Standards Development

Scope

1.1 This part of IEC 61508 contains the definitions and explanation of terms that are used in parts 1 to 7 of the IEC 61508 series of documents.

1.2 The definitions are grouped under general headings so that related terms can be understood within the context of each other. However, it should be noted that these headings are not intended to add meaning to the definitions.

1.3  This document is a basic safety publication to be used in conjunction with the other parts of IEC 61508 for use by end users to evaluate functional safety applications, or by technical committees in the preparation of standards in accordance with the principles contained in IEC Guide 104 and ISO/IEC Guide 51. This document does not apply in the context of low complexity E/E/PE safety-related systems (see IEC 61508-4 3.4.3).

1.4 One of the responsibilities of a technical committee is, wherever applicable, to make use of basic safety publications in the preparation of its publications. In this context, the requirements, test methods or test conditions of this basic safety publication will not apply unless specifically referred to or included in the publications prepared by those technical committees.

1.5 Figure 1 shows the overall framework of the IEC 61508 series and indicates the role that IEC 61508-4 plays in the achievement of functional safety for E/E/PE safety-related systems.

Please see draft for Figure 1 – Overall framework of the IEC 61508 series