International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / The Technical Committee 9 (TC-9) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Instrument and Measurement Society wants to ensure that all members of the IEEE 1451 family of standards conform to a common set of basic functionality and have, at some level, a common interface. To this end, the IEEE p1451.0 working group has been chartered to prepare an overarching standard that will define the operation of the other members of the family while still leaving the physical interface up to the various other standards working groups. The IEEE p1451.0 will define the general functionality required of an IEEE 1451 transducer, a common command set that is appropriate to all family members, and the core set of transducer electronic data sheets (TEDS). This paper gives a brief overview of the overall functionality and follows that with a description of the commands and the TEDS.