Table Of Content

Background of IEC 2

In the beginning... 3

The founding of the IEC 3

History 5
Mission 7
Objectives 8
Standards 8
Who produces the standards? 8

Preparation stages for standards 9

Members 10

International partners 12

International Standardization 15

1
 Background of IEC

International Electrotechnical Commission is one of international organizations that

produce International Standards in electrical field. The IEC came into being on 26-27 June 1906
in London, UK, and ever since has been giving the very best global standards to the world's
electrotechnical industries.

On 15 September 1904, delegates to the International Electrical Congress, being held in St.
Louis, USA, adopted a report that included the following words:
"…steps should be taken to secure the co-operation of the technical societies of the world, by the
appointment of a representative Commission to consider the question of the standardization of the
nomenclature and ratings of electrical apparatus and machinery." As a result, the IEC was officially
founded in June 1906, in London, England, where its Central Office was set up.

By 1914 the IEC had formed four technical committees to deal with Nomenclature, Symbols,
Rating of Electrical Machinery, and Prime Movers. The Commission had also issued a first list of terms
and definitions covering electrical machinery and apparatus, a list of international letter symbols for
quantities and signs for names of units, an international standard for resistance for copper, a list of
definitions in connection with hydraulic turbines, and a number of definitions and recommendations
relating to rotating machines and transformers

In 1930 the IEC established the following electrical units:

• Hertz, for the unit of frequency

• Oersted for the unit of magnetic field strength
• Gauss for the unit of magnetic flux density
• Maxwell of the unit of magnetic flux
• Gilbert for the unit of magnetomotive force
• Var for designating the unit of reactive power
• Weber for the practical unit of magnetic flux

It was decided to extend the existing series of practical units into a comprehensive system of
physical units, which became the "Giorgi system", named after Giovanni Giorgi (1871-1950) - an Italian
scientist and engineer. This system has been elaborated further and is now commonly known as the
"Système international", or SI for short. Between the First and the Second World Wars, a number of
new international organizations came into being and the IEC recognized the need for co-operation to
avoid overlapping efforts. In some cases, joint technical committees were formed, such as the
International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR).

In 1938 the IEC produced the first edition of the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV).
The unification of electrotechnical terminology was one of the principal tasks allocated to the IEC by
the St. Louis congress. In the early days, the Nomenclature Committee was engaged in pioneer work,
as no comparable international technical vocabulary had yet been published and few national
electrotechnical vocabularies existed. With its 2000 terms in French, English German, Italian, Spanish
and Esperanto, and its definitions in French and English, the IEV could rightly be considered as an
outstanding achievement. It aroused wide interest among international technical organizations outside
the electrotechnical field. In September 1939 the IEC's activity came to a standstill because of the
Second World War and did not resume for another six years.

2
 In 1948 the IEC Central Office moved from London to Geneva, Switzerland. Subsequently, the IEC
expanded its efforts in the light current field, which had constituted only a small part of the activity of
the Commission before 1939. Standards covering measurements, safety requirements and the testing
and specification of components for radio receivers and televisions began to appear. At the same time,
work on electroacoustics started, while CISPR developed standards on permissible limits for various
frequency ranges used for radio broadcasting and measurement methods for interference. From 1948
to 1980 the number of technical committees grew from 34 to 80 and began to include such new
technologies as capacitors and resistors, semiconductor devices, electrical equipment in medical
practice and maritime navigation and radio communication systems and equipment.

In 1974 the IEC created Technical Committee 76, to address standards relating to lasers, with a
particular focus on safety. This committee developed the four-class system for lasers that is the global
reference. This system covers lasers used in business, entertainment, education, medicine, research
and industry. The last two decades of the 20th century saw the IEC continue to address new
technologies as they emerged, creating new technical committees to prepare standards for lightning
protection, fibre optics, ultrasonic, wind turbine systems, and design automation.

In 1995 the IEC created the Lord Kelvin Award. A maximum of three recipients are chosen each
year to pay tribute to their outstanding contributions to global electrotechnical standardization over a
number of years. Keeping pace with the rapid technological developments at the dawn of the 21st
century, the IEC has most recently created new technical committees for fuel cell technologies, for
methods to assess electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields associated with human exposure, and
for avionics.

