Electronic Industries Alliance
Encyclopedia
Standards organization
A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization , or standards setting organization is any organization whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise producing technical standards that are...
and trade organization composed as an alliance of trade associations for electronics manufacturers in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. They developed standards to ensure the equipment of different manufacturers was compatible and interchangeable. The EIA ceased operations on February 11, 2011, but the former sectors continue to serve the constituencies of EIA.
History
In 1924 United States-based radio manufacturers formed a trade group called the Associated Radio Manufacturers. Later that same year, the group renamed itself the Radio Manufacturers Association (RMA). Over time, new electronic technologies brought new members and name changes, including Radio Television Manufacturers Association (RTMA) (1950), Radio Electronics Television Manufacturers (RETMA) (1953) and Electronics Industries Association (EIA) (1957). The group re-named itself for the last time in 1997, when the Electronics Industry Association became the Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA), reflecting the changing membership of the group, including non-manufacturer members.The organization's headquarters were in Arlington, Virginia. The EIA divided its activities into the following sectors:
- ECA – Electronic Components, Assemblies, Equipment & Supplies Association
- JEDEC – JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, former Joint Electron Devices Engineering Councils
- GEIA – (now part of TechAmericaTechAmericaTechAmerica is a US-based technology trade association. It was formed from the merger of AeA , the Cyber Security Industry Alliance , the Government Electronics & Information Technology Association , and the Information Technology Association of America in 2009...
), Government Electronics and Information Technology Association - TIA – Telecommunications Industry AssociationTelecommunications Industry AssociationThe Telecommunications Industry Association is accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop voluntary, consensus-based industry standards for a wide variety of ICT products, and currently represents nearly 400 companies...
- CEA – Consumer Electronics AssociationConsumer Electronics AssociationThe Consumer Electronics Association is a standards and trade organization for the consumer electronics industry in the United States. The Consumer Electronics Association is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $173 billion U.S...
The EIA ceased operations on February 11, 2011. EIA standards will be managed by the Electronic Components, Assemblies, Equipment & Supplies Association (ECA), but this name will also disappear, because ECA merged with National Electronic Distributors Association
National Electronic Distributors Association
The National Electronic Distributors Association, or NEDA, is a trade association in the United States of manufacturers and distributors.The association cooperates in standardization of names for components, such as batteries. NEDA is often cited by American manufacturers, along with ANSI, for...
(NEDA) to constitute the new Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA) at the same time.
EIA standards
With the changing names of the EIA also the naming convention of the standards was adapted. A standard defining serial communication between computers and modems e.g. was originally drafted by the radio sector as RS-232RS-232
In telecommunications, RS-232 is the traditional name for a series of standards for serial binary single-ended data and control signals connecting between a DTE and a DCE . It is commonly used in computer serial ports...
. Later it was taken over by the EIA as EIA-232. Later this standard was managed by the TIA and the name was changed to the current TIA-232. Because the EIA was accredited by ANSI to help develop standards in its areas, the standards are often described as e.g. ANSI TIA-232 (or formerly as ANSI EIA/TIA-232').
Well-known EIA standards include:
- RS-170 (the black & white video signal standard before NTSC)
- RS-232RS-232In telecommunications, RS-232 is the traditional name for a series of standards for serial binary single-ended data and control signals connecting between a DTE and a DCE . It is commonly used in computer serial ports...
, EIA-422EIA-422RS-422 is a technical standard that specifies electrical characteristics of a digital signalling circuit. Differential-mode signals can be sent at rates as high as 10 million bits per second, or may be sent on cables as long as 1200 metres. Some systems directly interconnect using RS 422 signals,...
, RS-449RS-449The RS-449 specification, also known as EIA-449 or TIA-449, defines the functional and mechanical characteristics of the interface between data terminal equipment and data communications equipment....
, EIA-485 for serial data communications - EIA-274, also known as G-codeG-codeG-code is the common name for the most widely used computer numerical control programming language, which has many implementations. Used mainly in automation, it is part of computer-aided engineering. G-code is sometimes called G programming language...
in the machine tool industry and Gerber FileGerber FileThe Gerber format is a file format used by printed circuit board industry software to describe the images of a printed circuit board . The Gerber format is the de-facto industry standard for printed circuit board image transfer.There are two versions. RS-274X is the most commonly used today...
in the PCBPrinted circuit boardA printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring...
manufacturing industry, is the most common NCNumerical controlNumerical control refers to the automation of machine tools that are operated by abstractly programmed commands encoded on a storage medium, as opposed to controlled manually via handwheels or levers, or mechanically automated via cams alone...
code format - RS-279Electronic color codeThe electronic color code is used to indicate the values or ratings of electronic components, very commonly for resistors, but also for capacitors, inductors, and others...
electronic color code originally known as the RETMA color code - EIA-708EIA-708CEA-708 is the standard for closed captioning for ATSC digital television streams in the United States and Canada. It was developed by the Electronic Industries Alliance.Unlike most DVB captions, CEA-708 captions are textual like traditional Line 21 captions...
(a closed captioning standard for ATSCAdvanced Television Systems CommitteeThe Advanced Television Systems Committee is the group, established in 1982, that developed the eponymous ATSC Standards for digital television in the United States, also adopted by Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and recently Honduras and is being considered by other countries.-See also:*ATSC...
) - EIA-568/TIA-568 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard