Actually, if you use an embedded operating system like MicroC/OS-II, you would have to do the same - write the driver for the screen to have access to it!
Yes, there are options - you could use an RTOS that came with the GUI. But, then you could also use T-Engine (the complete kit) which comes with enough examples and a screen driver that lets you write to it.
But that said, the T-Engine kit comes with drivers for touch panel, LCD screen, RS232, PCMCIA, USB host, USB mass storage and CF storage. The kit lets you boot from internal flash, external CF Card, and USB flashdisk. You can hook up an external CDROM or HDD on the USB.
There's a lot you *can* do if you buy the T-Engine development kit. Combine it with appropriate middleware and you *can* build systems rapidly.
It's not the most comprehensive platform at this second, but it's quite good... I think your analysis of it is a bit biased.
I think 1 thing needs to be pointed out - T-Engine does not use ITRON. It used a real-time kernel called the "T-Kernel" which is also an open spec like ITRON. The T-Kernel spec is inspired by the ITRON spec, but there are differences. When ITRON was created, certain features (like virtual memory) were not considered important enough to include (for that generation of products), but the T-Kernel does move in that direction.
ITRON was (is) an OS spec that was created by an industry consortium and adopted by Japanese industry. This did 2 things (IMO):
1. Having the same OS spec meant that there was improved compatibility between products and engineers needed to learn just one OS and they could easily work on different projects and their code would run on most ITRON systems without much changes (if any)
2. NOT having a specific product called ITRON meant that *any* company could (would) implement its own ITRON spec RTOS that was optimized for their target devices. So, ITRON was not a blanket OS that everybody HAD to obtain from 1 vendor - anyone was free to implement an ITRON-spec OS and sell it.
Consequently, there are many implementation of ITRON for different requirements/ processors, etc. but they all adhere to the spec.
One of the things that I have noted about Japanese processor companies is that they do everything! Every Japanese processor company (NEC, Renesas, Toshiba, etc.) has a fairly large team of OS development & support engineers who do OS porting and also support customers with their applications. Also, each of these companies has lots of products in their own name - for example, Hitachi, NEC and Toshiba.
I feel that this is a bit different from western processor companies that used to focus largely on the silicon with OS companies providing operating systems for the silicon and application companies building the systems.
I guess when the OS is provided by the semicon company, it makes a lot more sense for them to maintain a standard and support that. It improves re-use and time-to-market. Also, since ITRON was (just) a spec, it meant that each processor company could sell/provide a highly optimized ITRON kernel for their hardware and use that as a selling point for their silicon.
It's only now that the west has latched on to the idea of platform based design and semicon companies ar etrying to move further up the value chain. Japanese semicon companies have provided cpu + os for a long long time now...
Cheers
Security has been considered and is to be provided using a piece of hardware called eTRON. eTRON can be used for encrypting communications, digital IDs, and even monetary transactions like tickets, etc. Every T-Engine platform is equipped with an eTRON interface (Standard, micro, nano, pico) so that security in the system should be transparent to the system designer.
Actually, I'm not entirely sure if it's "translated" cos I'm not 100% sure of the definition of that.
The work was done in conjunction with Montavista and Microsoft (separate projects, of course) to get T-Linux and T-Windows working. I saw the demos at the TRON Show in December in Tokyo. As I understood it, in both cases, the original application runs on the original kernel (Linux/ Windows).
If I remember correctly, in case of Windows at least, both kernels run in the system - and hard real-time work was done by T-Kernel (video decoding) and the rest of the work (UI, etc.) was done by Windows.
I wish I could find the literature that I had picked up! Would be able to give you more details.
Anyway, it was interesting to see a Microsoft booth at the TRON show - and to hear the message that T-Engine & Windows CE were complementary technologies and how Windows could run with the T-Kernel to deliver much better performance.:)
According to what I had heard, Windows CE.net 5.0 (at least the Japanese version) is supposed to include support for running with the T-Kernel... but, not sure if they will deliver.
As I understand it, Japanese companies in Japan (as against their overseas offices) embraced ITRON (and micro-ITRON) as their RTOS of choice. As a result, most of your consumer electronics today (since many come from Japan) run ITRON or micro-ITRON. NTT Docomo phones run ITRON and most recently, I saw a phone from BenQ at CommunicAsia 2005 in Singapore that runs ITRON.
While *TRON was all about specifications, it somehow enabled the Japanese companies to use a "software platform" that was created in conjunction with other companies.
So, what has come out of the TRON Project? The simple answer might be millions of devices running ITRON? Admittedly, other TRON projects have been less successful!
The T-Engine is the next step in the evolution of ITRON - it should be noted that it's incorrect to say that the T-Engine runs ITRON cos it does not. It runs a kernel called "T-Kernel" based on a modified (updated?) spec of the last ITRON version - there are differences between the two. I think the most important difference is support for virtual memory that was missing in ITRON (or never thought important enough for that generation of embedded devices).
Actually, if you are looking for information in English for the T-Engine, TRONWeb (already linked) is just one source. The other is http://www.onghu.com/te/ which is a new site, but with good links (IMHO) to introductory material and recommended reading. I hope to add more information in the coming weeks!
Cheers,..o.
p.s I maintain the site, so this is a bit of a shamelss plug.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, if you use an embedded operating system like MicroC/OS-II, you would have to do the same - write the driver for the screen to have access to it!
