Acronym · Standards & Organisations
ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
The worldwide federation of national standards bodies that publishes consensus standards across industries, including the automotive functional safety and cybersecurity standards that govern semiconductor content in vehicles.
Technical committees such as ISO/TC 22 own the road vehicle portfolio.
- Type
- Acronym
- Domain
- Standards & Organisations, Standards bodies
Notes
The short name is not an acronym of the English title; it derives from the Greek isos, meaning equal.
Overview
ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is an independent, non-governmental organisation whose members are national standards bodies from 177 countries, one for each country. It publishes voluntary international standards across almost every industry, with more than 26,000 standards and related documents to date. For semiconductor companies its most visible work covers quality management and, through its road vehicles committee, the functional safety and cybersecurity standards that govern chips used in cars.
How it works
ISO standards are written by technical committees and subcommittees, more than 800 of them, staffed by experts nominated through the national member bodies. A draft passes through committee stages and ballots before publication, and every standard is reviewed at least every five years, when it may be confirmed, revised or withdrawn. Some standards, numbered ISO/IEC, are published jointly with the International Electrotechnical Commission.
The road vehicles committee, ISO/TC 22, created in 1947, owns the standards most relevant to automotive semiconductors. ISO 26262, published as a multi-part series in 2018, sets out functional safety for electrical and electronic systems in road vehicles, and its next edition is already at draft international standard stage. ISO/SAE 21434, published in 2021 jointly with SAE International, covers cybersecurity engineering for road vehicles. Both are maintained by the subcommittee ISO/TC 22/SC 32.
ISO 9001, the requirements standard for quality management systems, is the base for many supplier quality systems in the industry. Its sixth edition, ISO 9001:2026, was published in September 2026 and replaced the 2015 edition, so organisations certified to the older edition now face a transition.
Examples
- An automotive microcontroller developed under an ISO 26262 safety process, with its safety mechanisms and analyses documented for the car maker.
- A security subsystem in a vehicle SoC assessed for threats and risks under ISO/SAE 21434.
- A test house updating its quality management system to ISO 9001:2026 after the new edition appeared in September 2026.
- A semiconductor company sending an engineer to ISO/TC 22/SC 32 meetings through its national standards body.
Why it matters
Quality managers, functional safety engineers and assessors, security specialists and standards delegates deal with ISO standards directly, and chip suppliers to the automotive industry are commonly expected to show that their development follows ISO 26262 and ISO/SAE 21434. Engineers from semiconductor companies also take part in drafting through their country's member body.
Related terms
Part of the Standards & Organisations glossary, with every term in the topic and the lifecycles, tools and standards that use them.
Where it appears on the Hub
Used on 22 pages of the Hub. In each group, the pages that mention it most come first.
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Last reviewed . Written by The Semiconductor Hub editorial team. The full glossary