CAN/CSA-ISO/IEC 10646-1-01:2001 Edition

ISO/IEC 10646 specifies the Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS). It is applicable to the representation, transmission, interchange, processing, storage, input, and presentation of the written form of the languages of the world as well as of additional symbols.
This part of ISO/IEC 10646 specifies the overall architecture, and

– defines terms used in ISO/IEC 10646;
– describes the general structure of the coded character set;
– specifies the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) of the UCS, and defines a set of graphic characters used in scripts and the written form of languages on a worldwide scale;
– specifies the names for the graphic characters of the BMP, and their coded representations;
– specifies the four-octet (32-bit) canonical form of the UCS: UCS-4;
– specifies a two-octet (16-bit) BMP form of the UCS: UCS-2;
– specifies the coded representations for control functions;
– specifies the management of future additions to this coded character set.
The UCS is a coding system different from that specified in ISO/IEC 2022. The method to designate UCS from ISO/IEC 2022 is specified in 16.2.

NOTE
(1) The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0, provides a set of characters, names, and coded representations that are identical with those in this Part 1 of this International Standard. It additionally provides details of character properties, processing algorithms, and definitions that are useful to implementors.
(2) It is intended that character code positions for additional scripts and symbols will be allocated in this Part 1 of this International Standard when sufficient input and review is provided by national standards organizations or other qualified experts.