It is estimated that the doubling rate for genetic databases is six to eight months. Research organizations such as Celera Genomics, the Whitehead Institute and the Sanger Centre are already managing multiple terabytes of data, larger than the Library of Congress in size. This data will grow exponentially over the next few years. The sequence or code of DNA is comparable to a parts list for an airplane or sophisticated piece of machinery. The parts list doesn't tell how the airplane or machine works.
Researchers now have the lengthy process of determining how each gene works.
The demand for computational power will significantly increase as they develop new diagnostics, drug therapies and new strategies and methods for identifying disease genes. A. A genome is a code. The first genome that was completed was for phi-X in 1977. It had approximately 5,000 base pairs compares to man's 3.2 million. Compaq systems are used in a wide variety of agricultural, chemical and pharmaceutical companies analyzing and simulating living organisms.