Files that are delivered with Sea-Bird Scientific and third party equipment to describe the sensors data output and calibration coefficients come in two types. Calibration files or *.cal files and telemetry definition format files or *.tdf files. In some cases, systems are created that network many sensors together and their combined data is provided in one serial output. The simplest example is a HOCR sensor that generates both light and dark frames. A more complex example is a HPROII profiling system that may contain as many as 5 sensors and 7 individual calibration and tdf files. These files must be used to both collect and process the data. This can become quite confusing to keep track of all these files so Sea-Bird Scientific developed SIP files. All CAL and TDF files required for a system are zipped using winzip and the extension changed from *.ZIP to *.SIP. The file name includes the system description (usually the network master serial number) and the creation date. This SIP file can then be used in place of individual files to collect and process data.