The number of free software programs for the BTRON-specification operating system continued to grow in July. A site called "B-Soft and Library" at NiftyServe is offering the following free BTRON software items for downloading via the Internet.
Image Viewer
Image Album
TT Viewer
Fusen Itto
Kitchen Timer
Subset C
Sennet Inc., a recently founded venture capital firm that aims at popularizing the BTRON-specification operating system overseas, has put the first third party software application for the BTRON-specification operating system on the market. Called "Oberon," the new software package is a program for starting up accessories (utility programs) via graphically designed buttons (icons).
There are two noteworthy features concerning Oberon. The first is that the 17 types of buttons included in the package were designed by world famous designers Fumi Sasada of Bravis International Ltd. and Ichiro Hatayama of MILAI Corporation. The second is that in addition to a package for Personal Media Corporation's B-right/V operating system, Sennet is also marketing a package of the software that is compatible with Microsoft Corporation's Windows 95/98 operating systems. The price for both packages is 500 yen.
According to a report at the BTRON Information site, there was a report by Nikkei Electronics on July 21 that NEC Corporation will begin marketing a new real-time kernel based on the newly drawn up micro-ITRON4.0-specification in November 1999. TRON Web was unable to find the report, even after an investigation of the Nikkei Electronics site. However, the report is entirely credible. NEC has always been one of the leaders in the development, so it would not be surprising if the first commercial micro-ITRON4.0-specification real-time kernel was put on the market by that firm.