February '99 News Items


Programs Set for TRONSHOW '99, the 15th TRON International Symposium, and TEPS '99

The programs for TRONSHOW '99 the 15th TRON International Symposium, and TRON Electronic Prosthetics Symposium (TEPS) '99--which will run together from March 10 to March 12 at TEPIA Hall in Kita-Aoyama, Tokyo--has been set by the TRON International Symposium Steering Committee.

TRONSHOW '99

March 10-12, 10:00 a.m~5:00 p.m.

Exhibitors:

Aplix Corporation
TRON Enableware Research Group
TRON Association
TRON Fan Forum
Metrowerks K.K.
Personal Media Corporation
Yokogawa Digital Computer Corporation

Admission fee: 1,000 yen (Please pay at the reception counter on the day of attendance.)

TRONSHOW '99 Workshop Schedule

March 10

11:30 - 12:20 An Introduction to B-right/V

(Personal Media Corporation)

13:00 - 13:50 The RTOS Debugging Function of microVIEW-G

(Yokogawa Digital Computer Corporation)

14:00 - 14:50 Latest Trends in the BTRON and TRON HMI Subprojects

(BTRON Technical Committee and TRON HMI Technical Committee)

15:00 - 15:50 An Introduction to J-right/V

(Personal Media Corporation)

16:00 - 16:50 The Latest Trends and Future Prospects for the JTRON-specification OS "JBlend"

(Aplix Corporation)

March 11

11:00 - 11:50 A MicroScript Primer

(Personal Media Corporation)

13:00 - 13:50 The Implementation of JBlend and Programming and Debugging

(Aplix Corporation)

14:00 - 14:50 A Breakthrough in Reducing Development Time: Importing JBlend to Embedded Systems Development

(Aplix Corporation)

15:00 - 15:50 Application Development Techniques with JTRON

(Aplix Corporation)

March 12

10:00 - 10:50 Challenging Anew the Task of Popularizing BTRON

(TRON Fan Forum)

11:00 - 11:50 A Project to Provide a Research/Educational Environment Using BTRON

--Aiming at the Integration of the Real Object /Virtual Object Model and the Internet Environment--

(Sakamura Laboratory, University of Tokyo)

13:00 - 13:50 The Jaccas Architecture Incorporating the Jini System for the Realization of the HFDS

(Aplix Corporation)

14:00 - 14:50 The B-right/V Development Environment

(Personal Media Corporation)

15:00 - 15:50 On an Integrated Development Environment and Embedded GUI for ITRON

(Metrowerks K.K.)

16:00 - 16:50 An Introduction to I-right/S (ITRON for microSPARC)

(Personal Media Corporation)

15th TRON Project International Symposium Schedule

March 11, 10:00 a.m~5:00 p.m.

10:00 - 10:05 Opening Speech

10:05 - 11:00 Keynote Address

Ken Sakamura, The University of Tokyo

11:00 - 11:45 ITRON Subproject - The Second Phase

Hiroaki Takada, Toyohashi University of Technology

11:45 - 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 - 13:45 An Implementation of JTRON Specification

Shinobu Nemoto, Aplix Corporation

13:45 - 14:30 The BTRON Subproject and Its Position on Kanji Handling

Akira Matsui, Personal Media Corporation

14:30 - 15:15 Human Machine Interface (HMI) Research of TRON Project

Noboru Koshizuka, The University of Tokyo

15:15 - 15:30 Coffee Break

15:30 - 16:15 Activities of CTRON Subproject

Toshikazu Okubo, NTT Software Corporation

16:15 - 17:00 TRON-Specification VLSI CPU

Ken Sakamura, The University of Tokyo

People wishing to attend the symposium must make a reservation.

General participation fee: 2,000 yen; fee for students and TRON Association members: 1,000 yen

Application method: Please fill in the necessary items on the participant application form and mail it to the address below by March 5, 1999.

TRON Electronic Prosthetics Symposium '99

March 12, 1:00 p.m~5:00 p.m.

Enableware in Electronic Commerce Era

As electronic commerce gains momentum, debit cards and electronic payment cards (IC cards) are now being experimented with in various regions as payment methods. Not having to handle real money and not having to place a signature at the store front is a merit, especially to visually impaired people. However, the input terminal for PIN (Personal Identification Number) code doesn't seem to be designed with attention to the disabled. This symposium will try to address these issues via dialog between the vendors and system integrators that will offer the Electronic Commerce systems and the users including the disabled.

Admission fee: 1,000 yen

Admission is free of charge to members of the TRON Enableware Study Group (Please pay the admission fee at the reception counter on the day of the symposium.)

New Venture Capital Firm Launched to Pursue Potential of BTRON

A new venture capital computer firm aiming at popularizing BTRON and other TRON-based technologies was established on January 13, 1999, by members of the Forum for Computer Industry's TRON study group. Called Sennet Inc., the new company will be headed by Yoshito "Super" Yamaguchi, a former vice president at Mitsubishi Electric Corp., who is hoping to rally forces so as to be able to announce a product in time to be seen at the fall COMDEX exhibition.

According to information posted on Sennet's Web page (click here) and the TRON Association's Web page (click here), the firm intends to set up a subsidiary called Global OS Corporation in Silicon Valley (most likely in Sunnyvale, California) in April 1999, which will be tasked with developing a low cost operating system plus package software for bundling inside inexpensive, dual OS personal computers in the $500 to $1,000 range aimed at English and Chinese speaking markets. Global OS is also to cooperate with Sun Microsystems Inc. in merging that company's Java and Jini networking technologies with ITRON-based systems.

Sennet, which is headquartered in the Yotsuya, section of Shinjuku Ward, has paid-in capital of 20 million yen out of an authorized 50 million. Part of this was supplied by Morgen, Evan & Co., Inc., a New York City based private investment banking firm established in 1992. For further information about Sennet and its planned activities, please contact the firm at one of the following contact numbers:

Sennet, Inc.

1-9-3 Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0004 Japan

Telephone: 03-5363-6920
Facsimile: 03-3357-7567