dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (04/29/89)
The following is an announcement. Press "n" if you don't want
to see the rest.
April 29,1989
X11 Released for the Amiga Computer
-----------------------------------
The first release of X11 that runs on the lowest cost
computer in the world that supports X11 server and clients:
the Amiga Personal Computer, is now available.
It supports displays up to 1008x1024 on a special monitor
as well as resolutions down to 640x480 on lower cost monitors.
X11 on the Amiga takes advantage of the custom blitter
chip to speed up operations. In many cases the Amiga X11 is
just as fast if not faster than X11 machines costing much
more.
The Amiga X11 uses tcp/ip over ethernet for connections to
other machines and a highly efficient shared memory message
passing scheme for local connections.
Amiga X11 is more than just a server. It includes several
clients that run under the native Amigados os, such as uwm,
xcalc, and bitmap. By including local client capability in
a very low cost workstation, network bandwidth requirements
are lessened compared to a simple X terminal.
The Amiga xpr supports up to fifty different printers
both b/w and color. A single Amiga can be used as a general
purpose print server. Printers that are supported include:
Howtek PixelMaster, HP PaintJet, Calcomp Colormaster.
The Amiga has standard serial and parallel ports. There is an
optional IEEE488 interface available.
Amiga X11 coexists with the native windowing operating system
of the Amiga. Because the Amiga can split it's display into
multiple bitmaps with different resolutions and colormaps, one
can be using uwm in one X screen, twm in another screen,
Intuition in the standard Amiga Workbench screen, and any number
of the amazing paint/animation programs available for the Amiga
in another screen.
Xlib and Xt libraries are planned for introduction later this
year.
Price and Availability: X11 for the Amiga is priced at $395.
X11 plus Optical 3 button Mouse is $475. X11,mouse, and
ethernet board is priced at $1339. Availability is immediate.
Dale Luck
GfxBase
1881 Ellwell Dr.
Milpitas, Ca. 95035
408-262-1469
--
Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc.
{uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dalebakken@arizona.edu (Dave Bakken) (05/01/89)
In article <722@boing.UUCP>, dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes: > April 29,1989 > > X11 Released for the Amiga Computer > ----------------------------------- [ etc. ] > Price and Availability: X11 for the Amiga is priced at $395. > X11 plus Optical 3 button Mouse is $475. X11,mouse, and > ethernet board is priced at $1339. Availability is immediate. Which models are your product for, Dale? All 3, just the 2000, or all but the 1000? -- Dave Bakken bakken@arizona.edu uunet!arizona!bakken "The fact that I'm paranoid doesn't prove everyone's *not* out to get me"
ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (05/01/89)
[ Requisite sacrifice to a line eating bug. ]
> [ Dale announces Amiga X11 for sale. ]
Congratulations, Dale. I hope this does well for you.
What are you going to do now?
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
\_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
P.S: If you say, "I'm going to Disneyland," I'll thump you.dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (05/01/89)
In article <10553@megaron.arizona.edu> bakken@arizona.edu (Dave Bakken) writes: >In article <722@boing.UUCP>, dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes: >> April 29,1989 >> >> X11 Released for the Amiga Computer >> ----------------------------------- > Which models are your product for, Dale? All 3, just the 2000, > or all but the 1000? It runs on all models but needs a minimum of 1M of memory to get a server, 640x400 display going. You need extra memory to run local clients confortably. About 2megs total is pretty good. You also need 5megs of mass storage (disk/NFS) for all the executables and fonts. Also need to find an A1000 ethernet board if you want to connect an A1000 to a network. We presently have A2000 ethernet boards available. This is a list of the current X11/bin directory for the amiga: Xamiga* pbmtoiff* xhost* bitmap* pbmtoxbm* xkill* cbmtopbm* plaid* xlogo* compress* puzzle* xlsfonts* fc* puzzle.script* xmodmap* ico* showsnf* xpr* ifftopbm* sliderule.script* xprkbd* muncher* uwm* xprop* pbmcatlr* xamiga* xset* pbmcattb* xbmtopbm* xsetroot* pbmcrop* xcalc* xsetroot.script* pbmfliplr* xclock* xwd* pbminvert* xfd* xwininfo* pbmtocbm* xfd.script* xwud* I just got twm ported to the amiga, and may include that in the release. -- Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc. {uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dale
