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From: bobk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Bob Kinne)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc,comp.std.misc,comp.arch
Subject: Re: TRON
Keywords: TRON operating systems
Message-ID: <9870@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 5 Jul 89 20:45:06 GMT
References: <112@hitachi.uucp>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: bobk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Bob Kinne)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 37

In article <112@hitachi.uucp> billg@hitachi.uucp (Bill Gundry) writes:
>
>
>As one of the few Westerners invlolved in the TRON project I think
>the simple answer is that the TRON Association has done
>nothing to publicize or seek the involvement of U.S. companies. 
>
>So, are we are missing something by not learning Japanese?  The TRON 

The sense I have always had of TRON is that it is a consortium of
Japanese industries with strong government support and with an
overall goal of leap-frogging the Japanese computer industry to a
leading position in the world.  In this context, it would hardly
be expected that they would invite U. S. companies to join and
participate.  Learning Japanese might provide some peripheral
improvement in tracking the work, but TRON, much like IBM, is very
willing to publish and talk about overall goals and architecture,
but is much less willing to share information about specific
advances and implementations.  This knowledge is regarded as being
in the category of innovation and trade secrets, and is not likely
to ever be presented openly.

The Japanese computing and communication industries have always
shown less enthusiasm about open architectures and international
standards than has been seen in North America and Europe.  TRON
seems to me to be a well-planned and financed, long-term effort
to establish new generations of equipment and software that will
make Japan the world leader (and standard setter) in many areas
of computing and information processing and transfer.  If anyone
thinks this effort has a low probability of success, I suggest that
person look at the automobile, steel, video, consumer electronics,
and semiconductor industries, to name a few.  At one time or another,
the U. S. was the unquestioned world leader in each of these.

Bob Kinne	 	Optoelectronics Computing Center    
UCB, Campus Box 525	VOICE		(303) 492-3330
Boulder, CO 80309	INTERNET	bobk@boulder.Colorado.EDU