TRON Forum has published to its members the "FY 2024 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends."

TRON Forum (Location: Shinagawa, Tokyo, Chair: Ken Sakamura, Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo), which is a proponent of TRON Project, and aims to establish the Open IoT environment that is free of restrictions imposed by organizations or applications by using open source, open data and Open API, has compiled “FY 2024 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends.” The report shows that approximately 60 percents of the share of "the API of embedded OS in use" is held by API of the T-Kernel specification API including μT-Kernel specification API, etc. and ITRON specification API. This means that the TRON RTOS family has occupied the topmost share for 26 consecutive years since the start of the survey.

 As a result of this survey, the following points can be noted.

• The TRON Real-Time OS (RTOS) family has been recognized as an IEEE Milestone, and the awareness overseas may have increased accordingly.
• TRON RTOSs are gaining wider recognition in Japan as well.

This survey has been held as annual measurements for 26 times so far at the venue of EdgeTech+ 2024 (Organizer: Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association: JASA, Venue: PACIFICO YOKOHAMA) and its predecessors. The latest FY 2024 Survey Report summarizes the result of the questionnaire answered by the respondents through the special website for this survey and the visitors to EdgeTech+ 2024 which was held from November 20 to 22, 2024.

 TRON Forum publishes the whole content of the survey result on the members-only web pages for Executive Committee/A-/i-/B-/O-/Academic members. If corporations and the members other than the above need the survey result, “Limited to a division only readership version (100,000 yen excluding tax)” and “Company-wide readership version (200,000 yen excluding tax)” will be on sale through the web shop (https://www.personal-media.co.jp/webshop/) operated by Personal Media Corporation, one of the Executive Committee members of TRON Forum.

Press contact

TRON Forum Secretariat Office (contact: Mr. Kashiwa)
Phone: +81-3-5437-0572 Fax: +81-3-5437-2399
Email: press@tron.org
URL: http://www.tron.org/

• Press release

TRON Forum has published to its members the "FY 2023 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends" for the first time in four years.

TRON Forum (Location: Shinagawa, Tokyo, Chair: Ken Sakamura, Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo), which is a proponent of TRON Project, and aims to establish the Open IoT environment that is free of restrictions imposed by organizations or applications by using open source, open data and Open API, has compiled “FY 2023 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends.” The report shows that approximately 60 percents of the share of "the API of embedded OS in use" is held by API of the T-Kernel specification API including μT-Kernel specification API, etc. and ITRON specification API. This means that the TRON RTOS family has occupied the topmost share for the 25 consecutive times since the start of the survey.

As a result of this survey, the following points can be noted.

• The TRON Real-Time OS (RTOS) family has been recognized as an IEEE Milestone, and the awareness overseas may have increased accordingly.
• TRON RTOSs are gaining wider recognition in Japan as well.

This survey has been held as annual measurements for 25 times so far at the venue of EdgeTech+ 2023 (Organizer: Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association: JASA, Venue: PACIFICO YOKOHAMA) and its predecessors. The latest FY 2023 Survey Report summarizes the result of the questionnaire answered by the respondents through the special website for this survey and the visitors to EdgeTech+ 2023 which was held from November 15 to 17, 2023.

TRON Forum publishes the whole content of the survey result on the members-only web pages for Executive Committee/A-/i-/B-/O-/Academic members. If corporations and the members other than the above need the survey result, “Limited to a division only readership version (100,000 yen excluding tax)” and “Company-wide readership version (200,000 yen excluding tax)” will be on sale through the web shop (http://www.personal-media.co.jp/webshop/) operated by Personal Media Corporation, one of the Executive Committee members of TRON Forum from the middle of April.

Press contact

TRON Forum Secretariat Office (Contact: Mr. Kashiwa)
Phone: +81-3-5437-0572 Fax: +81-3-5437-2399
Email: press@tron.org
URL: https://www.tron.org/

• Document
• API of embedded OS
• API of embedded OS in different application fields

TRON Forum has released the latest official version (3.00.06) of µT-Kernel 3.0 on GitHub since October 17, 2022.

