The Tron Project Angelo G Gagliano Microprocessors Date

The Tron Project • Angelo G. Gagliano • Microprocessors • Date: 5/13/02

More than just a Great Movie! • It is the acronym for a project that began in June 1984 by Professor Takeshi Sakamura of the University of Tokyo • TRON stands for The Real-time Operating System Nucleus.

The TRON Project Basic Goal: • To create a system of devices that can be easily integrated with one another. • This is attempted with the use of an open designed architecture (TRON) that would exist as a distributed network of TRON based designs. • TRON does not actually create any products, just open specifications.

5 Subprojects of TRON • • • ITRON: Industrial TRON CTRON: Communication/Central TRON BTRON: Business TRON JTRON: Java Technology on TRON VLSI CPU

Industrial TRON • A real-time multitasking kernel specifications for embedded control applications • Currently used in over 30% of Japanese embedded systems (as of March 2002) • The open standard has allowed for a total of 50 registered implementations of the ITRON specifications.

Communication / Central TRON • OS Specifications to be used in communications and information processing systems • The goal is to be the core of telecommunications networks and multimedia communications

Business TRON • Specifications for systems that interact with humans. • The goal is to have devices that can be easily used by anyone - from development to actual user interfaces (The TRON writers compare this to how we use automobiles) • Code space capacity of 1. 5 million characters to support a large number of languages

Java TRON • Standards for communication interface between real-time tasks of the ITRON specification and Java applications. • Java objects are created that are mapped to ITRON kernel objects/tasks

TRON VLSI CPU: • The Main component of the TRON Project: The TRON Very Large-Scale Integration CPU • CISC based chip • 32 -bit microprocessor • 16 general purpose registers • 9 control registers

TRON VLSI CPU Continued. . . • Total of 6 levels of implementation: The Microprocessor manufacture can decide how much they need to implement • Average number of instructions among the levels: 99 • 5 Stage pipeline

TRON VLSI CPU Goals / Issues • The main purpose of the chip is to be used as a cheap low-power microprocessor that can be networked with others of its type to create a powerful distributed system. • Unfortunately, it has taken me a week to concede to the fact that the documentation on how this network technically would work is still in Japanese.

TRON CPU History • First TRON CPU was the Gmicro/200 in 1988 • Toshiba Corp. , Hitachi Ltd. , Fujitsu Ltd. , and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. have followed with additional implementations.

TRON Integration • All of these subprojects exist to handle the different ways in which we use technology. • Smart devices (or intelligent objects as referred to in the TRON Projects) can easily be integrated if based on the architecture.

Integration @ Work • Someone will create the CPU based on the TRON VLSI CPU. • The manufacture will decide how it is implemented (how to implement the TLB & MMU, number of pins to use, etc. ) • Someone else will create the OS based on the ITRON, BTRON, or CTRON specifications.

Integration @ Work Continued. . . • The decision will be made based on the type of device: – BTRON specifications will be used for applications that will require human interaction like PDA’s, home electronics, etc. – ITRON would be used to provide an multitasking OS to support C/C++, Java. Ada. And other popular languages – CTRON would be used to provide details for communication systems.

What Makes TRON Interesting • A collection of real-time systems that can be easily integrated. • Example of the project at work is called the TRON house; a very expensive and elaborate house of integrated gadgets in an expensive area of Tokyo.

Problems of the TRON Project • Although the now 18 year old project is definitely still alive and is used in a large number of devices in Japan, support from other countries has been slow to null. • Some documentation still only in Japanese like the main TRON Project PDF (making this research project a lot harder than it should have been)

Bibliography and Links • http: //www. assoc. tron. org/data/eng/what-t. html – What is the TRON Project? • http: //tron. um. u-tokyo. ac. jp/TRON/ – TRON Project Information • http: //www. tron. org/index-e. html – TRON Project Official Home Page • http: //www. itron. gr. jp – ITRON Project Web Site

Links Continued: • http: //tron. um. u-tokyo. ac. jp/TRON/CTRON/intro-e. html – CTRON Project • http: //tronweb. super-nova. co. jp/btron. html – BTRON Project • http: //www. atip. org/public/atip. reports. 91/tron. html – TRON (The Real-time Operating System Nucleus) • http: //www. electroclips. com/tron. htm – TRON Definition and Recommended Links • http: //www. eg 3. com/tron. htm – More TRON Links