It is almost six years since the inauguration of the TRON project, a con cept first proposed by Dr. K. Sakamura of the University of Tokyo, and it is almost 2 years since the foundation of the TRON Association on March 1988. The number of regular member companies registered in the TRON Association as of November 1988 is 145 which is a new re cord for the Association. Some of this year's major activities that I would particularly like to mention are: - Over 50 TRON project-related products have been or are about to be introduced to the marketplace, according to a preliminary report from the Future Study Committee of the TRON Association. In par ticular, I am happy to say that the ITRON subproject, which is ahead of the other subprojects, has progressed so far that several papers on ITRON applications will be presented at this conference, which means that the ITRON specifications are now ready for application to em bedded commercial and industrial products.

I wish to extend my warm greetings to you all on behalf of the TRON Association, on this occasion of the Seventh International TRON Project Symposium. The TRON Project was proposed by Dr. Ken Sakamura of the University of Tokyo, with the aim of designing a new, comprehen sive computer architecture that is open to worldwide use. Already more than six years have passed since the project was put in motion. The TRON Association is now made up of over 140 co m panies and organizations, including 25 overseas firms or their affiliates. A basic goal of TRON Project activities is to offer the world a human-oriented computer culture, that will lead to a richer and more fulfilling life for people throughout the world. It is our desire to bring to reality a new order in the world of computers, based on design concepts that consider the needs of human beings first of all, and to enable people to enjoy the full benefits of these com puters in their daily life. Thanks to the efforts of Association members, in recent months a number of TRON-specification 32-bit microprocessors have been made available. ITRON-specification products are continuing to appear, and we are now seeing commercial implementations of BTRON specifications as well. The CTRON subproject, mean while, is promoting standardization through validation testing and a portability experiment, and products are being marketed by sev eral firms. This is truly a year in which the TRON Project has reached the practical implementation stage.

Proceedings of the December 1996 symposium, reflecting the latest work on a project begun in 1984 to promote a standard operating system capable of real time, multitask function and Japanese language-based processing. Includes papers on subjects such as the $500 Internet computer, technological supp"

Proceedings of the fall 1995 symposium, exploring progress in computer and software technologies and applications to computers, telecommunications systems, and equipment, and highlighting new microprocessor technologies. Topics include multilingual computing; real-time software development systems and operating systems; the data exchange format for HFDS; applying a real-time operating system to transmission equipment management; and human-machine interface. Includes an overview of the TRON project. No index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Proceedings of the December 1994 symposium on The Real-time Operating system Nucleus (TRON) project, aimed at creating an ideal computer architecture. Topics include real-time and portability features in CTRON, human interface for embedded computers, fault-tolerant systems, and 32-bit microprocessors for embedded systems and efficient testable designs. Includes an overview of the project. No index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.