The specification of µT-Kernel 3.0 is fully upward compatible with “IEEE 2050-2018,” the international standard of OS specification for IoT edge nodes. In this version upgrade, more CPU cores such as RX65N and STM32H7 are supported, and device drivers have been added.

In addition, Board Support Packages (BSPs) for commercial off-the-shelf CPU boards have been released. The BSP allows developers to use μT-Kernel 3.0 on a supported microprocessor board immediately after purchase.

The current CPUs and target boards are as follows.: STM32L476 (Nucleo-64), STM32H723 (Nucleo-144), RX65N (Renesas Target Board and Starter Kit+), and RP2040 (Raspberry Pi Pico).

A BSP for a CPU board includes μT-Kernel 3.0 in which basic device drivers for the target board are already installed, and it also comes with the project file(s) for the particular development environment of the target.

See the following URLs for more details.

•  μT-Kernel 3.0 reference source code
  https://github.com/tron-forum/mtkernel_3
• μT-Kernel 3.0 BSP
  https://github.com/tron-forum/mtk3_bsp

TRON Forum (Chair Ken Sakamura, IEEE Life Fellow/IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Member, Dean of Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design, Toyo University Director, YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo ) is pleased to announce that TRON RTOS family, has been recognized as IEEE Milestone by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

An IEEE Milestone recognizes a significant technical achievement that occurred at least twenty-five years ago in an area of technology represented in IEEE.

The official name of the Milestone is "TRON Real-time Operating System Family, 1984." The TRON project was started in 1984 by a computer architecture project team and its partners under the leadership Ken Sakamura at the University of Tokyo. This is an open innovation project, which was rare at the time, to establish an efficient development environment for embedded systems in anticipation of the era when what we now call the IoT environment becomes commonplace. The TRON real-time OS family was planned, researched, and developed as the core of this development environment. This OS is widely used and continues to improve and evolve. The specification of a family member, µT-Kernel 2.0, has been adopted as an IEEE standard (2050-2018).

The Milestone citation reads as follows.: In 1984, a computer architecture project team at the University of Tokyo began designing The Real-time Operating system Nucleus (TRON) OS family and helping external partners commercialize it. Specifications and sample source code were provided openly and freely, facilitating innovations by developers and users. TRON real-time OS family copies have been adopted worldwide in billions of embedded computer devices, including aerospace and industrial equipment, automotive systems, and home electronics.

"IEEE Milestone recognition is a great honor for the project and its members and users of the TRON RTOS family who have produced numerous products that are part of our daily living and social infrastructure. I am delighted that our activity of TRON Project is recognized this way," Sakamura stated on this occasion.

Under Sakamura's leadership, TRON Forum will continue to provide, improve, and promote the TRON RTOS family, their development and network environment that support them so that they can be used easily in consumer markets. The Forum would like to thank the members and partners for their past cooperation and continued support in future promotional activities.

Milestone plaque dedication ceremony is being planned this fall at the University of Tokyo campus where the plaque will be permanently displayed.

About IEEE

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice in a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more at https://www.ieee.org

About IEEE Milestone

The IEEE Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing program honors significant technical achievements in all areas associated with IEEE. It is a program of the IEEE History Committee, administered through the IEEE History Center. Milestones recognize the technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity found in unique products, services, seminal papers and patents.

IEEE established the Milestones Program in 1983 in conjunction with the 1984 Centennial Celebration to recognize the achievements of the Century of Giants who formed the profession and technologies represented by IEEE.

Each milestone recognizes a significant technical achievement that occurred at least twenty-five years ago in an area of technology represented in IEEE and having at least regional impact. To date, more than two hundred thirty Milestones have been approved and dedicated around the world.
Learn more at https://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Main_Page 

About TRON Project

TRON Project is a computer architecture development project by collaboration of industry and academia and started in 1984. Ken Sakamura (IEEE Life Fellow/IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Member, Dean of Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation And Design (INIAD), Toyo University / Director of YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory) is the project leader and the project has conducted research and development activities in RTOSs for embedded systems, their development environment, the IoT network and other topics.