In 2005, the Commission published the most recent edition of the IEC Multilingual Dictionary,
which now contains 19 400 electrotechnical definitions in French and English and equivalent terms in
13 languages. Consolidated indexes are also available in in English and French as well as in German
and Spanish.
In the beginning...
Created in 1906, the year 2006 marks the IEC's 100th anniversary. In this special section of the
website you will find items relating to the IEC's centennial year. More will be added from time to
time as they become available

The founding of the IEC

Much was going on in the world during the period from 1904 to 1906. Einstein published
his paper on the Special Theory of Relativity, US engineers had just begun work on the Panama
Canal and the picture postcard, the ice cream cone and the jukebox were invented. On both sides
of the Atlantic, factories and townships were clamouring for more electricity to replace outmoded
gas and oil
lighting systems. H.G. Wells, in the North American Review (1901), predicted the electrical
century ahead when houses and factories would be heated, ventilated and operated by
electricity. In the world of electrical engineering much was happening, too.
John Ambrose Fleming, Britain’s first ever professor of electrical engineering, invented the
thermionic valve while in the US, Lee De Forest invented the triode. This was the period that saw

3
the beginnings of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The road to the
organization’s existence really began in St. Louis. The Missouri city was a busy place in 1904.
Not only was it host to the Olympics and the Universal Exposition held to celebrate the centenary
of the Louisiana Purchase, electrical engineers from
around the world came to the city for the International Electrical Congress, the fifth in the
international series. At the Congress, a Chamber of Delegates, made up of engineers from 15
countries, including the Argentine Republic, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland and the United States, carried a resolution to the effect that:
Steps should be taken to secure the co-operation of the technical
societies of the world by the appointment of a representative
commission to consider the question of the standardization of the
Nomenclature and Ratings of Electrical Apparatus and Machinery.
The delegates were then charged to return to their
respective technical societies to take action on this resolution and
“communicate the results of such action to Colonel R E B Crompton,
Chelmsford, England and to the President of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) to
accompany the IEE President, J K Gray, to America to represent
British electrical engineering, was a key figure in the industry.

-The mans behind IEC-

4
 History
On 15 September 1904, delegates to the International Electrical Congress, being held in St.
Louis, USA, adopted a report that included the following words:
"…steps should be taken to secure the co-operation of the technical societies of the world, by the
appointment of a representative Commission to consider the question of the standardization of
the nomenclature and ratings of electrical apparatus and machinery."

As a result, the IEC was officially founded in June 1906, in London, England, where its Central
Office was set up.

By 1914 the IEC had formed four technical committees to deal with Nomenclature, Symbols,
Rating of Electrical Machinery, and Prime Movers. The Commission had also issued a first list of
terms and definitions covering electrical machinery and apparatus, a list of international letter
symbols for quantities and signs for names of units, an international standard for resistance for
copper, a list of definitions in connection with hydraulic turbines, and a number of definitions and
recommendations relating to rotating machines and transformers.

The First World War interrupted IEC work, which resumed in 1919 and by 1923 the number of
technical committees had increased to 10. IEC Council decided to create the Committee of Action
"to assist in giving effect to the decisions of the Council, to second the efforts of the Central Office
and to co-ordinate the work of the National Committees and of the Advisory Committees."

In 1930 the IEC established the following electrical units:

 Hertz, for the unit of frequency

 Oersted for the unit of magnetic field strength
 Gauss for the unit of magnetic flux density
 Maxwell of the unit of magnetic flux
 Gilbert for the unit of magnetomotive force
 Var for designating the unit of reactive power
 Weber for the practical unit of magnetic flux

It was decided to extend the existing series of practical units into a comprehensive system of
physical units, which became the "Giorgi system", named after Giovanni Giorgi (1871-1950) - an
Italian scientist and engineer. This system has been elaborated further and is now commonly
known as the "Système international", or SI for short.

Between the First and the Second World Wars, a number of new international organizations came
into being and the IEC recognized the need for co-operation to avoid overlapping efforts. In some
cases, joint technical committees were formed, such as the International Special Committee on
Radio Interference (CISPR).

In 1938 the IEC produced the first edition of the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV).
The unification of electrotechnical terminology was one of the principal tasks allocated to the IEC
by the St. Louis congress. In the early days, the Nomenclature Committee was engaged in
pioneer work, as no comparable international technical vocabulary had yet been published and
few national electrotechnical vocabularies existed. With its 2000 terms in French, English
German, Italian, Spanish and Esperanto, and its definitions in French and English, the IEV could

5
rightly be considered as an outstanding achievement. It aroused wide interest among
international technical organizations outside the electrotechnical field.

In September 1939 the IEC's activity came to a standstill because of the Second World War and
did not resume for another six years.

