TOKYO - November 12, 1997 - ITRON Technical Committee in the TRON Association announced the establishment of a "Java Technology on ITRON-specification OS Technical Committee" to define the interface specifications between ITRON-specification real-time operating systems (RTOS) and Java Application Environments for consumer and embedded devices. The initial members of the committee include Aplix Corporation, Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi Ltd., Metrowerks Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, NEC Corporation, Nihon Cygnus Solutions, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, and YAMAHA Corporation. The results of this committee is planned to be published in first quarter of 1998.

Java technologies are becoming increasingly important in embedded systems and consumer device markets. Although several Java ports have already been created to ITRON-specification RTOS by committee member companies and third parties, there is no standard reference. The purpose of this committee is to standardize the communication interface between Java applets and ITRON tasks, and the implementation approach of Java threads with ITRON tasks. If some extensions to the ITRON specification are found to be necessary, the result will be reflected to the next version of the ITRON specification.

"With standardized implementations of Java Application Environments on ITRON-specification RTOS, application designers can take the advantages of both environments, specifically downloadable machine-independent software and excellent GUI support by Java, and fast real-time response of the ITRON-specification RTOS, still keeping free hands in the selection of microprocessors." said Dr. Kiichiro Tamaru, chairman of the ITRON Technical Committee.

Sun Microsystems has shown support for this committee, and is committed to support Java technology in the consumer device and embedded markets.

"We are pleased to see the ITRON Technical Committee create a Java technology-specific committee for the establishment of standards in the embedded systems and consumer device markets," said Jon Kannegaard, vice president of software products at Sun Microsystems' JavaSoft division. "The standards which are created from this committee will allow developers to effectively integrate both the scalable, easy-to-use Java-based graphical user interface technology and the powerful, extensible ITRON-specification real-time operating systems."

ITRON is a series real-time operating system specifications for embedded systems. Many products have been developed based on the micro-ITRON specification, which was designed for consumer products and other small-scale embedded systems, and adopted in countless end products, making it an industry standard in this field in Japan. The ITRON specifications are investigated and developed by the ITRON Technical Committee in the TRON Association, as one of the subproject of the TRON Project. The ITRON Project is explained in more detail on the internet, http://tron.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/TRON/ITRON/.

• Sun, Sun Microsystems, Java, JavaSoft are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
• TRON is an abbreviation of "The Real-time Operating system Nucleus."
• ITRON is an abbreviation of "Industrial TRON."
• TRON and ITRON are names of concepts and projects aimed at developing a new computer system and environment; they do not refer to any specific product or products.