http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/btron.html
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And so where does this leave BTRON-specification operating systems? With all these other alternatives out there won't it be hard for BTRON to survive, never mind thrive?
Not at all. BTRON-specification operating systems have several impressive features that appeal to users seeking alternatives to the current industry standard operating systems. These are:
1. Outstanding performance As was stated above, the BTRON architecture was developed from the start with an eye on high-speed processing in real-time networks. BTRON-specification operating systems are thus highly appealing to organizations that want to do real-time factory automation and/or financial transaction processing. Moreover, the fact that BTRON-specification systems aren't slowed down by legacy code, plus the fact that they can be linked together with compatible ITRON- and CTRON-specification systems, puts BTRON-specification operating systems in a class by themselves as alternative operating systems.
2. Incredible scalability and compactness No other operating system architecture in the world can cover the myriad of uses that BTRON-specification operating systems can--which range from a highly functional device that fits into the palm of your hand to a full featured workstation--while maintaining high performance. Moreover, BTRON-specification operating systems don't require much RAM, which enables them to give acceptable performance on hardware that is a generation or more older than that currently on the market.
3. Uncompromising multilingual functionality It may not be fully developed at this point, but the best multilingual processing environment that has ever been designed for a computing system is the one that has been planned for the BTRON architecture. Although multilingual processing may not be a big deal in the North American market, it is a very big deal in other markets, particularly in countries where multiple languages written with multiple scripts are used.
4. Standard provisions for the disabled
>From its inception, the BTRON architecture has included as standard
functions provisions to support the disabled, which are also highly useful
to the elderly. In a rapidly aging society such as Japan's, these functions
are immensely important. As a result of the incorporation of these
EnableWare functions, not surprisingly, many disabled were among the first
BTRON users in Japan.
5. Innovative and open architecture The BTRON-specification has two features that appeal to the techies: it implements new features that have never been tried before in an operating system, such as the real object/virtual object model, and it is an open architecture. Considering that certain "industry standard operating systems" have hidden "black boxes" in them that only the developing company's applications programmers can take advantage of, being totally open and free for the cloning are two very appealing aspects of the BTRON architecture.
6. Standardized data types One of the biggest problems with today's computers is that there are so many incompatible data types. On the Internet, there are different types of sound and motion picture files that some people can download and use, while others can't. In the world of TRON, this problem will never occur thanks to comprehensive data type standardization via TAD.
All right, all right, this all sounds very nice, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say. Is this stuff selling? How many users are there?
Absolutely. To date approximately 60,000 copies of the BTRON1 specification have been sold by Personal Media Corp. And each new release seems to create more interest in the architecture. In fact, things are going so well, that Personal Media is actually hiring new technical personnel!
In addition, there is a BTRON Club, which has its own newsletter and holds regular functions so that BTRON users can get together and meet each other. There are also regularly scheduled meetings of disabled BTRON users, and there is a BTRON SIG at the NIFTY SERVE on-line service in Japan, where there are large numbers of freeware and shareware that can be downloaded. (Thanks to TAD data standardization, by the way, BTRON users can swap text and/or graphics when chatting via NIFTY SERVE.)
For further information on BTRON: Research papers and technical specifications and manuals concerning the BTRON architecture are available from the following sources:
The proceedings of TRON Project symposia The proceedings of the TRON symposia have been published annually in English since 1987. Between 1987 and 1990, they were published by Springer-Verlag, and since 1991 they have been published by IEEE Computer Society Press.
Specifications, technical manuals, etc. Technical specifications for the various BTRON-based operating systems and other BTRON-specification technologies, such as the TRON keyboard, etc., are available from the TRON Association. The address is as follows:
TRON Association 5th Floor Katsuta Bldg., Mita 1 chome 3-39 Minato-ku, Tokyo 108 Japan Tel.: 03-3454-3191 Fax: 03-3454-3224 ------------------end of excerpt
Microsoft and the most all of the US PC industry hates this OS and it's easy to see why.
Posted by Charles Jannuzi