(Click for larger view of Teacube)
The tiny Teacube next to a shiny teacup coaster
(Click to enlarge)What's a "T-Engine?"T-Engine is an open, standardized development environment for embedded applications overseen by the
T-Engine Forum, established in 2002. The forum describes T-Engine as defining "an open, standardized development environment for embedded applications . . . aimed at constructing a ubiquitous, networked computing environment encompassing portable information devices (such as mobile phones, PDAs, and electronic books), home electronic appliances, and other networked devices." It defines the configuration of a target system processor board, including external dimensions and how the board combines with various types of expansion boards.
T-Engine grew out of the
TRON project ("The Real-time Operating system Nucleus"), an embedded operating system popular in Japan.
The Teacube appears to have an LVDS LCD connector
(Click to enlarge)The TeacubeThe Teacube, or "tangerine computer," is based on an NEC Electronics VR5701 processor, with a MIPS core clocked at 266 or 333MHz. It includes 16MB of Flash memory, and 64MB of SDRAM. Interfaces include 2 x USB host, 2 x RS-232C serial, CompactFlash (IDE), 10/100 Ethernet, external video connector supporting up to 1280x1024 resolution with 65K colors, an eTRON port, and headphone and microphone ports. The device also includes a hardware real-time clock.
The Teacube is a PC/AT compatible device that comes pre-installed with a BTRON3-specification operating system and an assortment of BTRON applications.
Out of the box, the Teacube runs Personal Media's T-Kernel version of BTRON, along with a collection of middleware that provides a command line interface, graphical display, Kana Chinese character conversion and display software, TCP/IP, a web browser, word processing software, a graphics editor, the Micro script visual language, and various configuration utilities.
The Teacube is also reported to be compatible with a version of Windows CE called T-Windows CE .NET.
Personal Media also sells T-Engine development kits for platforms in a number of form-factors, and based on a number of SuperH and ARM processors. It built the Teacube as a demonstration platform, and will also market the device direct for kiosk applications in organizations such as museums, libraries, train stations, and retail outlets.
More InfoThe TRON website has an excellent overview of TRON, including current and future development plans, available
here (PDF download).
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