Xref: utzoo comp.realtime:93 comp.os.misc:941
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!uhnix1!sugar!ficc!karl
From: karl@ficc.uu.net (karl lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.realtime,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: TRON (a little long)
Keywords: Japan, TRON, standards, networks, operating systems
Message-ID: <4628@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 20 Jun 89 13:01:24 GMT
References: <382@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu>
Organization: Ferranti International Controls
Lines: 20

From a realtime viewpoint, rather than a new realtime OS "standard", I would
like a realtime Unix standard.  That way we could have realtime and still have
the cherished (and near-standard) Unix development and execution environments.

Also, from what I read about it, Sakamura did promote TRON at first as a
"Japanese" project.  He was reported to have claimed that existing
microprocessors were inadequate for handling 16-bit character codes, which
has yet to be shown, and I believe he claimed that the project was so
integrated that the keyboard dictated certain aspects of the instruction
set design, which seems somewhat absurd.

Some of the ideas behind TRON are probably good.  However, I think TRON exists
largely because certain people in Japan realized that licenses for the emerging
32-bit CPUs of Motorola and Intel would not be forthcoming.  Considering the
reaming NEC gave Intel with the 16-bit versions, it should not have come as a
great surprise.  The RISC path is open, though.  For example, Fujitsu has 
licensed SPARC, and RISCs are The Way anyway, pretty much.
-- 
-- uunet!ficc!karl	"Contemptuous lights flashed across the computer's
-- karl@ficc.uu.net	 console."  -- Hitchhiker's Guide