erc@pai.UUCP (Eric Johnson) (05/02/89)
In article <722@boing.UUCP>, dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes: > > X11 Released for the Amiga Computer > ----------------------------------- > > The first release of X11 that runs on the lowest cost > computer in the world that supports X11 server and client > ...is now available. I read this with GREAT interest, but I have a few questions that I think others may have, too. 1) Will this run on an Amiga 500? Amiga 2000? 2) How much extra RAM should one have to run X11? (I have yet to buy an Amiga. Being able to run X11--and develop X11 programs, will probably sell me permanently on the Amiga.) Anyway, what hardware will I need? 3) Will I need an Ethernet card? I only intend the Amiga for local X development and execution, i.e., I do not intend to make use of X's network transparency, on the Amiga. For example, the Apple Mac II (if I may mention an Apple in this group), running AUX, runs X11 with or without a network card (without a network card all clients are local, obviously). The HP 320 (at least for X10) requires a network card and an ARPA library to run X. On the Amiga (a multitasking system with built-in inter-process communication), do I need an Ethernet card and software to run a local X server and local clients, or can I just use a stock Amiga? > It supports displays up to 1008x1024 on a special monitor > as well as resolutions down to 640x480 on lower cost monitors. 4) What special monitor is this? Also, will X11 run on the standard Amiga monitor with standard Amiga video, or will I need a special graphics hardware system/monitor? 5) Since below you seem to state that X runs on its own Amiga (software) "screen," will I be able to get a GenLock device and transfer my X graphics to Video tape? (This would be great fun.) > X11 on the Amiga takes advantage of the custom blitter > chip to speed up operations... > The Amiga X11 uses tcp/ip over ethernet for connections to > other machines and a highly efficient shared memory message > passing scheme for local connections. This seems to imply that I do not need an Ethernet board and software to run X locally, correct? > Amiga X11 is more than just a server. It includes several > clients that run under the native Amigados os, such as uwm, > xcalc, and bitmap. By including local client capability in > a very low cost workstation, network bandwidth requirements > are lessened compared to a simple X terminal. Isn't multitasking great? Also, looking at the costs below, I suspect an Amiga 500 running your port of X11 will blow the socks off the price for most X terminals. That's a nice thought: An X workstation for the price of an X terminal. 6) Does the system come with xwd? (You mentioned xpr. I usually want to grab my images digitally so I can edit them later, rather than just print them out.) > Amiga X11 coexists with the native windowing operating system > of the Amiga. Because the Amiga can split it's display into > multiple bitmaps with different resolutions and colormaps, one > can be using uwm in one X screen, twm in another screen, > Intuition in the standard Amiga Workbench screen, and any number > of the amazing paint/animation programs available for the Amiga > in another screen. 7) Any chance for cut and paste between Amiga windows and X windows? > Xlib and Xt libraries are planned for introduction later this > year. 8) How much will this X development system cost? To me, X isn't that useful unless I can develop code for it. > Price and Availability: X11 for the Amiga is priced at $395. > X11 plus Optical 3 button Mouse is $475. X11,mouse, and > ethernet board is priced at $1339. Availability is immediate. > > > Dale Luck > GfxBase > 1881 Ellwell Dr. > Milpitas, Ca. 95035 > 408-262-1469 Again, this sounds just wonderful, and it may sell a few Amigas, too. Right now, I'm looking to buy a home X platform, and, since I cannot really afford a Sun 4 or a Silicon Graphics PI (nor a Cray-2 backend), the Amiga running X has a LOT of potential in my book. Thanks in advance, -Eric -- Eric F. Johnson | Phone +1 612-894-0313 | Are we Prime Automation,Inc | UUCP: bungia!pai!erc | having 12201 Wood Lake Drive | UUCP: sun!tundra!pai!erc | fun Burnsville, MN 55337 USA | DOMAIN: erc@pai.mn.org | yet?
