FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jean J. Dubray IFE Technologies. 138, bd de Pontoise 95 370 Montigny Les Cormeilles France IFE TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES THE AVAILABILITY OF COLUMBUS, THE FIRST LIMS FOR NEXTSTEP. -- Paris, France, May 23, 1994 -- IFE Technologies announced the availability of COLUMBUS, for NeXTSTEP (Intel, HP and Motorola hardware). Columbus is a leading NextStep application in Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Columbus is a solution for laboratories that need to handle large amounts of spectrometry and spectrography data. Columbus offers publishing capabilities that enable paperless report writings. Columbus can collect data two ways : - reading ASCII files exported by the instrument software - direct file transfer using serial lines, or ethernet. VAMAS format is supported Columbus can process spectra. images and profiles (depth, angular, linear ...) from : - electron spectroscopies : AES, XPS, UPS, EELS - Electron microprobe : WDS, EDS with quantitative procedures - Ion spectrometry : SMIS, Static-SIMS, ISS - X-Ray Diffraction, XRD, RHEED, LEED - Infra-Red : FTIR, RAMAN - Photoluminescence. Columbus features advanced data processes and data reduction, including peak fitting factor analysis and peak identification and quantitation procedures. It was developed by a team of software engineers that all holds Ph.D. in materials Science and related fields, and under the supervision of well known scientists in each field. Columbus has demonstrated that is can double the productivity of a characterization laboratory. Our customers include larger private and public research laboratories (Aerospatiale, Thomson, CEA-LETI, CNRS MCL at Penn State University...). Columbus single-user license purchase price is $7,990 Educational price is $6,990. For detailed information Columbus, send electronic mail to or contact IFE Technologies. at 138, bd de Pontoise, 95 370 Montigny Les Cormeilles. France. Facsimile can be sent to (+33 1) 34 50 65 10 and voice calls are accepted at (+33 1) 47 08 92 50. The company performs materials science systems engineering and mission critical development. Columbus is a trademark of IFE Technologies. NeXTSTEP is a trademark of NeXT Computer Inc.