The day on which I am writing this is December 25, and I have just returned from Vietnam. TRON SHOW 2005, the customary compilation of the TRON Project that was held at the beginning of December, ended on the back of great success, but in the short span of time to warm a seat, I immediately left for Thailand and Vietnam, where I gave lectures at base points that we are planning to make into neighboring Asian region centers before returning. In Thailand, I went to a national computer/IT-related research institute on the scale of 600 persons called the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC). Plans to create a T-Engine research and development center centering on this place are already progressing, and a program that links an RFID reader/writer developed at NECTEC with T-Engine has been developed and was in operation. In addition, I was able to meet Mr. Korn Thapparansi, the Royal Thai Science and Technology Minister, and I received his understanding concerning the transmission of information from the Asia of embedded systems, beginning with our ubiquitous computing. I was told "in the capacity of the Thai government, I would like to strongly back you up." I gave a lecture at a NECTEC sponsored symposium, where more than 400 related officials from universities and government research organs gathered. Their understanding was deep, and the lecture drew very great interest. It was a climactic day in that Thailand also will go on to do work by strongly utilizing T-Engine.
On the other hand, in Vietnam, I visited both Hanoi University of Technology and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. These are the engineering colleges that compete for first and second place in Vietnam, and a plan to construct centers centering on these is advancing. The ambition of the students is sufficiently high, and they had a very great desire to participate in this new field called embedded systems using TRON. In particular, at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, it was also decided that Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology will join our T-Engine Forum as an academic member. It was the time when several tens of T-Engines had arrived and activities were just getting started. I gave lectures at both universities, and in both the north and the south they were enthusiastic to the extent that the questions and answers after the lecture lasted more than an hour. For me also, it was a happy situation.
Also, during the period of TRON SHOW 2005, we signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Tasmanian government, and the extent of interest concerning TRON in the Asia Pacific region is rising greatly. At this TRON show, for the first time, we set up an Asian pavilion, and there are expectations that the next time its scale might increase three times. Today, Asia is the region where the world's embedded systems related factories are concentrated, and migrating from production to development and design is a natural flow. In our thinking, we believe that T-Engine will perform powerful service among a series of flows, from embedded-related hardware to software, including the training of talented persons.
Moreover, the day before TRON SHOW 2005, I was invited to a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications sponsored China, Japan, Korea ubiquitous computing conference (the first meeting of the Electronic Tag/Sensor Network SWG), where in a keynote speech I made an appeal to the concerned persons of each country's government. In short, everyone affirmed that "the question of how many standards corresponding to basic technology can be submitted from Asia is important, but the thinking that Japan has done up to now, of riding the winning horse or making good use of things that won as standards in the world, is old and is not 21st century." Hereafter, we also will positively persevere; we arrived at a very forward looking conclusion that "we should proceed from the standpoint that Asia also will join forces and make a contribution to world standards." I think it is a very desirable stance.
As I have said on several occasions, based on a postwar policy of catching up and getting ahead, Japan has poured a lot of effort into quickly absorbing European and American technology. Even today, there is no change in the fact that American power is number one, but for us also, making a contribution in regard to both the world and the U.S. is the basic way of thinking in TRON. In 2005 also, we will proceed along these lines, and this will be a location where we proceed with efforts for a TRON Project that can make a contribution to the world.
The above opinion piece by TRON Project Leader Ken Sakamura appeared on page 1 of Vol. 91 of TRONWARE. It was translated and loaded onto this page with the permission of Personal Media Corporation.
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Copyright © 2005 Sakamura Laboratory, University Museum, University of Tokyo