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MINC 2 has been designed to address a few specific problems that
had been identified in MINC 1.
- Limited file size. The NetCDF file format used 32-bit pointers to
address objects within the file. This effectively restricted files to a
maximum size of 2 gigabytes. With the advent of very high resolution
brain atlas data (from macrotome or other sources) and large fMRI datasets,
it became clear that this restriction might become a serious problem.
- Restricted data types. The NetCDF format defines a small fixed
set of data types - integers, floating point, and ASCII strings.
Neither aggregate data (arrays or structures) nor labeled (enumerated) data
are supported as fundamental data types in NetCDF.
- Limited storage options. NetCDF files store data in a
continguous array. This inhibits the addition of either block
addressible data or internal data compression to the NetCDF format.
Since most of these problems were inherent in the MINC 1 file format,
it was clear that the design of MINC 2 would require a major revision
of the file format. The team developing MINC 2 chose to replace
NetCDF with the HDF5 library to form the basis of the MINC 2 format.
HDF5 provides a number of advanced features which are not available in
NetCDF.
For more information on the specifics of the MINC 2 file format, see the
appropriate document (insert reference here).
Next: Definitions
Up: Introduction to MINC 2
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Robert VINCENT
2004-05-28