The TRON Project began in June 1984 as a collaborative industry/academia project with the University of Tokyo. In 1982, an OS Subgroup (Chairman: Sakamura Ken) was established in the Microcomputer Software Application Special Interest Group of the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association. This Subgroup proposed a unique vision for microcomputer development in Japan and presented its findings as a report in 1983. As a result of these findings, the TRON Project was launched in June 1984 as a collaborative industry/academia project for actually implementing the report, with the goal of building a new computer architecture.
The purpose was to build a cooperative system with distributed functionality (i.e., a system with ultra-distributed functionality) to enable connection of an extremely high number of computers and enable them to fulfill their different purposes simultaneously and in parallel while maintaining their inter-relationships. Research and development was done by establishing a number of subprojects: TRON specification chips (a microprocessor architecture using VLSI), ITRON (real-time OS for embedded systems), BTRON (OS specifications for personal computers and workstations, and related specifications), MTRON (additional specifications for interconnection of the above OS), and the TRON electronic device/human interface (standard guidelines for the human interfaces of various types of electronic devices).
