SLICE was designed by xk, Inc., under contract with the FBI. SLICE was designed to provide several utilities not available on commercial EDS suites. Most distinctive is the ability to archive spectra, images, and narrative information in a true database architecture. Additionally, spectra can be displayed in nested fashion permitting critical visual comparison. From SLICE, the future spectral archive of CODEX will be accessed. CODEX (Classification Of Data from Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis) is the working name of the national database distributed to participating law enforcement laboratories, including a master database, associated infrastructure, protocols, etc. The concept is similar to the existing utility CODIS (COmbined DNA Index System) for DNA. SLICE is the user utility installed on a PC associated with the EDS analyzer on the SEM.