casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom) (03/07/91)
Ok. Here's the summary I promised. Thanks to all who sent me
information! My original letter and the responses follow.
Casey
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From: casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom)
Date: 21 Feb 91 19:29:33 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
I'm looking for a fast, high quality color X terminal that has 1k x 1k
(or better) pixels on a 19 inch (or better) monitor. Fuzzy monitors need
not apply; I actually want to see the pixels and use the beast for text
work as well as graphics.
Priorities are as follows:
1. Number of *SHARP* pixels on the screen. 1k x 1k is minimum.
2. Size of the screen: 19 inches diagonally is minimum.
3. Speed. If I have to wait all day for xterms to scroll, graphics
to be redrawn, etc. I'm not interested.
4. Price. Obviously this is going to be a fairly expensive beast,
but price will be considered when comparing roughly equivalent
X terminals.
5. Number of colors (depth of display.) 8 bits per pixel are good
enough. More is better, but not enough to justify huge increases
in price or fuzzier displays, etc.
Please email me your suggestions directly (casey@gauss.llnl.gov or
casey@lll-crg.llnl.gov) and I will summerize to the list. Thanks for
your time and input!
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From: jeffg@loki.asd.sgi.com (Jeff C. Glover)
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 91 15:13:38 PST
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
I'd recommend looking at the Tektronix models. They use very high
quality monitors and have a 72 Hz refresh (no flicker!). I'm using a 9
point font for my xterms and that gives me 60x80 windows on the screen,
side by side, perfectly readable.
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From: mrp@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (Mark Prior)
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 1991 18:50:32 +1030
Organization: University of Adelaide, Information Technology Division
I am currently using a Tektronics XP27 and am very happy with it. It has
a 19" screen and the screen is 1152x900 @ 72Hz (there is a higher res
monitor which is 1280x1024). We chose the XP27 since the resolution is
identical to the Suns and we couldn't really justify the extra $s for the
high res model (it's called XP29). They both can display 256 colours from
a palette of 16.7 million (thats from the brochure I'm reading :-). I
can't remember what they benchmarked at but they are the quickest boxes
we could find, and they are quick! Ours have 5MB of memory but they
could probably do with a bit more, you can put 13MB in them. They can use
TCP/IP or DECnet and come with a IBM PC-style keyboard, although we
purchased the optional vt200 keyboards.
The system unit is connected to the display by a long cable so I have my
system unit sitting on the floor under my desk out of the way.
Our prices are probably meaningless to you as they are probably cheaper
in the US :-( but they were very competitive with the other units we
tried.
Hope this helps, and doesn't sound too much like advertising :-)
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From: dem@meaddata.com (David Myers)
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 91 09:15:38 EST
Organization: Mead Data Central
The best quality color 19" X terminals I've seen to date are ones from
IBM and Tektronix. But the IBM is slow as molasses, and the software
sucks. I wouldn't even consider buying one. Look into what Tektronix
has. They're some of the best performers I've seen. I don't have any
specs handy at the moment, but I'm pretty sure the XP29 model meets all
your requirements. Plus, it has a 3 year warranty.
Usual disclaimer: I don't speak for Mead Data Central.
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From: terryh@shamu.wv.tek.com (Terry Holland)
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 12:58:26 -0800
Organization: Tektronix
Here are some answers to the questions you asked:
1. The number of pixels on the screen:
We have two resolution ranges --
1280 X 1024 and
1152 X 900.
The refresh rates are
72 Hz or 60 Hz.
2. Size of screen: We support 14", 16" and 19"
3. Speed. Tektronix X-terminals have been rated as the fastest in the
industry!
4. Number of colors: We support 8 bit planes -- 256 colors. For
grayscale, we support 4 bit planes for 16 levels of gray.
[[And later in response to questions that I sent Terry, he replied:]]
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From: terryh@shamu.wv.tek.com (Terry Holland)
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 91 11:20:56 PST
Organization: Tektronix
Our X-server software is very stable. We have just released version 3.0
last January. We have been shipping the product since June 1990 and
initially there were some bugs in the earlier versions before version 2.2.
The best way to convince you is to install the software at your site and
have you test it. We can arrange an evaluation.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
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From: visual!mjb@uunet.uu.net (Mike Braca)
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 91 20:32:56 EST
Organization: Visual Technology Inc.
Our Xbase/12 has:
1. 1280x1024 pixels, refreshed at 72 Hz.
