The TRON Association has made public via the Internet the Japanese-language version of the BTRON3 Specification (Ver. 3.20.00), which is the specification that Personal Media Corporation's micro-BTRON and B-right/V operating systems are based on. The specification, which comes in two volumes (Vol. 1 Shared Data, Vol. 2 Specification), can be accessed by clicking here.
In addition, the TRON Association announced that it has completed publication of a survey aimed at applying the TRON Architecture to the fields of automobile and traffic control. The report is divided into two parts: the first part deals with real-time operating systems for automotive use, e.g., ITRON in Japan and OSEK/VDX in Europe; and the second deals with with trends in the utilization of real-time operating systems and ITRON.
This publication is free of charge to TRON Association members, and is being released at cost to non-TRON Association members. For further information, contact Mr. Matsumura at the TRON Association. The telephone number is 03-3454-3191, and the facsimile number is 03-3454-3224.
There has been an increase in the number of software applications for BTRON-specification operating systems (1B/V3, B-right/V, and TiPO) that can be downloaded free of charge from the TRON Support Network's home page (click here). As of this writing, there are 18 programs. These include an atomic modeler, a maker pen numerical data input program, a parallel to serial port conversion adapter, a scanner reader (Ver. 2 for GT-6500WIN2), a simple text editor, micro-TRON keyboard firmware source code, a text search application, a multilingual World Wide Web text browser, an image viewer and album (B-right/V), a triangular clock, a text clock, a micro-PIM ( B-right/V and TiPO), a date insertion application, a Braille keyboard application (TiPO), and a calendar (TiPO).
Personal Media Corporation ran a special sales campaign for two weeks in May to market the latest version of the micro-BTRON-based personal digital assistant (PDA) called TiPO PLUS, which is manufactured by Seiko Instruments Inc. The campaign, which ran between May 14 and 31, 1999, offered the 2,400-Bps ES-9601-00 data/fax card free of charge to the first five customers. In addition, the 14,4000-Bps MC-6500 and the 32,000-Bps MC-6530 data cards for PHS wireless transmission use were offered at low cost to four customers.
TiPO PLUS has a big following in the Japanese PDA market due to its long battery life, high-speed, and workstation-level functionality. As a result, there are many sites on the World Wide Web that are dedicated to Seiko Instruments' TiPO. Many of these sites have links to downloadable software that was written with the easy-to-use MicroScript programming language.