sff_extract is a utility from the Center for the Conservation and Breeding of the Agrodiverdity at the Polythechnical University of Valencia.
454 produces data in a binary sff format. Most assemblers (other than newbler) don't read sff directly. Instead they require fasta and fasta.qual data. This software produces both of these as well as a xml file containing clipping information. It can be fed with multiple sff files and produce a single fasta file.
It seems that sff_extract overlaps in functionality with the Roche-provided sffinfo tool. It is not clear what (if any) advantage there is to the sff_extract tool. I suspect that sffinfo may do a better job of converting flow-space to base space. — Kevin Karplus 2010/04/24 07:59