[comp.windows.x] X11R4 on VAXstation 3520

iga@vector.msk.su (Igor V. Semenyuk) (02/12/91)

Does someone know how to install X11R4 on VAXstation 3520 (using
Ultrix 3.1 with UWS 2.2 which is X11R3 I suppose)? Maybe there
are some patches somewhere? Please e-mail or leave a posting here.

Thanks.

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+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
|       Igor V. Semenyuk        |   "Too many systems, eh?..."  |
|    VAX/VMS/ULTRIX, MSDOS,     |   => iga@vector.msk.su        |
|    WINDOWS programmer         |   +7 095 250 0892 (office)    |

jensen@wrl.dec.com (Paul Jensen) (02/13/91)

In article <ABGQjjdeb5@vector.msk.su> iga@vector.msk.su writes:
>Does someone know how to install X11R4 on VAXstation 3520 (using
>Ultrix 3.1 with UWS 2.2 which is X11R3 I suppose)? Maybe there
>are some patches somewhere? Please e-mail or leave a posting here.

You can't install X11R4 on a Firefox (a/k/a 3520) unless you have
a lot of time on your hands.  The Firefox graphics subsystem
is an accelerator which does not obey cfb semantics.  On the host
side, the ddx code built packets of "template RAM" routines:
a mini-language optimized towards moving data to set-up registers.
The graphics subsystem contained a cVAX, a rendering engine
(based on the proprietary LEGSS chipset), a 3D geometry
transformation engine (based on the Weitek 8136/37 chipset), and
the video backend (more proprietrary chips + Brooktree VDAC).  In
normal operation, the cVAX would fetch and interpret packets
from the host.  Core X packets would be sent directly to LEGSS;
3D packets would be sent to the Weitek, which would eventually
kick back LEGSS register loads.

Even if you were somehow able to obtain the Firefox sources they
wouldn't help much, because that server is not based on the MIT
sample server.  Doing it from scratch would probably take a long
time: it took me and another engineer 8 months just to write the
ddx + cvax firmware (though we had to contend with the usual
array of marginal prototype hardware).  If you're really interested
in how it all worked, there is an article I wrote which appeared in
the Jan 1990 issue of "Digital Desktop" (or so I'm told, I never
actually saw that issue).

--
					/Paul Jensen
					 Digital Equipment Corp.
					 Palo Alto, CA