Standard procedures

摘要

Imagine a world in which your TV receives one network but not another, or your mobile phone works only in your home city. Without industry standards to define how networks broadcast TV signals, for instance, you could be at the mercy of a network defining a proprietary format that worked only with specific TVs. The significance of industry standards is spelled "interoperability." However, setting standards is an inexact process that by definition requires compromises in features and performance. The standards-development process invariably involves skirmishes between companies, consortiums, and even countries. And now, our industry must go global from a standards perspective, so that design teams everywhere can develop products for the worldwide consumer base.