The architecture, the achievement of this project, has been widely used in embedded systems in various industries ranging from consumer products such as automobile engine control, digital cameras, smartphones, etc., to industrial products including the machine control inside factories. TRON Project has proposed and promoted Open Architecture since its inception. TRON Project actively suggests standard specifications to international standardization associations such as ITU-T, ISO, and IEEE SA, and contributes to the international standardization of the infrastructure technology.

There is an NPO, TRON Forum that promotes the activities of TRON Project. For details of the project, please see its website.
https://www.tron.org/

About TRON Open Architecture

TRON Project has proposed and promoted Open Architecture since its inception. In its vision, computers based on open architecture will be embedded into many devices, and realize the IoT networking environment that supports our lives.

The results of TRON Project such as the whole source codes of TRON RTOSs including T-Kernel and μT-Kernel are published, and can be copied and modified. These outputｓ have been recognized as important element of “TRON Real-time Operating System Family, 1984” as IEEE Milestone.

International Standardization Activity by TRON Project

In addition to making open specification and open source code available, TRON Project actively suggests standard specification to international standardization associations such as ITU-T, ISO, and IEEE SA, and contributes to the international standardization of the infrastructure technology.

“IEEE 2050-2018 - IEEE Standard for a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) for Small-Scale Embedded Systems” was based on the specification of μT-Kernel 2.0, an RTOS developed by TRON Forum. The latest version, μT-Kernel 3.0, conforms to IEEE 2050-2018 completely. This again is an important element of “TRON Real-time Operating System Family, 1984” as IEEE Milestone.

TRON Project has proposed an identification system, ucode, for identifying many devices and data in the IoT age, and a code system based on it has become ITU-T Recommendations. (Y.4804/H.642.1. The project has contributed to the standardization of related standards, ITU-T Y.4551/F.771, Y.4802/H.642.2.）

• Press release (PDF)

—TRON Forum has published the “FY2019 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends” to its member 

TRON Forum (Location: Shinagawa, Tokyo, Chair: Ken Sakamura, Dean of INIAD (Information Networking for Innovation and Design), Toyo University) is a proponent of TRON Project, and aims to establish the Open IoT environment that is free of restrictions imposed by organizations or applications by using open source, open data and open API.

It has compiled “FY2019 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends.” The result shows that approximately 60 percent of the share of "the API of embedded OS in use” is held by T-Kernel specification API (including μT-Kernel specification API) and ITRON specification API. The result shows that TRON RTOS family has occupied the topmost share for the 24 consecutive years since the start of the survey.

The FY2019 Survey Report indicates that:

• The international awareness of TRON RTOS API has been increased by “IEEE2050-201” based on μT-Kernel 2.0 that has been made available to the public as IEEE standard.
• People pay more attention to edge nodes today, so there are increasing number of usage examples of TCP/IP.

This survey has been held as periodic annual measurement for 24 times so far at the venue of Embedded Technology (ET, organized by Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association: JASA) among ET & IoT Technology 2019 and its predecessor. The latest FY2019 Survey Report summarizes the result of the questionnaire answered by the respondents through the special website for this survey or on the premise of ET2019 (Embedded Technology 2019) which was held in PACIFICO YOKOHAMA from November 20 to November 22, 2019.

TRON Forum publishes the whole content of the survey result on the members-only web pages for Executive Committee/A-/i-/B-/Academic members. If corporations and the members other than the above need the survey result, “Limited to a division-only readership version (100,000 yen excluding tax)” and “Company-wide readership version (200,000 yen excluding tax)” will be on sale through the web shop (https://www.personal-media.co.jp/webshop/) operated by Personal Media Corporation, one of the Executive Committee members of TRON Forum, from the middle of April.

Press contact

TRON Forum Secretariat Office (contact: Mr. Kashiwa)
Phone: +81-03-5437-0572　Fax: +81-3-5437-2399
Email: press@tron.org
URL: https://www.tron.org/

TRON Forum (Location: Shinagawa, Tokyo, Chair: Ken Sakamura, Dean of INIAD (Information Networking for Innovation and Design), Toyo University) is a proponent of TRON Project, and aims to establish the Open IoT environment that is free of restrictions imposed by organizations or applications by using open source, open data and Open API. It has compiled “FY2016 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends.” The result shows that approximately 60 percent of the share is held by T-Kernel specification API (including μT-Kernel specification API) and ITRON specification API for "the API of embedded OS in use."  The result shows that TRON RTOS family has occupied the topmost share for the 21 consecutive years since the start of the survey. Also, in the breakdown of embedded OS usage in different application fields, TRON RTOS family occupies the topmost share in the IoT-related devices.