In 1948 the IEC Central Office moved from London to Geneva, Switzerland.

Subsequently, the IEC expanded its efforts in the light current field, which had constituted only a
small part of the activity of the Commission before 1939. Standards covering measurements,
safety requirements and the testing and specification of components for radio receivers and
televisions began to appear. At the same time, work on electroacoustics started, while CISPR
developed standards on permissible limits for various frequency ranges used for radio
broadcasting and measurement methods for interference.

From 1948 to 1980 the number of technical committees grew from 34 to 80 and began to include
such new technologies as capacitors and resistors, semiconductor devices, electrical equipment
in medical practice and maritime navigation and radiocommunication systems and equipment.

In 1974 the IEC created Technical Committee 76, to address standards relating to lasers, with a
particular focus on safety. This committee developed the four-class system for lasers that is the
global reference. This system covers lasers used in business, entertainment, education,
medicine, research and industry.

The last two decades of the 20th century saw the IEC continue to address new technologies as
they emerged, creating new technical committees to prepare standards for lightning protection,
fibre optics, ultrasonics, wind turbine systems, and design automation.

In 1995 the IEC created the Lord Kelvin Award. A maximum of three recipients are chosen each
year to pay tribute to their outstanding contributions to global electrotechnical standardization
over a number of years.

Keeping pace with the rapid technological developments at the dawn of the 21st century, the IEC
has most recently created new technical committees for fuel cell technologies, for methods to
assess electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields associated with human exposure, and for
avionics.

In 2005, the Commission published the most recent edition of the IEC Multilingual Dictionary,
which now contains 19 400 electrotechnical definitions in French and English and equivalent
terms in 13 languages. Consolidated indexes are also available in in English and French as well
as in German and Spanish.

Functional safety and IEC 61508

The document Functional safety and IEC 61508 provides an introduction to functional safety and
gives an overview of IEC 61508. You will find it useful if you are:

 wondering whether IEC 61508 applies to you,

6
  involved in the development of electronic or programmable systems which may have
safety implications, or
 drafting any other standard where functional safety is a relevant factor.

IEC 61508, Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related

systems

IEC 61508 covers all safety-related systems that are electrotechnical in nature (i.e.
electromechanical systems, solid-state electronic systems and computer-based systems). The
standard consists of the following parts:

Part 0: Functional safety and IEC 61508

Part 1: General requirements
Part 2: Requirements for E/E/PE safety-related systems
Part 3: Software requirements
Part 4: Definitions and abbreviations
Part 5: Examples of methods for the determination of safety integrity levels
Part 6: Guidelines on the application of IEC 61508-2 and IEC 61508-3
Part 7: Overview of techniques and measures

Previews of each part, containing the contents, foreword, introduction, scope and normative
references are available for free download.

The standard is generic and can be used directly by industry (as a 'standalone' standard) and
also by international standards organisations as a basis for the development of application sector
or subsystem standards (e.g. for the machinery, process or nuclear sector or for power drive
systems). The standard will therefore influence the development of electrical, electronic and
programmable electronic (E/E/PE) safety-related systems across all sectors.

Mission

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares
and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. These
serve as a basis for national standardization and as references when drafting international tenders and
contracts.

Through its members, the IEC promotes international cooperation on all questions of electrotechnical
standardization and related matters, such as the assessment of conformity to standards, in the fields
of electricity, electronics and related technologies.

The IEC charter embraces all electrotechnologies including electronics, magnetics and
electromagnetics, electroacoustics, multimedia, telecommunication, and energy production and
distribution, as well as associated general disciplines such as terminology and symbols,
electromagnetic compatibility, measurement and performance, dependability, design and development,
safety and the environment.

7
 Objectives

The Commission's objectives are to:

 meet the requirements of the global market efficiently

 ensure primacy and maximum world-wide use of its standards and conformity assessment
schemes
 assess and improve the quality of products and services covered by its standards
 establish the conditions for the interoperability of complex systems
 increase the efficiency of industrial processes
 contribute to the improvement of human health and safety
 contribute to the protection of the environment.

Standards

IEC's international standards facilitate world trade by removing technical barriers to trade, leading to
new markets and economic growth. Put simply, a component or system manufactured to IEC
standards and manufactured in country A can be sold and used in countries B through to Z.

