National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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                         RELEASE NOTES FOR HEASOFT 6.6.3
                                 June 1, 2009
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The HEASoft 6.6.3 release is driven by a patch to the Swift software
(version 3.3).  As the number of changes in this release are relatively
small, a patch-installer mechanism is available for users who wish to
avoid re-installing HEASoft in its entirety.  For more details, please
see:

  http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft/patch.html



IMPORTANT:

  Please note that HEASoft 6.6.x is the last major distribution of HEAsoft
  in which we intend to include xspec v11. It is becoming increasingly hard
  to keep v11 up-to-date for new compilers and we do not have the resources
  to support two different versions. If there are v11 features that you are
  using and that we have omitted in the current version (v12) please let us
  know as soon as possible via the xspec12 help desk at:

     xspec12@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov


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                                     SWIFT
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Swift software Version 3.3(Bld24.3) - Changes since HEASoft v6.6.2:

---------------------
 XRT specific tools:
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* xrtphascorr - This task re-orders the 3x3 array stored in the PHAS
                column of the Photon Counting (PC) mode
                event data according to the standard configuration
                defined at launch. The task compares the 3x3 pixel
                configuration in use at the epoch of the observation, as
                stored in a CALDB file, with the standard one
                and if needed  re-orders the PHAS pixel array.


Major Changes to tasks:
-----------------------

* xrtpipeline - Modified to call the new task xrtphascorr
              - New input parameter 'pcphasconffile' for xrtphascorr call

* libraries - Added keywords handle and routine to read new CALDB PHAS
              configuration file.

Web page maintained by: Bryan K. Irby