[Psidev-ms-dev] Separate binary file for very large data sets?

[<And...@an...>]

Hello everybody,

We develop software for imaging mass spectrometry in the framework of a 
project funded by the European Union. We intend to use dataXML as a 
standard format to exchange data between the different partner labs and 
also (as far as possible) as the internal data format for a joint 
processing software suite. However, we run into the problem of very 
large data sets which can easily exceed 1GB (e.g. 256
*256 pixels with one high resolution mass spectrum each). Therefore we 
thought about storing the spectrum data ('MassToChargeRatioArray' and ' 
'IntensityArray') in a separate binary file. This would make data 
handling much faster and easier (e.g. when parsing the XML file). So 
instead of writing the binary data in the XML file we plan to include a 
link to a separate file (file location, start and end position of 
spectrum in binary file).
This problem is somewhat similar to the already discussed issue of an 
index file.
Would it be possible to include such an option (external binary file) 
into the dataXML standard?

Best regards,
Andreas

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Andreas Roempp
Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry
- Analytical Chemistry -
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Schubertstrasse 60, Build. 16
D-35392 Giessen
Germany

phone:  +49-641-99 34802
fax:    +49-641-99 34809
email: And...@an...
Internet: http://www.uni-giessen.de/analytik/