jdm@wvucsa.UUCP (03/04/88)
A recent article included a request for information on the Japanese TRON project. I hope the following will be helpful. The TRON project was begun in 1984 by Dr. Ken Sakamura at the University of Tokyo. Its ultimate objective is to support what is envisioned as "Highly Functionally Distributed Systems" or HFDS, that is, networks that span the globe, connecting large computers, personal workstations, and a multitude of "intelligent objects" such as appliances, environmental control systems, cameras, automobiles, etc., etc., in which computers are embedded. TRON stands for The Realtime Operating system Nucleus. The total project includes a specification for a TRON CPU chip and several different types of operating systems. The OS subprojects include ITRON (Industrial TRON), specialized for control of intelligent objects; BTRON (Business TRON), specialized for control of workstations; CTRON (Communication, Central and Common-Use TRON), specialized for managing processing on larger computers and communication between computers; MTRON (Macro TRON), intended to provide overall intelligent control to the HFDS. MTRON is still in an early stage of development; ITRON, BTRON, CTRON and the TRON CPU are fairly well developed. Each project is defined by a set of specifications which focus on the interface and functionality and deliberate leave room for design variations. It is intended that the specifications be publicly available and it is hoped that many manufacturers will develop chips and operating systems which meet the specifications. Several Japanese companies have already developed versions of the TRON CPU and of ITRON and BTRON. The CTRON specifications are still being completed. They are based partially on the IEEE 855 (MOSI) standard for operating system interfaces. As chair of the MOSI committee I have been working with some of the CTRON developers. The initial TRON papers and documents were all in Japanese. However, IEEE MICRO last year devoted an entire issue to TRON (Vol. 7, No. 2, April 1987. The TRON Association was formed in Japan in 1986 and holds annual conferences in November. Proceedings of the most recent conference, in English, are available: Sakamura, Ken (ed.) TRON Project 1987: Open-Architecture Computer Systems (Proceedings of the Third TRON Project Symposium) Springer-Verlag, Tokyo or New York (etc.). ISBN 0-387-70027-7 Official documents and further information can be obtained from the TRON association: TRON Association c/o Japan Electronic Industry Development Association 3-5-8 Shiba-Koen, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105 JAPAN The documents are bulky and expensive (hundreds of dollars). They are priced for companies with a serious interest in participating, not for individuals. I recommend the MICRO articles for an introduction, and the Symposium proceedings for more detailed information. The TRON Association included 90 company members as of November. Most are Japanese companies, but names like IBM, Motorola and Texas Instruments also appear. TRON activity outside of Japan seems likely to increase rapidly. -- Jim Mooney Dept. of Stat. & Computer Science (304) 293-3607 West Virginia University Morgantown, WV 26506 USENET: {allegra,bellcore,cadre,idis,psuvax1}!pitt!wvucsb!wvucsa!jdm