ITRON Newsletter No.19 (HTML Edition)
ITRON Technical Committee, TRON Association
Katsuta Building 5F, 3-39, Mita 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108, JAPAN
TEL: (03) 3454-3191
FAX: (03) 3454-3224
About the ITRON Newsletter
The ITRON Technical Committee issues this newsletter on a bimonthly
basis, in the interests of making widely available various information
on the ITRON subproject and on the committee's work. Updates to ITRON
specifications and corrections to publications issued by the committee
are also presented here. Another purpose is to introduce products and
publications related to the ITRON specifications, and announce events
such as exhibitions and seminars.
The ITRON Newsletter is carried in both the TRON Bimonthly and in
TRONWARE, as well as being offered via the Internet on our Web page. Anyone wishing to contribute
an article is invited to contact the ITRON Technical Committee.
Registration System for ITRON-related Products and
Applications
The products listed below were newly registered in the period through
February 1, 1996. The list of previously registered products is here.
Details of the product registration system can be obtained by
contacting the TRON Association.
Newly Registered Products (Jun. 1, 1995 - Feb. 1, 1996)
| Specification |
Product Name |
Processor |
Company |
| µITRON2.0 |
NORTi/H83 |
H8/300H |
Miyazaki System Design Co. |
| NORTi/Z80 |
Z80 |
Miyazaki System Design Co. |
ITRON-related Publications
Listed below are the publications prepared and issued by the ITRON
Technical Committee as of February 1, 1996. The ITRON-µITRON
Standard Handbook is a one-volume compilation of µITRON (Ver 2.0)
and ITRON2 specifications. Each of the publications below can be
obtained directly from the sources indicated.
The latest version of µITRON3.0 is Ver 3.02.00. Changes made
since the µITRON3.0 Standard Handbook was released (Ver 3.00.00)
are noted in Newsletter No.5 and No.11, as well as in ITRON Standard
Guidebook 2.
The ITRON Standard Guidebook 2, which is a general introduction to the
ITRON specifications, deals primarily with µITRON3.0. Meanwhile,
the earlier ITRON Standard Guidebook '92-'93 remains as a valuable
reference for use with the µITRON (Ver 2.0) and ITRON2
specifications, even though the dates in its title are now past.
ITRON-related Publications
| Name |
Type |
Price |
Publisher |
Issued |
ISBN No. |
| ITRON-µITRON Standard Handbook |
Specification (Jap.) |
4,800Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1990 |
ISBN4-89362-079-7 |
| µITRON3.0 Standard Handbook |
Specification (Jap.) |
4,000Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1993 |
ISBN4-89362-106-8 |
| ITRON/FILE Standard Handbook |
Specification (Jap.) |
3,000Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1992 |
ISBN4-89362-092-4 |
| ITRON Standard Guidebook '92-'93 |
Textbook (Jap.) |
3,500Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1992 |
ISBN4-89362-197-6 |
| ITRON Standard Guidebook 2 |
Textbook (Jap.) |
3,500Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1994 |
ISBN4-89362-133-5 |
| µITRON Specification Ver 2.01.00.00 |
Specification (Eng.) |
12,000Yen |
TRON Association |
1989 |
- |
| ITRON2 Specification Ver 2.02.00.10 |
Specification (Eng.) |
15,000Yen |
TRON Association |
1990 |
- |
| µITRON3.0 Specification Ver 3.02.00 |
Specification (Eng.) |
- |
TRON Association |
1994 |
- |
NOTES:
- Prices do not include consumption tax.
- The documents issued by the TRON Association are available to
Association members at a special discount rate.
- English-language specifications are distributed free of charge from
here.
New Products
The products introduced below have been newly registered under the
ITRON product registration system.
Product summary
NORTi/H83 and NORTi/Z80 are real-time operating systems for the
Hitachi H8/300H and Z80 processors, respectively. Both products
implement Ver.2.0 of the µITRON specification.
Features
- Low-cost OS
- NORTi/H83 and NORTi/Z80 sell for under 100,000 yen, and no royalty
fees are charged for employing them in commercial systems.
- Provided complete with source code
- The kernel is supplied in library format, but the entire source
code is provided as well.
- Bundled with NORTi/PC
- The package includes NORTi/PC, which runs on DOS. A personal
computer can be used along with Microsoft C or Turbo C for hands on
practice in the use of a µITRON-specification OS.
- Prompt support
- The developer of this software provides active backup mainly in the
form of user support, so that even someone new to µITRON can
begin using it with assurance.
Supported Compilers
One package is supported by multiple compilers. NORTi/H83 can be used
with either the ICC H8/300H or Hitachi's C compiler, while NORTi/Z80
is supported by both the ICC Z80 and LSI C-80 compilers.
The NORTi Series
The NORTi Series also includes the NORTi/86, NORTi/68K, and
NORTi/PowerPC models. Each OS in the series follows the same
consistent conventions, an advantage especially for users of multiple
processor platforms.
A word from the developer
"Even people who have never used a real-time OS before now have an
easy way to get started with a µITRON-specification OS. And once
they gain familiarity with the product they will wonder how they ever
developed without it. That's the beauty of NORTi."
Recent Works on ITRON
The December issue of IEEE MICRO includes an article by the University
of Tokyo's Hiroaki Takada and Ken Sakamura on "µITRON for
Small-Scale Embedded Systems." Besides introducing the µITRON
specifications and their status today, the article gives an outline of
µITRON bus, a low-cost control-use LAN specification being
researched mainly in the Sakamura Laboratory. The issue happens to be
the annual special issue on Japan and Asia, with Dr. Sakamura serving
as Guest Editor. In addition to the article on µITRON it features
four articles by Japanese semiconductor companies.
HiVi, a monthly magazine published by Stereo Sound and covering audio
and video products, in its January 1996 issue carries an article by
Toshiaki Natsume entitled, "What Is TRON?" The article gives a brief
introduction to the TRON Project, and describes how ITRON
specifications are used in a number of consumer electronics products.
Although µITRON is mistakenly written as µTRON, the article
provides a readable account of the project aimed at the general
public.
This newsletter is a
special edition for WWW of the one appeared in TRONWARE vol.38 and
TRON PROJECT BIMONTHLY No.43.
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