svpillay@idunno.Princeton.EDU (Kanthan Pillay) (01/27/91)
Hi all. I have a couple of diskless Sun 3/50s which I'm using as X terminals. Currently, the way I have this implemented is by running xdm on the Suns, but there's still the overhead of SunOS 4.1.1 I've heard that someone out there has come up with a way to put X into the kernel so that performance on these guys is vastly improved. Anyone out there know of such a beast? Pointers to source would be much appreciated. Kanthan Pillay Systems Administrator Program in Applied and Computational Math Work: (609) 258-6488 Internet: svpillay@Princeton.EDU Home: (609) 396-9004 Bitnet: SVPILLAY@PUCC Fax: (609) 258-1735 uucp: princeton!svpillay
mef@klinzhai.rutgers.edu (Marc E. Fiuczynski) (01/28/91)
-->From: svpillay@idunno.Princeton.EDU (Kanthan Pillay)
-->Hi all.
--> I have a couple of diskless Sun 3/50s which I'm using as X
-->terminals. Currently, the way I have this implemented is by running xdm
-->on the Suns, but there's still the overhead of SunOS 4.1.1
--> I've heard that someone out there has come up with a way to put
-->X into the kernel so that performance on these guys is vastly improved.
-->Anyone out there know of such a beast? Pointers to source would be much
-->appreciated.
--> Kanthan Pillay
--> Systems Administrator
--> Program in Applied and Computational Math
-->Work: (609) 258-6488 Internet: svpillay@Princeton.EDU
-->Home: (609) 396-9004 Bitnet: SVPILLAY@PUCC
-->Fax: (609) 258-1735 uucp: princeton!svpillay
Sure, what you are looking for is Xkernel by Seth Robertson.
Do not confuse this with x-kernel, the public domain(?)
protocol testing kernel available from cs.arazona.edu
Xkernel turns a Sun computer into an Xterminal. Currently,
the only machine you might want to do this with is a Sun 3/50.
The 3/50 as an Xterminal has many advantages:
1) It is blindingly fast. Quantitative measurements are not available
since the Sun clock is so bad that both before and after the Sun
was able to respond within the clock granularity. However,
qualitativly, on display instensive programs like xmaze and xtank,
a 3/50 running Xkernel was able to outperform a diskfull 3/60 when
the job was running from the same machine. The entire power of the
MC68020 is devoted to only running Xsun and doing kernel
operations. None of the normal overhead present with SunOS is
around.
2) It saves lots of space. You only need a total of 1.7 MB (plus the
X11 font files that you would need for normal X11 operation) for
any number of machines running the Xkernel. Compaired to >> 20 MB
for normal diskless 3/50s...
Personally, I prefer using the sun3-50 running as an X-terminal
over a 3-60/80. We are running xdm instead of the login that is
provided with Xkernel.
-Marc
--
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