Frequently asked questions

We have received various questions about the activities, organization, and technology of the T-Engine Forum. The following are frequently asked questions and our answers.

What is the T-Engine Forum?

It is a nonprofit voluntary organization, whose chairman is Ken Sakamura, University of Tokyo professor.

Although both organizations conduct research and development of, and activities to popularize, computer architectures advocated by Professor Ken Sakamura, they are basically two different organizations.

The Ubiquitous ID Center is set up and operated within the T-Engine Forum. Also, A and e members of the T-Engine Forum promote activities related to the Ubiquitous ID Center.

Admission

The rules of the Forum are contained within T-Engine Forum charter, which establishes our policy (IPR policy) with respect to intellectual property rights at the time of standardization and the proper management of information provided in the process of deliberation within the Forum.

The annual membership fee of the T-Engine Forum is valid for one year (from April to the end of March of the next year). For the first year of membership, the fee is valid from the day you joined the forum to March 31st. There is no admission fee.

A, B and e members are targeted at corporations. As a rule, individuals are not allowed to apply to join the forum. Organizations that conduct educational and research activities related to T-Engine or Ubiquitous ID technology at universities and technical colleges, etc., are entitled to become academic members of the Forum.
You can join the forum as a university, a faculty, a department, a laboratory, etc.

This card is an eTRON card that certifies that the holder is a member of this Forum. The cards automatically identify individual members of the Forum using an automatic registration and admission control system when the members enter events organized by the Forum, such as general meetings, executive committee meetings, committee meetings, working group meetings, etc. They are issued so that we can correctly take attendance at various events and ensure security. Please note that individual members register themselves with the cards but that their ownership belongs to the T-Engine Forum and they cannot be lent out or transferred to others.

Of course, no problem. Some companies join the Forum as an e member to utilize ubiquitous ID technology and some companies join to utilize technology and products provided by A and B members. A lot of e members are companies that are not involved in the information industry at all and the e member group is a kind of multi-industry group.

Membership types

A members design and develop specifications of T-Engine and T-Kernel, or design and develop specifications of Ubiquitous ID technology. In particular, board members are corporations who would like to be deeply involved in the activities of the T-Engine Forum.

B members promote standardization regarding the diffusion of T-Engine. In other words, they are positioned as user members who develop products using T-Engine and T-Kernel.

e members are members who promote standardization regarding the Ubiquitous ID Center and conduct activities related to applications of Ubiquitous ID and activities related to verification experiments.

Yes. Board members are entitled to receive the IPR policy, licenses, and promotions, etc. regarding the whole Forum operation and A members are entitled to receive the relevant technical specifications respectively as they are being designed. B members conduct activities based on the designed specification information, but they can obtain such information before it is made open to public. e members can receive information on Ubiquitous ID and ucode tags as soon as A members have designed the specifications in the working groups (hereinafter, referred to as "WG"). In other words, members are given different priorities regarding the information received (membership types in the order of precedence: board members > A members > B members, e members > General public), which means members are given different levels of privileges depending on the membership type.

To put it plainly, B members handle "T-Engine and T-Kernel" and e members handle "Ubiquitous ID technology and ucode tags". We made these two different membership types because they handle different fields. An organization (or a department) that develops and designs both technologies must become an A member. If you are in a position to utilize both technologies, you have to be both a B and an e member.

A members can:
(1) Be deeply involved in designing T-Engine specifications.
(2) Be deeply involved in designing Ubiquitous ID technology specifications.
(3) Participate in the committees and WGs.
(4) Obtain information earlier, such as specifications that are being designed and production prototypes.
(5) Have all the privileges that B and e members have.

If your company develops and sells middleware products on T-Engine, an A or B membership will be appropriate.

EAP(Experimental Activity Procedure) is a system through which the Ubiquitous ID Center supports verification experiments related to ucode tags conducted by A and e members of the T-Engine Forum.

(1) It is possible to join the Forum as a B or e member and then to change to an A member. You will have to pay the membership fee difference.
(2) As a rule, changing from a B member to an e member and from an e member to a B member is not approved.
(3) It is possible to join the Forum as a B member and then to join also as an e member later, or, conversely, to join the Forum as an e member and then to join also as a B member later. You will have to pay the additional annual membership fee. Please note that the period of an additional membership fee’s validity conforms to [Q5].

Activities of the Forum

The T-Engine Forum conducts activities that include research & development and promotion of Ubiquitous computing as a whole, such as T-Engine and T-kernel, by holding various meetings as necessary, such as quarterly general member meetings, monthly executive committee meetings and committees meetings, and WGs for various issues. Also, we plan to hold various workshops.

Only A members can participate in the committees. The committees are the main meetings to promote research development activities regarding each technology. In principle, meetings are held monthly to report discussions and working progress in WGs and to authorize standards and guidelines. Also, a wide range of technologies, factors, and outlooks are summed up and the trends of related technologies are explained.

In WGs, members design draft plans for standards and guidelines and have to share the workload to participate. A WG is organized to achieve a specific objective within a limited period and is formed and dissolved according to its specific mission, as decided in a committee’s meeting. Meetings are held on a monthly basis as needed and the actual work is shared. Only A members can participate in WGs, but if your aim is to do research and collect information, participating in a committee will be enough.

B members’ and e members’ general meetings are generally held quarterly to report the latest information, information on the committees and WGs and the status of their activities, industry news, etc.

(1) First, you must apply for registration for the committee or WG in which you want to participate on the web site.
•You must be an A member to participate in a committee or WG.
•Committees and WGs are independent organizations. When you register for a committee, you have no obligation to register for a WG under the committee you registered for. Similarly, when you register for a WG, you have no obligation to register for the committee above the WG you registered for.
(2)After your application has been approved by the executive committee and the secretariat has processed it, you can register for participation on the web page.
(3) How to participate in a meeting after being registered for a committee or WG.
•When the committee or WG schedule is fixed, meeting information will be sent via email and you will be able to register for participation on the web page.

How to obtain specifications and information

After joining the Forum, you can access a "members-only web page" for your membership type and obtain information from there.

When specification details are fully confirmed, they will be made open to public. However, draft specifications are not disclosed. We assume that specifications standardized by the T-Engine Forum will be made open to public, but disclosing them without removing some ambiguities in the specifications might make it difficult to promote the standardized specifications because of the spread of products that are similar but not exactly the same. Therefore, draft specifications are made open to members only and specification details are confirmed after developing prototypes and executing tests.

All information that is made open is provided in Japanese and English. In the future, we will support multiple languages including Chinese and Korean, depending on the number of members and development of overseas offices.

All specifications created by the T-Engine Forum can be downloaded. Please note that the levels of information that can be downloaded are different for members and the general public in accordance with [Q22] above.

About T-Kernel

We are sorry but the secretariat doesn’t answer such questions. Please consult with the supporting manufacturers when you are considering using T-Kernel commercially.

If you need further details, we recommend that you read the "T-Kernel Standard Handbook" (Personal Media Corp.)