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (05/02/89)
In article <11473@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: >> [ Dale announces Amiga X11 for sale. ] > > Congratulations, Dale. I hope this does well for you. > What are you going to do now? Yes, he's going to Disneyland! -- Marco Papa 'Doc' Thumped :-( -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (05/02/89)
In article <491@pai.UUCP> erc@pai.UUCP (Eric Johnson) writes: >In article <722@boing.UUCP>, dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes: >> >> X11 Released for the Amiga Computer >> ----------------------------------- > >1) Will this run on an Amiga 500? Amiga 2000? Yes, the machines are essentially identical. >2) How much extra RAM should one have to run X11? (I have yet to buy 1 meg of mem is required to get the server and display up. There is plenty of memory left for several remote clients. Local clients really need extra memory. A three meg system is a very usable system. >an Amiga. Being able to run X11--and develop X11 programs, will >probably sell me permanently on the Amiga.) Anyway, what hardware >will I need? You will need 5 megs of mass storage for the current distribution which includes all the R2 fonts and many clients. >3) Will I need an Ethernet card? Nope, however you will be able to run only the clients and utilities we have provided since the link libraries and toolkits are still under development. They are being ported to the Lattice 5.+ environment. >do I need an Ethernet >card and software to run a local X server and local clients, or can >I just use a stock Amiga? As I said no ethernet is necessary. I have a preliminary version that also supports Syndesis's DECnet and all the hardware it used was the serial port. >> It supports displays up to 1008x1024 on a special monitor >> as well as resolutions down to 640x480 on lower cost monitors. >4) What special monitor is this? Also, will X11 run on the >standard Amiga monitor with standard Amiga video, or will I need >a special graphics hardware system/monitor? The A2024 monitor that we all are still waiting for from Commodore is one that will support it, as well as the Viking 1 monitor from Moniterm. The Viking 1 is a 19" 1008x800 two bitplane (4 grey scales) display. No extra hardware is required. 1Meg of chip memory is very useful though. Also to support that big of display requires more than the 1M in an A2000. Yes, X will run on a standard amiga monitor. It supports interlace and non interlace displays so people with flickerfixers get a nice rock steady display. >5) Since below you seem to state that X runs on its own Amiga >(software) "screen," will I be able to get a GenLock device and >transfer my X graphics to Video tape? (This would be great fun.) Should be no problem at all. It is just another Amigados application. >6) Does the system come with xwd? (You mentioned xpr. I usually want to >grab my images digitally so I can edit them later, rather than just >print them out.) Yes, xwd is included (xwd = X Window Dumper) >7) Any chance for cut and paste between Amiga windows and X windows? Not likely in the near future. >> Xlib and Xt libraries are planned for introduction later this >> year. >8) How much will this X development system cost? To me, X isn't that >useful unless I can develop code for it. Price has not been established yet. The initial release was geared to people that needed an alternative to limited use X Terminals and expensive Unix based workstations. >Eric F. Johnson | Phone +1 612-894-0313 | Are we >12201 Wood Lake Drive | UUCP: sun!tundra!pai!erc | fun -- Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc. {uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dale
pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte) (05/04/89)
A few followup questions.
1. What visuals do you support? (On a standard Amgia display? on a viking?)
2. Do your sample clients use a shared library? If not, do you plan to
do this in the future? How big are the executables? (E.g., how big
is plaid? uwm?)
3. Any plans for R3? R4? Motif?
4. Is there a mechanism for creating more than 1 X screen at a time
(on the same display)?
5. If one wanted to buy an Amiga as a low cost X terminal, how much
would it cost, all told? (I'm not sure what an A500 + 512K goes
for.) Have you thought of selling such a thing as a package?
Between the Amiga's fast context switching, shared memory IPC, graphics
hardware, and local clients, this should really kick a**. I'd like to
see it benchmarked against some of the X terminals floating around. I
wish you the best of Luck with this.
--
-Peter Schachte
pds@quintus.uucp
...!sun!quintus!pdscjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) (05/04/89)
From article <1048@quintus.UUCP>, by pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte): > A few followup questions. > > 1. What visuals do you support? (On a standard Amgia display? a viking?) I would like to ask the net in general and X and DNET experts in particular what LOW COST monitors make the best amiga consoles for UNIX terminal applications. What monitors are people using as UNIX terminals, and if they were bargains, where did you get them? I have a spare amiga (without a monitor) and would love to replace the Wyse75 on my desk... -- | Clint Jeffery, University of Arizona Department of Computer Science | cjeffery@arizona.edu -or- {noao allegra}!arizona!cjeffery --
dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (05/05/89)
