The Takeda Award 2001

The Takeda Award 2001 for Social/Economic Well-Being is awarded to Ken Sakamura, Richard M. Stallman and Linus Torvalds for "the origination and the advancement of open development models for system software - open architecture, free software and open source software." This achievement has brought forth outstanding results through free-open methods for the development of computer operating systems and related software.
In 1980, Sakamura proposed the basic concept of TRON (The Real-time Operating system Nucleus,) the operating system kernel for real-time embedded systems. Based on his proposal,the TRON project started in 1984 under the guidance of a committee that was open to anyone. The distinctive features of the TRON concept are that:

	・ Only the application programming interface specifications are defined;
	・ These specifications support real-time operations and a wide-range of processors; and
	・ The resultant specifications are open to everyone as "open architecture."

     In each step during the project cycle - at the first definition of the specifications, and during refinement of specifications after the manufacturers' implementation of the specifications - the process is open in order to gather the wisdom and insights of many users. Resultant TRON specifications have been widely adopted and implemented into various kinds of embedded systems installed in personal/home electronic products, cellular phones and automobiles.
     In 1984, Stallman started to write Unix-compatible system software as free software. This was the start of the GNU project. GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix."The free software concept includes the freedom to access the source code, to modify the program, to redistribute copies and to use the modified program. This process has allowed many programmers to contribute improvements to programs. Resultant GNU software, such as a high performance editor, a compiler and a graphical user interface, gained a high reputation for free software because of their excellent functionality and high stability. GNU is the forerunner of the recent open source movement.
     In 1991, Torvalds released on the Internet his first version source code of the computer operating system kernel, Linux. The Linux project has been conducted in a unique manner to improve this original version. Many volunteers from around the world have joined the project to improve and debug the opened version of Linux source code. Their improvements were filtered very often by Torvalds to be adopted into the next version of Linux. This process led to voluntary, enthusiastic and speedy improvements to Linux, and consequently, a high performance and high reliability operating system kernel was produced.
     The combination of Linux and GNU software has resulted in a complete set of free/open programs making up the UNIX compatible operating system. Because of their excellent performance and low system development cost, GNU and Linux have begun to be widely used for PC, servers and other general-purpose computers.
     These projects - TRON, GNU and Linux - used new methods to develop computer system software, which is the key component to information technology. The free/open development styles and the free/open utilization schemes in these projects gathered the wisdom of many people and led to new computer applications and high-grade programs. Furthermore, these projects showed that the free/open development models are very powerful. These models have had an important influence on the computer software market to modify the conventional approach.
     Engineering intellect and knowledge emerging from this different scheme from the usual market economy approach is stimulating techno-entrepreneurship in markets and is providing major value to people.