following address:

      flat-netserv at smlab.eg.gunma-u.ac.jp

  We also plan to make the sequence data, organized for sequence
  similarity searching, available on a separate CD-ROM with 
  the FASTA program included (thanks to assistance from Bill
  Pearson) for PCs and Macs.  We expect to offer this through the Govt.
  Printing Office by the end of the year.


  Regards,
  Dennis Benson
  NCBI


: 
: Thanks,
: 
: David Mathog
: mathog at seqvax.caltech.edu
: manager, sequence analysis facility, biology division, Caltech