IEC's standards are vital since they also represent the core of the World Trade Organization's
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), whose 100-plus central government members
explicitly recognize that international standards play a critical role in improving industrial efficiency and
developing world trade. The number of standardization bodies which have accepted the Code of Good
Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards presented in Annex 3 to the WTO's
TBT Agreement underlines the global importance and reach of this accord.

IEC standards provide industry and users with the framework for economies of design, greater product
and service quality, more inter-operability, and better production and delivery efficiency. At the same
time, IEC's standards also encourage an improved quality of life by contributing to safety, human
health and the protection of the environment.

Who produces the standards?

Each National Committee of the IEC handles the participation of experts from its country. If you would
like to participate in the work of an IEC technical committee, please contact your National Committee.
If you are in a country where the IEC does not have a National Committee, please contact IEC Central
Office.

Some 179 technical committees (TCs) and subcommittees (SCs), and about 700 project teams /
maintenance teams carry out the standards work of the IEC. These working groups are composed of
people from all around the world who are expert in electrotechnology. The great majority of them come
from industry, while others from commerce, government, test laboratories, research laboratories,
academia and consumer groups also contribute to the work.

The technical committees prepare technical documents on specific subjects within their respective
scopes, which are then submitted to the full member National Committees (IEC's members) for voting
with a view to their approval as international standards. In all, some 10 000 experts worldwide
participate in the technical work of the IEC. Distribution of documents for standards production is 100%
electronic, thus improving efficiency and reducing costs.

8
All information on IEC publications can be found on the IEC Web site. IEC publications can be
identified by their IEC number, through the International Classification for Standards (ICS) system, or
by the respective TC/SC responsible for that publication.

All IEC publications are subject to a maintenance cycle appropriate to the technology in the
publication. In the IEC Catalogue of publications the next date for evaluation is given in the field MRD.
When the publication is evaluated a decision is taken as to whether the publication will be:

 confirmed for a further period

 the subject of a complete revision
 the subject of an amendment
 withdrawn, as the publication is obsolete and of no further value

Preparation stages for standards

The preparation of a new IEC standard takes place in the following principal stages (for further details,
see the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1). The revision of an existing standard starts at the committee draft
stage.

Preliminary stage

This comprises projects envisaged for the future but not yet ripe for immediate development, or
preliminary work, such as better definition of a project for new work, data collection or round-robin tests
necessary to develop standards, which is not part of the standardization process. At this stage, a
Publicly Available Specification (IEC-PAS) can be prepared and submitted to an approval process that
takes two months.

Proposal stage

A proposal for new work generally originates from industry via a National Committee. It is
communicated to the members of the appropriate TC or SC accompanied by a form. A simple majority
vote of members on the interest of studying the proposal takes place within three months. If the result
is positive and a minimum of four members or 25 % of the P-members, whichever is greater, undertake
to participate actively in the work and nominate experts, it is included in the work programme together
with a project plan including target dates.

Preparatory stage

During this phase a Working Draft (WD) is prepared, generally by a project leader within a project
team.

Committee stage

At this point the document is submitted to the National Committees as a committee draft (CD) for
comment.

9
 Enquiry stage

Before passing to the approval stage, the bilingual Committee Draft for Vote (CDV) is submitted to all
National Committees for a five-month voting period. It is the last stage at which technical comments
can be taken into consideration. The CDV is considered as approved if:

 a majority of two thirds of the votes cast by P-members is in favour, and if*
 the number of negative votes cast by all National Committees does not exceed one quarter of
all the votes cast.

* When it is planned that the document will become a Technical Specification (and not an International
Standard), only the first criterion concerning two thirds of the votes needs to be fulfilled and the revised
version is then sent to Central Office to be published. A revised version is then sent by the secretary to
the Central Office within four months for Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) processing.

Approval stage

The FDIS is then circulated to the National Committees for a two-month voting period. Each National
Committee's vote must be explicit: positive, negative or abstention.

An FDIS is approved if:

 a majority of two thirds of the votes cast by P-members is in favour, and if

 the number of negative votes cast by all National Committees does not exceed one quarter of
all the votes cast.

If the document is approved, it is published. If the document is not approved, it is referred back to the
TC or SC to be reconsidered.

Publication stage

This is entirely the responsibility of the Central Office and leads to publication of the international
standard, normally within two months of approval of the FDIS.

Members
An IEC member is called a National Committee and each NC represents its nation's electrotechnical
interests in IEC management and standardization work.