2. Hitachi 21" monitor with INVAR shadowmask, .28 mm dot pitch,
flat/square profile. [You really have to see it to appreciate it.]
3. Motorola 68020 processor, TI 34020 graphics coprocessor.
4. List price $6,055.
5. 8 planes. Bonus: hardware cursor.
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From: Colas Nahaboo <colas@avahi.inria.fr>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 91 11:06:04 -0100
Organization: Bull Research
Highest quality X-Terminal on the market: Gipsi's Le_Tx 1280 x 1024 x 8
pixels, Sony 19" color monitor (the absolute best in the market). Nice
and fast high-end X terminal, they can make your favorite clients (such
as your favorite WM) run in the X terminal if you want to.
Don't know the price in the US, but this is the best display available.
If you want real high-end X terminal, buy a MIPS-based (MIPS,
DECstation,...) workstation (no kidding!)
[[And later, in a reply to questions of mine concerning this letter Colas
wrote:]]
--------------------
From: Colas Nahaboo <colas@avahi.inria.fr>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 91 15:14:05 -0100
Organization: Bull Research
> | Highest quality X-Terminal on the market: Gipsi's Le_Tx 1280 x 1024 x 8
> | pixels, Sony 19" color monitor (the absolute best in the market.) Nice
> | and fast high-end X terminal ...
>
> Have you compared it with the Tektronix XP29? It's also 1280x1024x8 at
No, guess they haven't been imported in France yet. If they have a sony
monitor, they should be as good as gipsi ones. Gipsi people are top-class
people though, and were quoted by Bob Scheilfer as having the fastest
motorola-based X server 2 years ago...
> Do you have any phone number for Gipsi?
Mail will be easier: Christophe Moret (moret@gispi.gispi.fr), one of the
TX X server developer will be glad to answer you. They have a company
which distributes them in the US, but I do not know its name, he will
tell you.
Hope they wont be too expensive, given the low value of the US Dollar now
:-)
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From: hallamw@zephyrus.crd.ge.com (William J Hallam)
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 13:00:54 EST
NCD and Tektronics both produce very fast and sharp 19" color xterminals.
The Tektronics has more friendly setup menus, but was slow to boot when I
tried it out. Both have the fastest graphics I have seen on an xterminal,
even black and white.
The above reflects my own opinions and not those of my employer
--------------------
From: Joe Huber <lupine!huber@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 91 16:45:31 PST
Organization: Network Computing Devices, Inc.
NCD is developing a new high performance X terminal which fits your
description exactly! It's RISC based and it will display 1280x1024 pixels
on a high resolution 19" monitor and will be available in the summer
time frame.
We offer a special upgrade deal for those customers who need a terminal
now but would like to get a color NCD19c in the future. For each NCD17c
that you buy between Oct 1990 and June 1991 you can purchase an NCD19c
for only $3600.
I think that it would be well worth while to get a 17c now and wait until
summer for the 19c because of NCD's significant software advantages. Our
whole family of hardware products share the following software advantages
vs Tek:
* Local Telnet, LAT and Serial clients
* Local Motif-like window manager
* Xremote protocol for X over serial lines
* Centralized configuration management
* SNMP industry standard network management
* Well proven, stable X server
* Easier and faster setup menus (although Tek's do look pretty :+)
* DECwindows compatibility (No one else can claim this except DEC, its very
hard to do. Having DECnet does not mean you're compatible with DECWindows)
* OpenLook compatibility (including Sun's custom fonts and glyphs)
Even more important are the new software features that we're developing:
1. NCD is writing the Font Server for the MIT R5 release
Font server in NCD software ~6 mos before R5 and
~1 year before Tek integrates it.
2. Outline font technology
3. Imaging technology: (de)compression, rotation and scaling in NCD's
Xterminals
4. Kerbose security enhancements
These kinds of software features are the true value added of the NCD
products.
NCD14c Color - List Price is $3000
1024x768 100dpi 8 bit color
Gorgeous 14" Sony 1304 monitor .25 mm dot pitch
4 MB Ram, keyboard, mouse, thick, thin or 10BaseT Ethernet
20 MHz 68020 plus two custom ASICs for high performance X graphics
NCD17c Color - List Price is $4500
1024x768 85dpi 8 bit color High res 17" Toshiba tube
.25 mm shadow mask technology optimized for fine resolution text
4 MB Ram, keyboard, mouse, thick, thin or 10BaseT Ethernet
20 MHz 68020 plus two custom ASICs for high performance X graphics