ITRON Newsletter No. 38 (HTML Edition)

ITRON Open Seminar program announced

The ITRON Open Seminar, on the theme of "The µITRON4.0 Specification and Outlook for the Next Fifteen Years," will be held for a two-day period, on Wednesday June 30 and Thursday July 1, at the Nihon Kyoiku Kaikan in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. This seminar is held once a year to present a progress report on the ITRON project, and to introduce the latest on ITRON-related implementations, applications and development tools. This will be the tenth in the series of seminars going back to the ITRON Product Seminar. This year also is the 15th year since the TRON Project (and therefore the ITRON project) got under way. To mark these milestones, the seminar is being expanded to cover two days rather than the usual one-day event.

The first day of the seminar, Wednesday June 30, will present the latest achievements of the ITRON project as in past years, then will introduce the µITRON4.0 specification and the work of the study group that is developing this specification. The second day, Thursday July 1, will focus entirely on the µITRON4.0 specification, presenting a detailed analysis broken up into several parts. Note that the two days are treated as separate seminars, with different capacity and admission fees and requiring separate application.

The morning session on the first day will begin with an overview of recent events in the project. Next is a general introduction to the µITRON4.0 specification, and to the work of the µITRON4.0 specification study group. The afternoon will begin with a panel discussion, reviewing the first 15 years of the project and looking ahead to the next 15 years. This will be followed by a session on recent ITRON-specification OS products, applications and development projects, introducing development support tools and presenting examples of system development around the ITRON-specification OS. The afternoon session will close with the customary talk by TRON Project leader Ken Sakamura. A reception will follow.

Opening Day Program

Date: Wednesday, June 30, 10:00 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. (reception planned after conclusion of regular program)

Place: Nihon Kyoiku Kaikan (2-6-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo)

Capacity: 250 persons

Admission (including tax):

TRON Association members: 5,000 yen

Non-members: 8,000 yen

Students: 5,000 yen

* The reception is free of charge, but requires advance registration.

Program (subject to change):

10:00 to 10:30 a.m. The Latest from the ITRON Project

Kiichiro Tamaru (ITRON Technical Committee Chairman/Toshiba Corp.)

10:30 to 12:00 noon An Overview of the µITRON4.0 Specification, and Progress of the µITRON4.0 Specification Study Group

Hiroaki Takada (ITRON Technical Committee/Toyohashi University of Technology)

1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Panel discussion: Outlook for the next 15 years

(Panel members being arranged)

2:45 to 5:15 p.m. ITRON-related products, applications and development case studies

Three ITRON-related products (eCos, PrNET, CodeWarrior) and two application and development case studies (automotive control, portable information terminal) are to be presented.

5:30 to 6:15 p.m. Special Lecture

Ken Sakamura (University of Tokyo)

The detailed exposition of the µITRON4.0 on the second day is divided into four sessions, lasting from 9:00 in the morning to 4:00 p.m. Each session will consist of approximately one hour of lecture time and 15 minutes for questions, with a general question period on the entire µITRON4.0 specification to follow the fourth session, from 4:00 p.m. Besides giving a thorough explanation of the new functions in this specification, a brief discussion of functions that are unchanged from previous versions will also be presented. The ITRON Technical Committee members involved in the µITRON4.0 specification studies will be giving the presentations, and will explain the reasons behind many of the changes. Note that the contents of the opening-day overview of the µITRON4.0 specification will not be repeated on the second day.

Second Day Program

Date: Thursday, July 1, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Place: Nihon Kyoiku Kaikan (2-6-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo)

Capacity: 120 persons

Admission (including tax):

TRON Association members: 9,000 yen

Non-members: 13,000 yen

Students: 9,000 yen

Program (subject to change): A Detailed Exposition of the µITRON4.0 Specification

9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Part 1

11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Part 2

1:15 to 2:30 p.m. Part 3

2:45 to 4:00 p.m. Part 4

4:00 to 4:30 p.m. General Q&A

Results of survey on real-time OS use trends show strong ITRON support

Release schedule for the µITRON4.0 specification

Work on the µITRON4.0 specification began officially when the ITRON Technical Committee formed a kernel specification working group in April, 1998 to research the next-generation µITRON real-time kernel specification. As of this writing, the contents have mostly been decided and only need to be formalized as a specification.

A draft of the specification is to be released in early May and opened for public comments for a period of around one month. The kernel specification WG will consider the comments in the first part of June, and hope to have a final version of the specification available for release at the ITRON Open Seminar planned for June 30 and July 1.

The draft of the µITRON4.0 specification will be made available on the ITRON Web site. Interested parties are invited to read the specification and make comments. The place to send comments will also be announced on the Web site. The final version will likely be available from the ITRON Web site as well.

Exhibit at ESEC Trade Show

ITRON-related Publications

Listed below are the publications prepared and issued by the ITRON Technical Committee as of April 1, 1999. Please contact the sources indicated to obtain copies.

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.

TEPIA Hall in Tokyo's Minato Ward was the site of the 15th TRON Project Symposium, on Thursday March 11. Marking the 15th year of the TRON Project, the symposium consisted of presentations on each of the TRON subprojects, two of which relate to ITRON. Hiroaki Takada (Toyohashi University of Technology), secretary of the ITRON Technical Committee, gave a presentation updating progress in the ITRON subproject and centering around the ITRON4.0 specification. The JTRON specification was introduced in a presentation by Shinobu Nemoto of Aplix Corporation, "An Implementation of JTRON Specification."

An exhibit of TRON Project technology, TRONSHOW '99, was held in parallel with the symposium, from March 10 to 12 (Wednesday to Friday). Exhibits related to the ITRON subproject were given by Aplix Corporation, Metrowerks K.K., and Yokogawa Digital Computer Corporation, among others.

Papers and Other Resources