Apple Testimonial - Keyboard Standards

The usability of standards in which INCITS has played a critical role can best be exemplified by standards which define the keyboard from which you interact with your desktop or laptop computer. Key placement, key size, and the results of depressing an alpha-numeric key have long been standardized to the benefit of all persons, in the broadest sense, who have ever manipulated the electronic word. INCITS Technical Committees and membership is recognized as THE preeminent United States organization in which all matters of keyboard standardization have been worked. To continue its leadership role in market relevant standards, INCITS has participated in the work related to the new Non-keyboard input device requirements such as pen based devices.

Digital Testimonial - FDDI and SCSI Standards

Standards developed in INCITS committees T10, T11 and T12 are increasingly critical to DIGITAL's systems business now that we've moved to a business model of buying commodity storage components and adding value rather than making the components ourselves. All of our Alpha-based computer system products use SCSI, Fibre Channel, or FDDI as the storage interconnects. Acceptance of these products is dependent on the full recognition of SCSI, Fibre Channel, and FDDI as formal industry standards.
Samual H. Fuller, VP and Senior Scientist, Digital Equipment Corporation
November 1997

Hewlett-Packard Testimonial - JPEG and MPEG Standards

The following "testimonial" is from Dr. Daniel Lee at Hewlett-Packard Company and reflects some thoughts on the value of INCITS standards:


"With the success of JPEG and MPEG standards (*), standardization organizations and the IT community have confirmed their commitment to be very market focused. As the window to meet market demand for new technology is moving very fast, the pace of standardization for those technologies must also pick up. This market relevance has made more and more companies realize the importance and benefits of contributing their technology to the standardization process because they are convinced that a successful standard will ultimately enable a larger marketplace for them. An example at hand is the JPEG2000 new work item. We are seeing enthusiastic response to this new work item, both from within the US, and from other national bodies who are getting ready to contribute their inventions and technology to this future standard."


(*) The ISO JPEG and MPEG1, MPEG2 standards were awarded the EMMY Award for Outstanding Achievements in Television Engineering Technology Sciences in October, 1996.

IBM Testimonial - SQL Standards

SQL is a widely used computer application that permits a user at a computer to request in a simple, easy-to-understand and use manner virtually any information from a database. SQL's success is due largely to the voluntary national and international standards that have been developed to define it. In late 1986, ANSI (the American National Standards Institute) published the first edition of a formal standard for SQL as ANSI X3.135-1986; a couple of months later, ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) published an identical document as ISO 9075-1987; the document was informally known as SQL-86 (or SQL-87).

In late 1992, a major revision of the SQL standard was published as ANSI X3.135-1992 and ISO/IEC 9075:1992, and commonly called SQL-92. This standard has proved to be a major event in database standardization history. For the first time, it became possible to write significant applications entirely in a standard language, although it was and is true that no vendor implemented the entire language. The focus of SQL-92 was to standardize enough language to allow significant applications to built without depending on vendor extensions to SQL.

The results have been phenomenal. SQL standards are the foundation of a multi-billion dollar industry employing thousands of people in the United States. In fact, SQL arguably represents one of the most successful standards in existence.

Xerox Testimonial - SGML Standards

Chrystal Software, which is a Xerox New Enterprise Company, implemented SGML (Standard Generalized Mark-up Language) in our product Astoria, an authoring support system, because it is a well-documented and well-understood method to describe document content. One important aspect of SGML is its ability to separate format from content. By taking advantage of this separation, user companies are reaping significant benefits in such areas as improved time to global market and simultaneous distribution of business critical information in multiple formats, including the World Wide Web, the printed page and CD-ROM. Chrystal Software has worldwide presence, with Astoria customers in key markets such as automotive, aerospace, telecommunications equipment, publishing and other industries.

SGML has also been a key tool in Japan for the development of manuals for the aerospace, automobile, computer and publishing industries. Fuji Xerox has been a highly regarded key member of a Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) initiated Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (CALS) project (N-CALS) for which SGML was the major computer language.

More recently, Fuji Xerox began marketing an SGML tool package named "Docu City," a combination software package consisting of an Editor, Database and Formatter. The Astoria software developed by Chrystal Software and InContext, also from Xerox, are key components of the "Docu City" package.