Yes, there are options - you could use an RTOS that came with the GUI. But, then you could also use T-Engine (the complete kit) which comes with enough examples and a screen driver that lets you write to it.
But that said, the T-Engine kit comes with drivers for touch panel, LCD screen, RS232, PCMCIA, USB host, USB mass storage and CF storage. The kit lets you boot from internal flash, external CF Card, and USB flashdisk. You can hook up an external CDROM or HDD on the USB.
There's a lot you *can* do if you buy the T-Engine development kit. Combine it with appropriate middleware and you *can* build systems rapidly.
It's not the most comprehensive platform at this second, but it's quite good... I think your analysis of it is a bit biased.
Cheers
I think 1 thing needs to be pointed out - T-Engine does not use ITRON. It used a real-time kernel called the "T-Kernel" which is also an open spec like ITRON. The T-Kernel spec is inspired by the ITRON spec, but there are differences. When ITRON was created, certain features (like virtual memory) were not considered important enough to include (for that generation of products), but the T-Kernel does move in that direction. ITRON was (is) an OS spec that was created by an industry consortium and adopted by Japanese industry. This did 2 things (IMO): 1. Having the same OS spec meant that there was improved compatibility between products and engineers needed to learn just one OS and they could easily work on different projects and their code would run on most ITRON systems without much changes (if any) 2. NOT having a specific product called ITRON meant that *any* company could (would) implement its own ITRON spec RTOS that was optimized for their target devices. So, ITRON was not a blanket OS that everybody HAD to obtain from 1 vendor - anyone was free to implement an ITRON-spec OS and sell it. Consequently, there are many implementation of ITRON for different requirements/ processors, etc. but they all adhere to the spec. One of the things that I have noted about Japanese processor companies is that they do everything! Every Japanese processor company (NEC, Renesas, Toshiba, etc.) has a fairly large team of OS development & support engineers who do OS porting and also support customers with their applications. Also, each of these companies has lots of products in their own name - for example, Hitachi, NEC and Toshiba. I feel that this is a bit different from western processor companies that used to focus largely on the silicon with OS companies providing operating systems for the silicon and application companies building the systems. I guess when the OS is provided by the semicon company, it makes a lot more sense for them to maintain a standard and support that. It improves re-use and time-to-market. Also, since ITRON was (just) a spec, it meant that each processor company could sell/provide a highly optimized ITRON kernel for their hardware and use that as a selling point for their silicon. It's only now that the west has latched on to the idea of platform based design and semicon companies ar etrying to move further up the value chain. Japanese semicon companies have provided cpu + os for a long long time now... Cheers
Security has been considered and is to be provided using a piece of hardware called eTRON. eTRON can be used for encrypting communications, digital IDs, and even monetary transactions like tickets, etc. Every T-Engine platform is equipped with an eTRON interface (Standard, micro, nano, pico) so that security in the system should be transparent to the system designer.
Take a look through the Overview of T-Engine:
http://www.t-engine.org/english/whatis.html
If you're keen to find out more, the main links:
http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/
http://www.onghu.com/te/
Cheers
Actually, I'm not entirely sure if it's "translated" cos I'm not 100% sure of the definition of that.
:)
:) I don't think this is a translated OS, but I may be wrong..
The work was done in conjunction with Montavista and Microsoft (separate projects, of course) to get T-Linux and T-Windows working. I saw the demos at the TRON Show in December in Tokyo. As I understood it, in both cases, the original application runs on the original kernel (Linux/ Windows).
If I remember correctly, in case of Windows at least, both kernels run in the system - and hard real-time work was done by T-Kernel (video decoding) and the rest of the work (UI, etc.) was done by Windows.
I wish I could find the literature that I had picked up! Would be able to give you more details.
Anyway, it was interesting to see a Microsoft booth at the TRON show - and to hear the message that T-Engine & Windows CE were complementary technologies and how Windows could run with the T-Kernel to deliver much better performance.
According to what I had heard, Windows CE.net 5.0 (at least the Japanese version) is supposed to include support for running with the T-Kernel... but, not sure if they will deliver.
To get an idea of how windows + t-kernel work, take a look at http://www.esol.co.jp/embedded/twister.html
The page is in Japanese, but the pictures are in English
As I understand it, Japanese companies in Japan (as against their overseas offices) embraced ITRON (and micro-ITRON) as their RTOS of choice. As a result, most of your consumer electronics today (since many come from Japan) run ITRON or micro-ITRON. NTT Docomo phones run ITRON and most recently, I saw a phone from BenQ at CommunicAsia 2005 in Singapore that runs ITRON.
While *TRON was all about specifications, it somehow enabled the Japanese companies to use a "software platform" that was created in conjunction with other companies.
So, what has come out of the TRON Project? The simple answer might be millions of devices running ITRON? Admittedly, other TRON projects have been less successful!
The T-Engine is the next step in the evolution of ITRON - it should be noted that it's incorrect to say that the T-Engine runs ITRON cos it does not. It runs a kernel called "T-Kernel" based on a modified (updated?) spec of the last ITRON version - there are differences between the two. I think the most important difference is support for virtual memory that was missing in ITRON (or never thought important enough for that generation of embedded devices).
Actually, if you are looking for information in English for the T-Engine, TRONWeb (already linked) is just one source. The other is http://www.onghu.com/te/ which is a new site, but with good links (IMHO) to introductory material and recommended reading. I hope to add more information in the coming weeks!
..o.
Cheers,
p.s I maintain the site, so this is a bit of a shamelss plug.