chip@vector.dallas.tx.us (Chip Rosenthal) (08/25/89)
The following message appeared in comp.arch and comp.os.misc. Malcolm said he didn't mind if I passed it along to the TELECOM readers. For those unfamiliar with TRON, it is a project spearheaded by Ken Sakamura (sp?) and embodies a set of specifications for a range of processors and operating systems. Here in the states, TRON is quite controversial. The arguments I've heard tend to fall into two catagories: (1) it is architecturally ugly, and (2) it is being conducted in such a way which excludes US involvement. Number 1 is a religious argument which always happens when you get computer types together. I believe it is really the second argument which makes TRON controversial. --- start of forwarded message ----------------------------------------------- >From: malcolm@Apple.COM (Malcolm Slaney) >Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.os.misc >Subject: Forced to use TRON >Message-ID: <34263@apple.Apple.COM> >Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA From the Monday August 7 issue of Electronic News NTT: Suppliers Must Use Tron Operating System By Boyd Harnell Tokyo - Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) last week said that its ISDN and digital switching network suppliers will be required to use the Japanese-developed Tron operating system - a move opposed by U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills as a potential trade barrier against American equipment. Ms. Hills' agency, in a report to Congress last May on major trade barriers, had said any Japanese attempt to make the Tron operating system mandatory in procurements would bar U.S. firms in the market. The report said Japanese telecommunications firms had a long lead in developing equipment using the Tron software to be ready for mandatory Tron requirements. In what was perceived to be an attempt to show the Tron requirement does not discriminate against foreign suppliers, NTT officials described Tron as an open architecture system that allows for all equipment firms to interface their products into the new ISDN and digital networks. As evidence they said a foreign firm, Northern Telecom, is participating in the NTT joint development program of equipment using the new Tron operating system. Others are Fujitsu, Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, NEC, Oki and Toshiba. [The article continues with a description of NTT ISDN switches and some other similar stuff.] -- Chip Rosenthal / chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US / Dallas Semiconductor / 214-450-5337 "I wish you'd put that starvation box down and go to bed" - Albert Collins' Mom