What does COTS mean?
Commercial Off The Shelf
or COTS, is frequently quoted but often a misunderstood term. Many people have mistakenly
interpreted the “Off the Shelf” portion of the term to believe
that those items are literally on a shelf waiting for a prospective
customer – like boxes of cornflakes at a supermarket. However, the industry accepted
definition of the term are products that use existing technologies,
methods, processes to aid their design. The advantage of using a COTS
approach is that it reduces R&D costs and technological risks.
COTS is an approach to
design rather than a declaration of product availability. COTS viewed another way is the
designer’s desire not to “reinvent the wheel”. We at TPS Associates, Inc. have used
this approach in our products and are confident that we can share all the
benefits of using this approach with you.
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