ITRON Newsletter No.20 (HTML Edition)
ITRON Technical Committee, TRON Association
Katsuta Building 5F, 3-39, Mita 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108, JAPAN
TEL: (03) 3454-3191
FAX: (03) 3454-3224
Invitation to the ITRON Open Seminar
The ITRON Open Seminar will take place again this year, on Monday July
15, at Kurian, the Shinagawa Community Center in Tokyo (The hall is
located one minute from the south exit of Oimachi Station on the JR
Keihin Tohoku Line). The seminar is held annually to introduce recent
developments relating to the ITRON specifications, update the status
of ITRON implementations, and describe enhancements to the ITRON
development environment. This year is the sixth time the event is
being held. The theme of this year's seminar is, "Looking ahead to
the next step." The idea is to center presentations around the shift
in focus from kernel standardization toward the increased efforts to
standardize the ITRON system environment.
- Date: July 15 (Monday), 10:00 - 17:30
- Place: Shinagawa Community Center "Kurian"
- Capacity: 90 persons
- Admission fee: (includes tax)
- TRON Association members: 2,000 yen
- General public: 5,000 yen
- Students: 2,000 yen
- Program (tentative):
- 10:00 - 10:20 Latest on the ITRON subproject
- Kiichiro Tamaru (Toshiba)
- 10:20 - 12:00 System development using µITRON: Micromouse
case study
- Yasuhiro Kobayashi (Fujitsu), Shiro Kojima (Fujitsu Device)
- 13:00 - 14:30 Panel session: Approaches to middleware
standardization
- 15:00 - 16:30 ITRON application case studies, development
environment, and research trends
- Real-time OS specifications for vehicle control use
Koji Sato (Toyota Motor)
- ITRON support of MULTI
Hiroshi Fukutomi (Advanced Data Controls)
- TCP/IP module and Web browser AVE-Front on ITRON
Tomihisa Kamada (Access)
- Realizing priority inheritance in a real-time OS for C++
Osamu Higashihara (NEC Microcomputer Technology)
- 16:30 - 17:30 Special Speech
- Ken Sakamura (University of Tokyo)
The morning session on "System development using µITRON" is being
presented especially for newcomers to ITRON. Using the example of a
micromouse development project, the presenters will explain in readily
understood terms the way systems can be developed around a
µITRON-specification OS. After the panel session on middleware
standardization, a hot topic these days, various presenters will
introduce some recent ITRON application cases, trends in software
development environments, and ITRON-related research trends. An
address by Ken Sakamura will close the seminar as always, then the
participants will get a chance to mingle at a reception party from
around 18:00.
Persons interested in attending may make application either by
visiting the ITRON home page or by
contacting the ITRON Open Seminar secretariat at the TRON Association
(TEL: (03) 3454-3191, FAX: (03) 3454-3224).
We look forward to a large turnout again this year.
Changes to Registration System for ITRON-related Products
The ITRON Technical Committee has provided a registration system for
products implementing or supporting the ITRON specifications since
1991, with the aim of promoting wider use of the specifications.
Recently some changes were instituted in the system. The main changes
are outlined below.
- The new system will be limited to products implementing ITRON
specifications, and is therefore to be called the "ITRON-specification
Product Registration System." By "product" is meant something sold or
supported officially by a company, whether it is sold outside the
company or not.
- In order to register a kernel implementing the µITRON3.0
specification, it is now required to fill out and submit the
µITRON3.0 compatibility checksheets. The submitted checksheets
will be made publicly available via the Internet.
- Products that have already been registered under the old system
and are eligible for registration under the new system will continue
to be registered without the need to submit new documentation.
It should be noted that this system differs from so-called validation
systems in that the registered products are not certified to be in
conformance with the ITRON specifications.
The new system will go into effect from October 1, 1996. Those
wishing to apply for registration under the new system may obtain the
necessary documents from the ITRON Technical Committee by contacting
the TRON Association.
ITRON-related Product Registration Update
The products listed below were newly registered in the period through
April 1, 1996. The list of previously registered products is here.
Newly Registered Products
(Feb. 1, 1996 - Apr. 1, 1996)
| Specification |
Product Name |
Processor |
Company |
| µITRON3.0 |
MR30 |
M16C/60 Series |
Mitsubishi Electric Semiconductor Software Corp. |
ITRON-related Publications
Listed below are the publications prepared and issued by the ITRON
Technical Committee as of April 1, 1996. The ITRON-µITRON
Standard Handbook is a one-volume compilation of µITRON (Ver 2.0)
and ITRON2 specifications. Each of the publications below can be
obtained directly from the sources indicated.
