Application of COTS Components: A Software Package for Crystallography
N. Gnanasankaran *
MCA Department, K.L.N. College of Information Technology, Pottapalayam-630 611, India.
S. Natarajan
School of Physics, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai-625 021, India.
K. Alagarsamy
Computer Centre, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai-625 021, India.
K. Iyakutti
Dept. of Physics and Nanotechnology,SRM University,Kattankulathur-603 203, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology is widely used in many industries and also in scientific computing. This paper will first explore the term itself and then tries to find how it typically manifests itself in the softwares used in physical sciences. Some details regarding one of the popular software used for crystal structure elucidation in Crystallography, viz., SHELX are furnished. Since this is a freely available program and a non-commercial one, it is better to consider this as an example of Scientific Off-The-Shelf (SOTS) components, a newly coined acronym.
Keywords: COTS, softwares for scientific work, crystallography, SOTS