The International Electrotechnical Commission and system level test

The US Department of Defense has directed increased reliance on commercial standards and commercial products be used in procurement There are many sources for such standards. For example, in the US we have several consensus bodies such as the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to name a few. In addition, consortiums such as VXIPlug&Play, the Aeronautical Radio Inc. (ARINC), the National Security industrial Association (NSIA), or the Electronic Industry Associates (EIA) may provide standards. At the international level, we have the International Standards Organization (lSO) international and Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and organizations are sister organizations operating out off Geneva, the latter handling matters of electronic test. Although we have many potential sources, there are major gaps in the availability of commercially based standards to fill procurement needs. Many of these groups are tooling up to provide some capabilities for these areas, and the IEC is no exception. The paper describes a newly formed working group within the Technical Committee 93 (Design Automation) of the IEC designated working group 7. Working group 7 is the system test working group for the IEC TC-93. This group will handle the review and recommendation for standards related to test and diagnosis of systems such as the ATLAS-716 standard, EDIF for Test, A Broad Based Environment for Test, etc. Currently the group has a task to facilitate the harmonization between ATLAS 716 which is an IEEE standard and is fast tracked for IEC standardization, and ATLAS 626 which is used by the commercial airlines. The paper presents the makeup of this group, the process by which individuals can participate and the recent and upcoming meetings and work of the group. It will also show the manner in which the efforts of the IEC are helping to close the gap between the existing commercial standards needed to support procurements and what is currently available. It also suggests additional standards efforts which are required and how interaction between standards organizations and the user communities which need these standards can be optimized.