The T-Engine concept was proposed last December as an environment that delivers robust middleware and allows for software reuse. The platform — which will include CPU boards and related hardware, a real-time operating system (RTOS), a security architecture and development tools — specifies hardware and software to a certain level.

Supporting companies reportedly will soon release T-Engine boards using a variety of CPUs. Hitachi Ltd. said it will introduce a board equipped with the company's Super H processor, while Mitsubishi Electric Corp. will offer one sporting its proprietary M32 RISC CPU. Yokogawa Digital Computer will offer a board with an ARM CPU, and MIPS CPUs will also soon be supported, according to the T-Engine Forum.

Engineering samples of the platform's anti-tampering chip, eTron, are already said to be available from unidentified member companies. The encryption device is designed to ensure security even if data passes through vulnerable networks such as wireless and Internet links.

The T-Engine activity derives from Tron, The Real-time Operating-system Nucleus, an open OS environment proposed by Tokyo University professor Ken Sakamura in the 1980s. Sakamura will be the chairman of the new T-Engine Forum.

Among the Tron operating systems is µITRON (the "I" stands for industry), an RTOS designed for embedded applications that is widely used in Japan and virtually a de facto standard for mobile phones. Out of µITRON has grown T-Kernel, the T-Engine RTOS.

Where Tron's concept was openness, T-Engine aims at providing stronger standardization on the hardware side so that designers can concentrate on middleware for their embedded systems without worrying about hardware differences and limitations, while also leveraging an easy software-reuse environment.

The need for middleware increases as embedded systems grow more sophisticated and rise in performance. On this platform, system makers can develop a system in a relatively short time based on middleware released for the T-Engine, said a forum spokesman. The group intends to promote T-Engine overseas as well as in Japan.

The forum consists of 22 companies, including semiconductor powerhouses Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, NEC and Toshiba. Other members include the Japanese units of overseas companies, such as Solid of Finland and Pixel Technology of Scotland, along with Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. and other representatives of non-IC industries.

The forum has four standardization efforts on its agenda for development boards and chips. The standard T-Engine is a 120 x 75-mm development board for systems such as PDAs and mobile phones that require high-level user interfaces. The 60 x 85-mm microT-Engine is for systems such as home appliances, with low-level user interfaces. Both standards are on a deadline for completion by year's end.

Further out are the nanoT-Engine, which will be used for developing the minimum components necessary for a ubiquitous environment such as switches, sensors and lighting equipment; and the picoT-Engine, a one-chip computer with wireless communication capability that can be implemented in any system.