scope:

This Technical Report is applicable to the technology roadmap for industry data dictionary structure, utilization and implementation. This report covers one aspect of industry relationships; that of data dictionaries. A data dictionary is made up of information about products. The products can be electronic components, base material, clothing, chemicals or any product that can be described in terms of an industry understood descriptive name (element) and the characteristics that make up that part (attributes). Another item that helps data dictionaries become very efficient is to reuse the characteristics (attributes) in more than one element. Reuse of information is desirable in any implementation strategy in order to reduce search time for the implementation software. The topic of discussion, therefore, in this report is the status, completeness, implementer goals, and standardization efforts related to electric components.