Which sequencing platform will win the race to the 30X, $1,000 genome? That's what Keith Robison at Omics! Omics! wants to know. Of all the existing platforms, two are close to what Robison calls the "arbimagical" goal — a goal which is arbitrary but has achieved a magical aura from being repeated so much. ABI's SOLiD 4 platform has been said to generate a $6,000 genome, and the SOLiD 4 hq upgrade is planned for this fall with a target of delivering a $3,000 genome, Robison says.