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MDI Acquires MINERAL Database from Aleph Enterprises
LIVERMORE, Calif. — November 25, 2002 — Materials Data, Incorporated, (MDI) a leader in XRD acquisition, analysis and simulation software, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Aleph Enterprise’s MINERAL database.
MINERAL (available in Windows and Macintosh versions) is a computerized mineral reference book in a relational database format containing data for more than 4800 mineral species. The data have been assembled and evaluated by E. H. Nickel, former Vice-Chairman of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, and M. C. Nichols, Aleph Enterprises. The data contained in MINERAL will be updated annually. An electronic user manual accompanying the computerized reference contains readily understandable instructions for installing and using the system plus examples of typical searches.
MINERAL is designed to allow extremely rapid searches of the more than 7400 entries in the database. Searchable information includes:
Name/Synonym; Elemental and Polyatomic Data; Type Localities; Strunz Classification; Measured and Calculated Densities; Hardness; Reference to Name Origin and Date; Crystal System and Space Group; Unit Cell Data including c/a, a/b; IMA Status; Mineral Group Name; X-ray Powder Data (strongest lines); Luster and color; Optical Data (transmitted or reflected); General references including one or more crystal structure reference; A notes field for other data or comments; ICDD number; Appearance; Date of the most recent update and the Chemical Formula. There is also a link to the MSA site containing entries from the Handbook of Mineralogy.
In addition to simple searches, MINERAL allows multiple field searches and complex search criteria (e.g. not equal, less and greater than, contains etc.). It is also possible to print or view on screen summaries of those minerals that meet elemental or other criteria established by the user.
Availability
MDI plans to provide the MINERAL database on CD (the initial release is planned for late 2002) to all interested parties free of charge (excluding production costs and shipping) and hopes to make MINERAL available for downloading from the MDI website in 2003. For more information please contact MDI by email at MDI@MaterialsData.com, or by phone in the US at (925) 449-1084.
About Materials Data Incorporated
Materials Data, Incorporated (MDI) creates software solutions for the X-Ray Powder Diffraction market. The industry-leading tools that MDI develops and distributes (Jade, Shadow, Riqas, jPowd, Ruby, Databox, DataScan and FilmScan) enable customers to automate older systems, acquire, analyze and simulate XRD data delivering visually rich, reliable content suitable for scientific applications. Headquartered in Livermore, California, MDI (http://www.materialsdata.com/) is the largest Independent XRD PC software company in the U.S.
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