International Electrotechnical Commission

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies. Some of its standards are developed jointly with ISO.

Related Topics:
Standards organization - ISO

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The IEC was founded in 1906 and currently counts more than 130 countries. Sixty-five of these are members, while another 69 participate in the Affiliate Country Programme, which is not a form of membership but is designed to help industrializing countries get involved with the IEC. Originally located in London, the commission moved to its current headquarters in Geneva in 1948.

Related Topics:
1906 - London - Geneva - 1948

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

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The IEC was instrumental in developing and distributing standards for units of measurement, particularly the gauss, hertz, and weber. They also first proposed a system of standards, the Giorgi System, which ultimately became the SI, or Système International d?unités (in English, the International System of Units).

Related Topics:
Gauss - Hertz - Weber - Giorgi System - SI

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In 1938, it published a multilingual international vocabulary to unify electrical terminology.

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This effort continues, and the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary remains an important work in the electrical and electronic industries.

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IEC standards have numbers in the range 60000-79999 and their titles take a form such as IEC 60417: Graphical Symbols for use on Equipment. The numbers of older IEC standards were converted in 1997 by adding 60000, for example IEC 27 became IEC 60027.

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Standards developed jointly with ISO use ISO numbering standards and are titled such as ISO/IEC 7498-1:1994 Open Systems Interconnection: Basic Reference Model. The use of the ISO/IEC prefix is limited to publications from ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology, as well as some ISO/IEC guides. ISO/IEC JTC1 is described in more detail under ISO.

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The CISPR (Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques) ? in English, the International Special Committee on Radio Interference ? is one of the groups founded by the IEC.

Related Topics:
CISPR - Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques

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