The latest version of µITRON3.0 is Ver 3.02.00. Changes made
since the µITRON3.0 Standard Handbook was released (Ver 3.00.00)
are noted in Newsletter No.5 and No.11, as well as in ITRON Standard
Guidebook 2.
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.) |
4,800Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1990 |
ISBN4-89362-079-7 |
| µITRON3.0 Standard Handbook |
Specification (Jap.) |
4,000Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1993 |
ISBN4-89362-106-8 |
| ITRON/FILE Standard Handbook |
Specification (Jap.) |
3,000Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1992 |
ISBN4-89362-092-4 |
| ITRON Standard Guidebook '92-'93 |
Textbook (Jap.) |
3,500Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1992 |
ISBN4-89362-197-6 |
| ITRON Standard Guidebook 2 |
Textbook (Jap.) |
3,500Yen |
Personal Media Co. |
1994 |
ISBN4-89362-133-5 |
| 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 |
- |
NOTES:
- Prices do not include consumption tax.
- The documents issued by the TRON Association are available to
Association members at a special discount rate.
- English-language specifications are distributed free of charge from
here.
New Products
The product introduced below has been newly registered under the
ITRON-related product registration system.
MR30
Mitsubishi Electric Semiconductor Software Corp.
Product summary
MR30 is a real-time operating system conforming to the µITRON
specification, implemented for Mitsubishi's M16C/60 16-bit
microcomputer series.
Features
The MR30 offers the following features.
- It is optimized to the microcomputer to realize fast processing
speed.
- It can be used with the NC30 C compiler provided for the M16C/60
series.
- The MR30 kernel is provided in library format. A compact program
size is achieved by linking only the necessary functions at system
generation.
Functions
The main MR30 functions are as follows.
- Conforms to µITRON specification Ver 3.0
Ver 3.0 of the µITRON specification merges the functions of
ITRON2 and µITRON Ver 2.0, adding to these a connection function
specification. The MR30 OS implements all of the µITRON3.0
specification at levels R and S, as well as part of level E, with
special attention paid to compatibility with earlier OSs based on the
µITRON specification Ver 2.0 (including the MR7700 real-time OS
for the 7700 family).
- Fast interrupt response time
The MR30 ensures support for application programs that require fast
interrupt response time, being designed for fast response to
interrupts that do not issue OS system calls.
- Context select function
The registers used by each task can be designated, reducing stack size
requirements. This designation takes place in the configuration file.
Note that this function applies only to application programs written
in assembly language. In the case of C language programs, all
registers must be selected.
- NC30 support
- Kernel direct call function
- The MR30 kernel can be called directly without going through a C
language interface library. This function has the following benefits.
- Faster system calls
- Smaller stack size
- Reduced code size
- Simplification of tasks and handlers
- The N30 C compiler optimizes tasks and handlers, allowing them to
be written as ordinary functions.
Main specifications
The main specifications of the MR30 real-time OS are given below.
| Item |
Specification |
| Target microprocessor |
M16C/60 Series |
| Maximum tasks |
255 |
| Task priorities |
255 |
| Maximum eventflags |
255 |
| Eventflag size |
16 bits |
| Maximum semaphores |
255 |
| Semaphore format |
Counting type |
| Maximum mailboxes |
255 |
| Message size |
16 bits |
| Message number |
1 to 3,570 (total for all mailboxes) |
| System calls |
42 |
| Kernel size |
Approx. 1.0KB to 3.9KB |
| Maximum interrupt masking time |
2 µs (OS independent interrupts) |
| Task switching time |
25 µs |
* Test conditions: 16-bit bus width, 10 MHz external clock frequency,
no-wait memory.
Recent Works on ITRON
The 1996 workshop on real-time processing RTP'96 was held at Hiroshima
University on March 21 and 22. A presentation dealing with ITRON was
given by Motoyuki Suzuki of the Musashi Institute of Technology on
"Development of ITRON simulator MITOS." The OS simulator introduced
in the presentation provides a graphical display of task transitions,
I/O and other program behavior, enabling them to be observed visually.
Another ITRON-related presentation was given by Hiroaki Takada of the
University of Tokyo on "Scalable implementations of multiprocessor
real-time kernels." This paper discussed the use of the µITRON
specification as a base real-time kernel specification that is
extended for multiprocessor support. In a presentation by Toshiyuki
Maeda of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. on a "Real-Time
system description language for audio visual communication," a
language simulation environment using ITRON was described.
Workshops on real-time processing are held each year in the form of a
computer system study group by the Institute of Electronics,
Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE), and the papers
submitted for the conference are published as the Technical Reports of
the IEICE.
This newsletter is a
special edition for WWW of the one appeared in TRONWARE vol.39 and
TRON PROJECT JOURNAL No.44.
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