What is IEC

IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is a global organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. It was founded in 1906 and Lord Kelvin was the first President of the International Electrotechnical Commission.

The IEC is one of three international organizations that develop International Standards for the world. Others are ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and ITU (International Telecommunication Union).

The IEC is the world’s leading international standard organization that is made up of members come from all around the world. And the members adopt its standards as national standards. The IEC also cooperates with other global, regional and national organizations. 

In 1996, The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) collaborated with the ISO and IEC to find standard names for binary prefixes. 

The International System of Units (SI) is the most widely used system of measurement units. In the SI decimal prefixes for multiples and submultiples, ranging from yotta to yocto are used. IEC has also standardized prefixes for binary multiples in its International Standard IEC 60027-2. And it was the first international standard defining the binary prefixes. Today the IEC standard binary prefixes are now supported by other organizations.