This survey has been held as annual measurements for 21 times so far at the venue of Embedded Technology (ET, organized by Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association: JASA) and its predecessor. The latest FY2016 Survey Report summarizes the result of the questionnaire answered by the respondents through the special website for this survey and the visitors to ET2016 (Embedded Technology 2016) which was held in PACIFICO YOKOHAMA from November 16 to 18, 2016.

TRON Forum publishes the whole content of the survey result on the members-only web pages for Executive Committee/A-/i-/B-/Academic members. If corporations and e-/O-members need the survey result, “Limited to a division-only readership version (100,000 yen excluding tax)” and “Company-wide readership version (200,000 yen excluding tax)” will be  on sale through the web shop ( http://www.personal-media.co.jp/webshop/ ) operated by Personal Media Corporation, one of the Executive Committee members of TRON Forum, from the middle of April.

Press contact

TRON Forum Secretariat Office (contact: Mr. Kashiwa)
TEL: +81-03-5437-0572   
FAX: +81-3-5437-2399
Email: press@tron.org
URL: https://www.tron.org/

Overview of FY2016 Survey Report on Embedded Real-time OS Usage Trends

1. Survey details

• Date: November 16 – 18, 2016
• Venue: Embedded Technology 2016 in PACIFICO YOKOHAMA
• Survey method: Paper-based questionnaire at the venue or entry through the special website for the survey
• The number of the respondents: 356 (232 people with valid answers)

 2. API of embedded OS (excluding non-use of OS, in 2016）

• Approximately 60 percent or more of the share is held by ITRON specification API and T-Kernel specification API.

 3. API of embedded OS in different application fields

•  IoT-related devices are the major portion of recently developed embedded systems, and TRON RTOS family is the most often used OSs among such devices.

— Promoting “Open data” and “Open API” as well as “Embedded systems” and “Ubiquitous computing (the IoT)” in a proactive manner

T-Engine Forum, an organization that standardizes and promotes the ubiquitous computing infrastructure technology (Location: Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan Chair: Ken Sakamura, Professor of the University of Tokyo) will change its name to “TRON Forum” effective on April 1, 2015. The name of the forum has been changed because the initial goal of T-Engine Forum has been achieved by developing T-Engine board as standardized development environment. And it can show clearly that the forum is the nucleus of the project by being named after “TRON” which is well known worldwide as a project name.

TRON Project was started in 1984 by Ken Sakamura, TRON Project Leader. For its over 30 years of history, the activity of the project has been supported by the initial informal TRON association established in 1986, then by TRON Association which was legally incorporated in 1988 and took over the activity, and was integrated into
T-Engine Forum in 2010, and also by T-Engine Forum established in 2002.

T-Engine Forum has designed T-Engine board specification, released the source code and specification of embedded real-time OS (RTOS) ”T-Kernel family,” to the world for free of charge, maintained ITRON specification, and held the seminars on RTOS since its inception. These activities resulted that TRON RTOS family has over about 60% share in the high-end embedded device market in Japan.

TRON Forum will develop and disseminate embedded systems development environment, OS, etc., operate Ubiquitous ID Center and allocate ucode to realize the environment of “ubiquitous computing,” the pioneering concept of the IoT (Internet of Things) and M2M ((Machine to Machine). The forum will also contribute to and disseminate ”open data” which allows anyone to use the data owned by the government

and public institutions, and aggressively work on “open API” where API of devices created using TRON RTOS family and other RTOS, is to be published by device manufacturers, for the better control of such devices in the IoT environment.

Contact of TRON Forum Secretariat

The address, telephone number and fax number will not be changed.
New URL: https://www.tron.org/
New Email address: office@tron.org