TRON News Items for January 2006

Personal Media Announces the Marketing of Two New T-Engine Boards

Personal Media Corporation announced the marketing of two new T-Engine boards in January. One is the T-Engine/ARM926-M21, which is part of the "T-Engine/ARM926-M21 Development Kit" and will be available for purchase from the middle of January; and the other is the TX-XC3S500E Xilinx FPGA expansion board for T-Engine, which will be available for purchase from February 20. The former development kit, which Personal Media said is ideal for developing smart phones and PDAs, is being sold for 207,900 yen (consumption tax included), and the latter expansion board is being sold for 83,790 yen (consumption tax included).

The hardware and software particulars of the T-Engine/ARM926-M21 Development Kit are as follows:

Table 1 T-Engine/ARM926-M21 Development Kit Hardware Configuration*
CPU Board
CPU	Freescale MC9328MX21 (i.MX21, ARM926EJ-S core, 266 MHz clock)
Flash memory	16 megabytes
SDRAM	64 megabytes
Input/output interfaces	USB (Host), PCMCIA card), serial, eTRON chip interface, IrDA, CMOS sensor (connector not implemented), JTAG-ICE interface, headset input/output, expansion interface
Other functions	real-time clock (RTC)
Power source	AC adapter
External dimensions	120 mm x 75 mm (without protuberances)
* Planned

Table 2 T-Engine/ARM926-M21 Development Kit Software Configuration*
Target (software on the T-Engine board side)
T-Monitor	PMC T-Monitor
T-Kernel	PMC T-Kernel (MMU compatible version)
T-Kernel Extension	PMC T-Kernel Extension (Process Manger, File Manager, etc.)
Device drivers	PC Card manager (bus driver), USB manager (bus driver), clock (RTC), console (serial), screen (LCD), system disk (ATA,USB), KB/PD (keyboard, touch panel, mouse)**
Sample applications	Simple disk partition creator (hdpart), disk formatter (format), file contents comparer (cmp), disk dump (dd), simple line editor (ed)**
Host Development Environment (MS Windows)
Compiler	GNU C/C++ compiler (made T-Kernel compatible)
Debugger	GDB (source level debugger)
Libraries	Various types
Bundled Documentation
Manuals	T-Kernel specification, library manuals, development environment manual, etc.
* Planned ** Includes source code

Table 3 T-Engine/ARM926-M21 Development Kit Options*

LCD Board (47,250 yen, consumption tax included)

A LCD board that can be connected to the CPU board of T-Engine/ARM926-M21 Development Kit

T-Engine Development Bench (21,000 yen, consumption tax included)

This is a jig set that includes a stand for use with T-Engine that employs acrylic sheets and supports that allow the CPU board and expansions boards to be stacked on top of each other, plus an acrylic cover that allows one to easily hand carry the standard T-Engine board.

PMC T-Shell/ARM926-MX21 Development Kit
(102,900 yen, consumption tax included)

This is a higher level of PMC T-Kernel Extension; it is middleware that makes it possible to easily realize GUI functions. This makes it possible to utilize even in embedded devices more than 180,000 characters cultivated through the development of the "Cho Kanji" multi-kanji operating system for personal computer use.

* Sold separately

The particulars of the TX-XC3S500E hardware and related package contents are as follows:

Table 1 TX-XC3S500E Hardware Configuration
FPGA	Xilinx Spartan-3E (XC3S500E)
Configuration ROM	XCF04SVOF20C (Xilinx made) general purpose flash memory
JTAG	Configuration ROM write-in interface
LED	Six elements (one for power, one for configuration, four for programmer use)
Switches	Two: one for re-executing configuration; one for resetting
T-Engine interfaces	Two: one for T-Engine; one for µT-Engine (14-5603-14-0400-861 and 14-5603-14-0100-861)
Option board interfaces	Two: (24-5603-14-0400-861 and 24-5603-14-0100-861)
Expansion interface	One: connector for connecting to expansion cable
Power source	AC adapter
External dimensions	120 mm x 75 mm (without protuberances)

Table 2 TX-XC3S500E Package Contents and Related Information
Board	TX-XC3S500E x 1
Adapter	100V~240V compatible x 1
CD-ROM	Circuit diagrams, manual, ISE Web Pack CD x 1
Other	Spacer and nut for fixing T-Engine/µT-Engine connection

Project Leader Appears on the Cover of ASCII with Susumu Furukawa

Microsoft Corporation didn't participate in TRON SHOW 2006, but former Microsoft vice-president Susumu Furukawa showed up on the cover of the January issue of ASCII, a popular computer magazine, with none other than Prof. Ken Sakamura. Apparently, the two have become good buddies, and they were questioned by Satoshi Endoh, the ASCII editor-in-chief, about their visions of the future. Naturally, they see a world of cooperating operating systems filled with multimedia content streamed across high-speed networks in which everyone is downloading to their hearts content. There were, however, a few notable comments. Mr. Furukawa said that Apple Computer Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs doesn't like watching television since he thinks television stifles human thought--a lot of people agree with Steve Jobs on that point--and that's why the iPod is primarily a listening device. Prof. Sakamura said that although Japan has a lot of patents, it doesn't know how to manage technology, by which he means managing product development teams, creating companies, and releasing products into the world. This comment is interesting because he is going to launch a new graduate program at the University of Tokyo that will cover areas like this.

TRON SHOW 2007 Dates Announced

The T-Engine Forum and the TRON Association have announced that TRON SHOW 2007, the 23rd TRON Project Symposium, will be held from Tuesday, December 5 through Thursday, December 7, 2006, at Tokyo International Forum, the same venue that the annual TRON show and symposium has been held at for the last three years. The details of the show and the theater sessions schedules will be released at a later date via the T-Engine Forum Web site.