This includes:

 manufacturers, providers, distributors and vendors

 consumers and users
 all levels of governmental agencies
 professional societies and trade associations
 standards developers

10
National committees are constituted in different ways. Some are public sector only, some are a
combination of public and private sector, and some are private sector only. In this respect, the IEC
does not specify how an NC should be formed. It is up to the interested parties in each country to
decide how they will constitute their NC.

Kinds of members

There are two forms of active participation in the IEC's work. Full Membership allows countries to
participate fully in international standardization activities. Full Members are National Committees each
having equal voting rights. Associate Membership allows for limited participation of countries with
limited resources. Associate members may participate in all technical meetings and in the Council and
SMB meetings held within the framework of the annual General Meeting. They have access rights and
can comment on all IEC technical documents (from new work to Final Draft International Standards). In
addition, Associate Members may request the IEC General Secretary to become Participating
members (P-members) on a maximum of four technical committees and/or subcommittees with the
right to vote on technical work emanating from their committees of choice.

Other kind of participation

There is also another kind of participation, spelled out in the Affiliate Country Programme, which is
aimed at all newly-industrializing countries around the world. It should be noted that Affiliates are
neither members nor associate members of the IEC. The Affiliate Country Programme is not a special
form of membership.

Responsibilities of members

On becoming a member of the IEC, each NC agrees to open access and balanced representation
from all private and public electrotechnical interests in its country. The whole organization of the IEC is
designed to ensure that the NCs play a leading part in all decision-making instances of the
Commission. This enables the widest degree of consensus on standardization work to be reached at
an international level. It is up to the National Committees to align their policies accordingly at the
national level.

Benefits of membership

Those involved in IEC standardization work come from all areas of the market and each chooses to
participate for various reasons. While it would be impossible to be precise about the motivation each
participant has, there are categories of advantages that broadly cover most participants. In general
terms, the IEC offers:

 a forum in which formal communication networks that cross international borders may be
easily developed
 a place where participants can network within a vibrant community of customers,
manufacturers, technical experts and government representatives
 a table where small companies and small countries can sit together as equal partners with big
companies and big countries

For the private sector, the IEC offers a forum in which to:

11
  build acceptance in global markets
 influence the content of standards
 develop anticipatory intelligence
 access the latest technology
 use and develop customer networks
 save time and money
 improve safety and quality of products and services

For the public sector, international standards are a source for legislation or regulation and for
issuing tenders, as well as providing detailed technical interpretation of the law. Additionally, for
those who are signatory to it, participating in IEC standards work contributes to fulfilling
responsibilities under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.

International partners
ISO, ITU and other organizations

The IEC works closely with its international standardization partners, the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), other regional
standardization organizations and international organizations, including the World Health Organization
(WHO), the International Labour Office (ILO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE), the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE), the International
Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML), the Union of
the Electricity Industry (EURELECTRIC), the International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN), and
the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

An initial agreement was signed with ISO in 1976 and ten years later the two bodies established the
ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (ISO/IEC JTC 1) to cover the vast and expanding field of
information technology.

In the culmination of a process started in the early 90s when the importance of "electronic data
interchange" (EDI) was becoming clear, IEC, ISO, ITU and UNECE in 2000 signed a Memorandum of
Understanding on Electronic Business (E-business). The purpose is to coordinate standards work in
the four organizations, as well as the needs of a number of associated user groups, so as to avoid
divergent approaches and duplication in standards. A Management Group for the MoU, comprising
technical groups involved in writing and in using e-business standards, meets twice a year, and has
already contributed a lot to the harmonious development of e-business standards.

Governmental agencies

One of the IEC's principal partners is the World Trade Organization (WTO), whose 100-plus central
government members explicitly recognize, through their Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade
(TBT), that international standards play a critical role in improving industrial efficiency and developing
world trade. These relations at government level are of particular importance in heavily regulated areas
like safety, health and the environment. The number of standardization bodies which have accepted
the Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards presented in
Annex 3 to the WTO's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade underlines the global importance and
reach of this accord.

12
The IEC encourages industrializing nations to share in the benefits of joining in its work and liaises
closely with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD), the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Regional partners

At the regional level, the IEC works to achieve harmonization of standards among regional
standardization organizations, such as CANENA, CENELEC, COPANT, EASC, ETSI and PASC. A joint
working agreement exists with the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization
(CENELEC), comprising some 20 IEC National Committees. In addition, the IEC has agreements with
COPANT (IEC-COPANT agreement), EASC (IEC-EASC agreement), ETSI (IEC/ETSI agreement), and
Mercosur.(IEC/Mercosur agreement) based on the exchange of information.

