The TRON Association has announced it will hold an "ITRON International Meeting" in San Jose, California, on Wednesday, November 4, 1998. The meeting, which will be held in the Hyatt Sainte Claire next to the San Jose Convention Center, where Embedded Systems Conference '98 will be held from November 1 trhough November 5, 1998. The purpose of the meeting is to introduce the current status and latest developments in the ITRON subproject to parties interested in open systems. The program for the meeting is as follows:
Meeting Program
12:00 Lunch
Lunch buffet will be served at the meeting room.
12:15 Opening Remarks
Jim Farrell (TRON Association U.S. Liaison Office)
12:20 Introduction to the ITRON Project
Kiichiro Tamaru (ITRON Technical Committee Chair / Toshiba Corp.)
12:35 Overview of the µITRON4.0 and ITRON TCP/IP API Specifications
Hiroaki Takada (ITRON Technical Committee / Toyohashi Univ. of Technology)
major topics:
micro-ITRON4.0: The next generation micro-ITRON specification
ITRON TCP/IP API: A standard TCP/IP API for embedded systems
12:50 Overview of the JTRON2.0 Specificaiton
Shouichi Hachiya (ITRON Technical Committee / Aplix Corporation)
major topics:
JTRON2.0: An integration of Java Runtime Environment and the ITRON-specification real-time kernel
13:05 Open Java Solutions for Embedded Systems
Vania Joloboff (The Open Group)
13:20 Break
13:30 Product Presentations
"MT!-ITRON 3.0 and an Embedded Desktop Interface"
Nicholas J. Witchey (US Software Corp.)
"CodeWarrior and ITRON, the Next Generation - Kernel Aware Debugging and RAD Toolkit -"
John Cheuck (Metrowerks KK.)
"TBD"
Doug Fults (GeoWorks, Inc.)
"TBD"
(Insignia Solutions)
"TBD"
George Malek (Apogee Software, Inc.)
"ZIPC for ITRON - State Transition Matrix Design Method CASE Tool"
Masahiko Watanabe (CATS CO., LTD.)
"eCos: a configurable, µITRON compatible RTOS"
Shinya Akamine (Cygnus Solutions)
15:00 Closing Remarks
15:05 Special Session
"The Impact of Open Source Infrastructure for Designing Embedded Systems"
TBD (Cygnus Solutions)
(16:00) meeting closed
For further information in English, please click the following URL.
In addition, the TRON Association has announced that it will put on display an exhibit at the Microcomputer System & Tool Fair MST '98, an embedded technology conference and exhibition that will be held at Tokyo Big Site (West No. 3 and No. 4 Halls) from November 18 through November 20, 1998. In parallel with the exhibit, the association said it will hold a technical seminar on the ITRON subproject and micro-ITRON4.0 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18, 1998. Admission is free of charge to both the exhibit and the seminar. However, those wishing to attend the seminar are asked to register in advance. For further information in English on MST '98, please click the following URL:
Personal Media Corporation began offering for sale to the general public in October a limted number of IBM-PC/AT-compatible personal computers preinstalled with the company's new 32-bit B-right/V operating system and incorporating the TK1 TRON-specification keyboard. Called "B-right/VDLC," the new ergonomic personal computer is based on an Intel440BX PentiumII processor running at 266MHz and a 14.1-inch TFT/XGA-compatible LCD that can display 65,536 colors at 1,024 x 768-dot resolution with 2MB of VRAM. Main memory is a hefty 96MB, and HDD storage is a comfortable 3.2GB. There is also a 20-speed CD-ROM drive, a FDD, serial and parallel ports, a PC card slot, and a LAN interface (the LAN interface can only be used from Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 95 operating system, which is also preinstalled). Price of the B-right/VDLC with the TK1 keyboard is 498,000 yen (tax not included).
For those who find that price a little too high, Personal Media is also offering an IBM-PC/AT-compatible notebook computer preinstalled with B-right/V (plus Windows 95) and priced at a more reasonable 190,000 yen (tax not included). The B-right/VN310E is based on an 166MHz MMX Pentium with 256KB external cache and uses a 12.1-inch TFT/SBGA color LCD that can display 65,536 colors at a resolution of 800 x 600 dots. Main memory is 64MB, and HDD storage is 2.1GB. Unlike its more expensive cousin above, this model does not incorporate a CD-ROM drive. However, it does have serial and parallel ports, in addition to ports for an external CRT, mouse, and keyboard.
Those who pruchase the B-right/VN310E will be able to attend free of a charge an introductory course to personal computers that Personal Media will be holding in October and November. Personal Media is offering four courses to the general public: "My First Personal Computer," "Introduction to B-right/V," "It's Simple with B-right/V! Printing Postcards," and "It's Simple with B-right/V! Electronic Mail."
Macintosh fans who believe they have been left out of the BTRON party will be happy to hear that Personal Media has received reports confirming that B-right/V runs on top of the IBM-PC/AT-compatible emulator "Virtual PC 2.0." However, as with B-right/V running on top of IBM-PC/AT-compatible hardware, there are limitations to what functions can be used. For further information in Japanese, please click the following URL.
http://www.personal-media.co.jp/btron/catalog/bv/reported_pub.html
Finally, Personal Media has announced that B-right/V is now available to Japanese speaking residents of the U.S. via T-Zone On-Line Shopping in Sunnyvale, California. For further information in Japanese, please click the following URL:
B-right/V is a registered trademark of Personal Media Corporation