In article <1048@quintus.UUCP> pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte) writes: > >1. What visuals do you support? (On a standard Amgia display? on a viking?) We support two styles of visuals. All are single bitplane "monochrome" 1. The a2024/Viking 1 monitor 1008x800(usa) 1008x1024(europe) 2. Standard amiga screen. variable width and height. Interlace can be turned on to get more rows on the display. Normal resolution used is 704x484 interlaced and jam the display up and to the left to get the most pixels on screen. > >2. Do your sample clients use a shared library? If not, do you plan to > do this in the future? How big are the executables? (E.g., how big > is plaid? uwm?) Not yet, we plan on it in the future. -rwxr-xr-x 1 dale software 72012 Apr 27 12:12 plaid* -rwxr-xr-x 1 dale software 154848 Apr 27 12:30 uwm* >3. Any plans for R3? R4? Motif? Yup, stay tuned. > >4. Is there a mechanism for creating more than 1 X screen at a time > (on the same display)? If you have memory to burn you can run 2 copies of the server each with it's own screen. The typical syntax is Xamiga<cr> "starts Xserver display 0" Xamiga :1<cr> "should start it for display 1" You will then have two screens up. You can direct the clients to come up in any of those screens by specifying. xcalc -display unix:0 or xcalc -display unix:1 the <unix> was the interim syntax for "local connection" >5. If one wanted to buy an Amiga as a low cost X terminal, how much > would it cost, all told? (I'm not sure what an A500 + 512K goes > for.) Have you thought of selling such a thing as a package? This is what I am planning. Kind of waiting for a low cost a500 ethernet board. Could also use V1.4/ecs and a cheap 31kz b/w monitor. >Between the Amiga's fast context switching, shared memory IPC, graphics >hardware, and local clients, this should really kick a**. I'd like to >see it benchmarked against some of the X terminals floating around. I have some of my own benchmarks that I do not like to strut around. I would not mind current users of X on their Amiga though running some of their own tests and sending me some information about were it is lacking. > I wish you the best of Luck with this. Thanks, I'm going to need it. >-Peter Schachte -- Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc. {uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dale
dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (05/05/89)
In article <10609@megaron.arizona.edu> cjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) writes: > >I would like to ask the net in general and X and DNET experts in particular >what LOW COST monitors make the best amiga consoles for UNIX terminal >applications. What monitors are people using as UNIX terminals, and if >they were bargains, where did you get them? I have a spare amiga (without >a monitor) and would love to replace the Wyse75 on my desk... I was using a Franklin composite monitor (used about 50$). With A500 or an A2000 worked well on the mono-composite output. The AppleII compatible monitor was a green screen with medium-long persistance phosphor. After adjusting the contrast a little, had to look carefully to see it flicker in interlace mode. Basically a decent setup for terminal replacement. -- Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc. {uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dale
yee@osf.OSF.ORG (Michael Yee) (05/05/89)
Is the X11 port to the Amiga X11r2 or X11r3? How much memory do I need to run the server and awm on a Amiga 500 with the old Agnus chip? BTW: I think this product has great potential. I saw it in its early stages at Xhibition '88, and it was talking to a Sun in the exhibition booth next to it. The only problem is that I wish I can run X over a modem (e.g. 9600 baud) to a client on the other end. May be soon... =Mike Yee BTW: I found the secret message on a old Workbench v1.1 disk. What a eye opener!
eric@pyramid.pyramid.com (Eric Bergan) (05/05/89)
Are there any plans for SLIP support? -- eric ...!pyramid!eric
bakken@arizona.edu (Dave Bakken) (05/06/89)
In article <68928@pyramid.pyramid.com>, eric@pyramid.pyramid.com (Eric Bergan) writes: > > Are there any plans for SLIP support? I hope that's near the bottom of Dale's list. X over IP, and especially over SLIP @9600, would probably be way too slow for interactive programs. -- Dave Bakken bakken@arizona.edu uunet!arizona!bakken
elg@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Green) (05/07/89)
in article <10609@megaron.arizona.edu>, cjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) says: > From article <1048@quintus.UUCP>, by pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte): >> 1. What visuals do you support? (On a standard Amgia display? a viking?) > I would like to ask the net in general and X and DNET experts in particular > what LOW COST monitors make the best amiga consoles for UNIX terminal > applications. What monitors are people using as UNIX terminals, and if > they were bargains, where did you get them? I have a spare amiga (without > a monitor) and would love to replace the Wyse75 on my desk... Magnavox Computer Monitor 80. Medium-persistence phosphor monochrome green-screen. Looks great in interlace -- nearly no flicker at all. Overscans well -- I'm doing 704x440. Can't stand going back to a 1084, at least for text work (now, for graphics it's useless). Bought it for $50 from Sears. However, last time I looked, Sears was selling it for around $100. talk.religion.computer: just say yes! -- | // Eric Lee Green P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509 | | // ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg (318)989-9849 | | // Join the Church of HAL, and worship at the altar of all computers | |\X/ with three-letter names (e.g. IBM and DEC). White lab coats optional.|
dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (05/08/89)
In article <10663@megaron.arizona.edu> bakken@arizona.edu (Dave Bakken) writes: >In article <68928@pyramid.pyramid.com>, eric@pyramid.pyramid.com (Eric Bergan) writes: >> >> Are there any plans for SLIP support? > We've done some testing with an early version of DECnet for the Amiga over serial line. It worked over standard serial line as well as over ASDG's serial boards up to about 56k baud I think. There were some bugs in the X11 support though so we removed the support for the release and it will reappear in a later release when it is completely working. -- Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc. {uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dale