Co-operation between the IEC and CANENA

The co-operation agreement between the IEC and CANENA (Council for Harmonization of
Electrotechnical Standards of the Nations of the Americas) signed in September 2000 relates to:

 promote the use of IEC standards with CANENA members and

 enhance technical cooperation in standards development

This agreement is expected to be instrumental in ensuring a rational use of available resources in

standardization activities and transparency of the standards process, thus facilitating world trade. It will
also accelerate the standardization process and promote the development and implementation of IEC
standards in response to market demand.

Co-operation between the IEC and CENELEC

The co-operation agreement between the IEC and CENELEC (European Committee for
Electrotechnical Standardization) ratified in September 1996, and commonly known as the Dresden
Agreement, relates to:

 common planning of new work

 parallel IEC/CENELEC voting

The object of this agreement is to avoid duplication of efforts, speed up the preparation of standards
and to ensure the best use of the resources available and particularly of experts' time. If the results of
parallel voting are positive in both the IEC and CENELEC, the IEC will publish the international
standard, while the CENELEC Technical Board will ratify the European standard.

This is a news from a paper that attributes and appreciates the usage of International Engineering
Consortium (IEC) in the electronic’s world by investigate and name-list the products that have been
full-fill the requirement of the consortium.

13
“SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The International Engineering Consortium (IEC)
recognized nine products for "contributions to progress in the design
engineering industry" at DesignCon 2006 here.

Recipients of DesignVision Awards included:

In the ASIC and IC Design Tools category, Cadence Design Systems

Inc.'s X Architecture Design Solution.
In the Design Verification Tools category, Synopsys Inc.'s Pioneer-
NTB SystemVerilog testbench automation tool.
In the Interconnect Technologies and Components category,
Crossbow from Amphenol TCS.
In the Printed Circuit Board Design Tools category, CircuitSpace
from DesignAdvance Systems.
In the Semiconductors and ICs category, Actel's Fusion
programmable system chip.
In the Semiconductors and ICs Intellectual Property category, 1T-
SRAM Classic memory macros family from MoSys.
In the Structured/Platform ASIC, FPGA, and PLD Design Tools
category, Altera Corp.'s HardCopy II structured ASIC design flow.
In the System-Level Design Tools category, WEBENCH Active Filter
Designer from National Semiconductor.
In the Test and Measurement Equipment category, Bertscope CR
Clock Recovery from Synthesys Research.

"The DesignVision Awards recognize innovative products and services

that support the work of electronic design engineers, the core audience
at DesignCon," said Barry Sullivan, DesignCon 2006 program director,
in a statement. "The IEC is pleased to provide this recognition to
companies whose products exemplify our standard of service to the
industry."”

International Standardization
International Standards, and their use in technical regulations on products, production methods
and services play an important role in sustainable development and trade facilitation through the
promotion of safety, quality and technical compatibility.
The benefits that are derived are significant. Standardization contributes to the basic
infrastructure that underpins society including health and environment while promoting
sustainability and good regulatory practice.

14
The international organizations that produce International Standards are the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). IEC covers electrotechnology and related
conformity assessment, ITU covers telecommunications and ISO covers nearly all other technical
fields, a number of service sectors, management systems and conformity assessment.

International Standards, or national or regional adoptions of International Standards, assist in the

operation of domestic markets, and also increase competitiveness and provide an excellent
source of technology transfer. They play an integral role in the protection of consumers and the
environment.

With the increasing globalization of markets, International Standards (as opposed to regional or
national standards) have become critical to the trading process, ensuring a level playing field for
exports, and ensuring imports meet internationally recognized levels of performance and safety.

Standards can be broadly sub-divided into three categories, namely product, process and
management system standards. The first refers to characteristics related to quality and safety for
example. Process standards refer to the conditions under which products and services are to be
produced, packaged or refined. Management system standards assist organizations to manage
their operations. They are often used to help create a framework that then allows the organization
to consistently achieve the requirements that are set out in product and process standards.

Conformity Assessment
Joint ISO/IEC International Standards and guides for conformity assessment encourage best
practice and consistency when products, services, systems, processes and materials need to be
evaluated against standards, regulations or other specifications.

ISO/IEC 17000 describes conformity assessment as the 'demonstration that specific

requirements relating to a product, process, system, person or body are fulfilled.' Conformity
assessment procedures, such as testing, inspection and certification, offer assurance that
products fulfill the requirements specified in regulations and standards.

15