On a related note (I don't think it makes time estimates), we recently approved a software project which gives a graphical representation of BLAST performance. It plots speed vs. time and is being developed by Adam Shlien. There's no code up yet, but the screenshot implies the program exists :-) URL: http://bioinformatics.org/blastometer/ Cheers. Jeff -- J.W. Bizzaro Bioinformatics Organization, Inc. (Bioinformatics.Org) E-mail: jeff@bioinformatics.org Phone: +1 508 890 8600 --