ITRON Newsletter No.35 (HTML Edition)

ITRON Technical Committee, TRON Association
Katsuta Building 5F, 3-39, Mita 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0073, JAPAN
TEL: (03) 3454-3191 FAX: (03) 3454-3224

A Survey on RTOS Usage
New ITRON Technical Committee Member
Erratum in µITRON3.0 English-language Specification
ITRON-related Publications
ITRON Specifications Seminar held in October

A Survey on RTOS Usage

This year the ITRON Technical Committee is again conducting a survey on real-time OS use, aimed mainly at developers who work with embedded systems. A special focus of this year's survey is the use of a graphical user interface (GUI) in embedded systems. The survey questionnaires are being distributed by mail, and passed out at embedded systems trade fairs during November and December.

Results of the survey will be useful in planning promotional activities relating to the ITRON specifications and deciding the future course of the project. The results will be made publicly available on the ITRON Web site. All those receiving questionnaires are urged to cooperate by filling them out and returning them.

New ITRON Technical Committee Member

As of August 1998, the U.S. firm Hewlett-Packard Co. has joined the ITRON Technical Committee as an observer member. See this page for the most recent updated list of Technical Committee members.

Erratum in µITRON3.0 English-language Specification

The English-language version of the µITRON3.0 specification, available through the ITRON Web site and in book form from IEEE CS Press, contains the following error, which has already been corrected on the Web version. Please make note of it if you have the printed version.

In section 2.3 explaining the rcv_msg, prcv_msg and trcv_msg system calls, the C Language Interface needs to be corrected as follows (p. 83, left, in the IEEE CS Press edition).

Error:

[C Language Interface]
  ER ercd = rcv_msg ( T_MSG *ppk_msg, ID mbxid ) ;
  ER ercd = prcv_msg ( T_MSG *ppk_msg, ID mbxid ) ;
  ER ercd = trcv_msg ( T_MSG *ppk_msg, ID mbxid, TMO tmout ) ;

Corrected:

[C Language Interface]
  ER ercd = rcv_msg ( T_MSG **ppk_msg, ID mbxid ) ;
  ER ercd = prcv_msg ( T_MSG **ppk_msg, ID mbxid ) ;
  ER ercd = trcv_msg ( T_MSG **ppk_msg, ID mbxid, TMO tmout ) ;

The above error was pointed out by a member of the ITRON Club mailing list, for which we are grateful.

ITRON-related Publications

Listed below are the publications prepared and issued by the ITRON Technical Committee as of October 1, 1998. Each of the publications below can be obtained directly from the sources indicated.

The revised edition of the ITRON3.0 Standard Handbook incorporates Ver. 3.02.02 of the specification. Changes made since the earlier edition of the Standard Handbook (Ver. 3.00.00) as of Ver. 3.02.00 are given in the ITRON Standard Guidebook 2. Subsequent revisions as of Ver. 3.02.02 involve only organizational changes and additional explanations, not affecting the technical contents.

The ITRON-µITRON Standard Handbook is a one-volume compilation of µITRON (Ver. 2.0) and ITRON2 specifications. Printed editions are no longer available from Personal Media Corporation, but the entire contents are available in PDF format at the company's web site.

The ITRON Standard Guidebook 2 deals primarily with µITRON3.0. 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.)	(out of print)	Personal Media Corp.	1990	ISBN4-89362-079-7
µITRON3.0 Standard Handbook, Revised Edition	Specification (Jap.)	4,000Yen	Personal Media Corp.	1997	ISBN4-89362-154-8
ITRON Standard Guidebook '92-'93	Reference work (Jap.)	3,500Yen	Personal Media Corp.	1992	ISBN4-89362-197-6
ITRON Standard Guidebook 2	Reference work (Jap.)	3,500Yen	Personal Media Corp.	1994	ISBN4-89362-133-5
ITRON TCP/IP API Specificaiton (Ver. 1.00.01)	Specification (Jap.)	-	TRON Association	1998	-
JTRON2.0 Specification (Ver. 2.00.00)	Specification (Jap.)	-	TRON Association	1998	-
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	-
µITRON3.0: An Open and Portable Real-Time Operating System for Embedded Systems	Specification (Eng.)	$40.00 U.S.	IEEE CS Press	1998	ISBN0-8186-7795-3

* Prices do not include applicable taxes.
* The documents are available to TRON Association members at a special discount rate.
* Specifications issued by the TRON Association are available from the ITRON Web site.

ITRON Specifications Seminar held in October

Mielparque Tokyo (Tokyo Postal Savings Hall), in Minato Ward, was the site of the ITRON Specifications Seminar this past October 14. The seminar was held for the first time this year, to present in-depth explanations of the latest ITRON specifications. It was meant to supplement the ITRON Open Seminar last July, where the specifications could not be covered in sufficient detail.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Place: Mielparque Tokyo (Tokyo Postal Savings Hall), Minato Ward, Tokyo
Program:

An Exposition of the ITRON TCP/IP API Specification
Hiroaki Takada (Embedded TCP/IP Technical Committee/Toyohashi Univ. of Technology)

Time slots:
9:30 to 10:30 a.m.: Explanation of specification (1)
10:30 to 11:00 a.m.: Q&A, coffee break
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon: Explanation of specification (2)
12:00 to 12:30 p.m.: Q&A

An Exposition of the JTRON2.0 Specification
Shoichi Hachiya (Java Technology on ITRON-specification OS Technical Committee/Aplix Corporation)
Kazutoshi Usui (Java Technology on ITRON-specification OS Technical Committee/NEC Corporation)

Time slots:
1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: Explanation of specification (1) by Shoichi Hachiya
2:30 to 3:00 p.m.: Q&A, coffee break
13:00 to 4:00 p.m.: Explanation of specification (2) by Kazutoshi Usui
4:00 to 4:30 p.m.: Q&A

At this seminar, people who played a central role in developing each of the specifications (the ITRON TCP/IP API specification released in May and the JTRON2.0 specification announced on October 13, the day before the seminar) explained the design objectives and their details, and talked about the reasoning behind various design decisions. The seminar was well received by the approximately 120 persons in attendance. Because of the nature of the seminar, a large amount of time was set aside for questions and answers. The number of questions that were raised shows the intense interest in these specifications.

It is planned to extend next year's ITRON Open Seminar to two days, with a tutorial course modeled after this ITRON Specifications Seminar in addition to the usual program. It will be scheduled a bit earlier than in previous years, for Wednesday, June 30 and Thursday, July 1. If you have ideas on what to include in the program, please contact the ITRON Technical Committee.

The proceedings of this seminar are available from the TRON Association. The price is 3,000 yen each for the Exposition of the ITRON TCP/IP API Specification and the Exposition of the JTRON2.0 Specification. Both volumes contain the complete specifications along with the explanatory materials. Please request copies from the TRON Association.

This newsletter is a special edition for WWW of the one appeared in TRONWARE vol.54.

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