I would argue that if you take in enough of the breadth and depth of this man's vision and accomplishments, you would see that he is easily on the same level as Tim Berners-Lee. TRON is everywhere, but it was denied to us where we would have noticed it the most--on the personal pc.
You'll have to wade through some of the stuff below to find out why consumers never got to try a B-TRON (business TRON) system. It's easy to imagine how it might have succeeded. IF the US hadn't cited it in 301 trade law protectionist measures. If the Japanese government had put some money into it (if they had even put 1/10th what they spent on the High Definition TV). And if the Japanese companies like NEC and Hitachi had got behind processor chip development for it.
Read on, though forgive the incoherence, as I've taken stuff from several sites:
http://www2.justnet.ne.jp/~yoshiro/english/history/american_exp.html
As I am mentioning about the Super Article 301, the case of "BTRON" came to mind.
"BTRON" is a Japanese OS for PC ("TRON" = "The Real-time Operating system Nucleus" ; "BTRON" = "Business TRON"). The newest version is called "B-right/V". It can function far more comfortably with a lower machine power than that recommended by "Windows" (even with a pre-Pentium CPU), and its basic function includes the function of using multiple language.
Not only does it have a better performance capacity, anyone can know how it is made, develop it in one's own way and sell one's product. In short, it's an open software, unlike "Windows" OS. Before this competitive product could enter the American e-market (the gateway to the world e-market), Microsoft got the USTR to include "BTRON" into the list of products to be subject to the sanctions of the Super Article 301.
This is how the USTR helped open the way to the formation of the monopolizing Microsoft e-empire. And this is an example of how politics of power can influence economy and how economy of power can influence politics.
Even in a peaceful transaction, in order to win, the winner needs to be backed up by the element of force and power.
The American government maybe expecting this situation to last for quite a while but they should be aware that by forcing its wills, it will eventually and surely face the counter-force that will attempt to follow their example. The true "winners" of the entire story are those who win out of the conflict itself, such as those who deal with weapons, oils and drugs. The "evil empire" is neither that of the communist or the Americans but of the greedy and the cunning.
http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/webmstrmessage.html
Dear Friends and Readers,
For July, there is a lot of good news. The latest upgrade of the BTRON3-specification operating system, B-right/V R2.5, has been put on the market and sales are good--in fact, much better than the previous version. This may have something to do with the fact that Personal Media Corporation has included a training video in the package. It may also be related to the fact that the Japanese press has "rediscovered" the TRON Project. Instead of giving unjustified coverage to Microsoft Corporation's buggy software products, which TRON Project Leader Ken Sakamura pointed out in his opinion last month, they are now beginning to realize that the TRON Project is a godsend for Japan, which is hoping for an economic revival based on an IT revolution. Where were they when the USTR was trying to destroy the world's only "total computer architecture" 11 years ago? In those days, they seem to have swallowed the "disinformation" that the TRON Project would lead to bad relations between Japan and the U.S., and thus it would be best to scrap the project.
There is also another piece of disinformation that is being aimed at Japan, and I addressed it in my opinion piece this month. This latest piece of disinformation is that Japan lags behind the U.S. in becoming a computerized society. This disinformation is nothing other than hype to get Japan to abandon domestically developed technologies such as TRON for U.S.-created technologies. In fact, Japan leads the U.S. in the race to become a "wireless society," and even in becoming a "wired society," NTT, Japan's telephone company, is planning to install ultra high-speed optical fiber lines in every home in Japan as soon as possible, hopefully by the middle of this decade. And for those of you who missed it, that's why Japan's connection rates are higher than those in the U.S. NTT is constantly upgrading its telecommunications system, and, unlike its foreign competitors in the Japanese market, it is required by law to provide unprofitable service to rural areas. That costs money too, but almost no one in the overseas press has even bothered to report the obvious facts. One-sided reporting and disinformation are the leading sources of friction between between the U.S. and Japan, and TRON Web intends to do something to rectify this problem.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to send them in.
Steven J. Searle
Web Master, TRON Web
August 7, 2000
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Interview with Prof. Sakamura
http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/sakamurainterview_tw42.html
-- There are other chips also for embedded use.
There are definitely other chips also, such as the [Hitachi] H32 and so on. Just that we had an influence on the computer architecture of Japanese microprocessors is a fact, and we also aimed at contributing to the training of people. Originally, we were aiming at incorporating the chip into personal computers and workstations, but regrettably this was entered on the U.S.'s list of trade barriers and came to be taken up as a candidate [for unilateral trade sanctions by the U.S.] under the Super 301 clause. We encountered numerous political obstacles, and so it did not come about that the chip was actively used for personal computer applications. But in the sense that it pushed technology forward, I believe that the chip played a satisfactory role. Since it will sound like an excuse, I don't want to talk about it too much, but in the processor business since you can't get anything done if you don't get the agreement of a lot of people, the chip architecture doesn't necessarily equal what I wanted to do. This is something you could understand if you were a person involved. Why the architecture turned out like that is a long story that I could write a book about. Since this story is interesting also as architecture, I think it would be good to publish it in the future.
-- Recently, we haven't heard much on the topic of the chip; is research progressing?
Recently, since ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) and silicon compiler technology are advancing, we are not putting all our weight into developing a microprocessor chip aimed at mass production; we have slightly changed our method of doing things. In my laboratory we have already finished writing the entire instruction set for the TRON chip with VHDL (VHISC [Very High Speed Integrated Circuits] Hardware Description Language).
We are now at the point of thinking how to go about developing an problem-adapted-type LSI in the future. Also, we are interested in the so-called intelligent RAM, which is a CPU and a DRAM stored on a single chip and on which research is being carried out at various organs recently. Of course, we haven't lost our desire to develop a new chip. Since the things we are moving ahead on at present cover a variety of topics, it might be best to say that we are going to rest for a while regarding LSIs, but this in no way means that we are going to stop altogether with things as they stand, so I'd like you to look forward [to what we do in the future].
-------- Posted by Charles Jannuzi in Japan