Hellenica World

Electronic Industries Alliance

The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA, until 1997 Electronic Industries Association) was a standards and trade organization composed as an alliance of trade associations for electronics manufacturers in the United States. They developed standards to ensure the equipment of different manufacturers was compatible and interchangable. The EIA ceased operations at the end of 2010, but the former sectors continue to serve the constituencies of EIA.[1]

History

In 1924 the Associated Radio Manufacturers alliance was formed, which was renamed to Radio Manufacturers Association (RMA) the same year. Upcoming new electronic technologies brought new members and further name changes: Radio Television Manufacturers Association (RTMA) (1950), Radio Electronics Television Manufacturers (RETMA) (1953) and Electronics Industries Association (EIA) (1957). The last renaming took place in 1997, when EIA became Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA), reflecting the change away from a pure manufacturers association.

The organization's headquarters were in Arlington, Virginia. The last members of the alliance were:

ECA – Electronic Components, Assemblies, Equipment & Supplies Association
JEDEC – JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, former Joint Electron Devices Engineering Councils
GEIA – (now part of TechAmerica), Government Electronics and Information Technology Association
TIA – Telecommunications Industry Association
CEA – Consumer Electronics Association

At the end of 2010 the EIA disbanded. 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 (NEDA) to constitute the new Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA) at the same time.[2]

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-232. 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-232, EIA-422, RS-449, EIA-485 for serial data communications
EIA-274, also known as G-code in the machine tool industry and Gerber File in the PCB manufacturing industry, is the most common NC code format
RS-279 electronic color code originally known as the RETMA color code
EIA-708 (a closed captioning standard for ATSC)
EIA-568/TIA-568 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard