scott@talarian.UUCP (Scott Weitzenkamp) (10/03/89)
Thanks to everyone who responded to my query for more info
on the latest X11 that works on a BellTech 386 workstation. My
original message was:
I have a Bell Technologies 80386 workstation with the BellTech mono
Blit card and a 1660x1200 mono monitor. I bought System V 3.2 and X11
from BellTech. The X11 is AT&T's XWIN product, but I cannot tell what
version it is. It is based on X11 Release 2, and does not support
TCP/IP. This product is functional, but somewhat slow.
Bell Tech was acquired by Intel a couple of months ago, and now I
cannot seem to find anyone who can tell me if there is a more recent
version of X11 for my workstation. I have heard that there is a
version of XWIN that supports TCP/IP, and that XWIN would be getting
faster. What about XWIN based on X11 Release 3? Can anybody out
there help me? Has anybody bought X11 from Streamlined Networks?
Here are the replies I got...
/* ========================================================================= */
From homxb.att.com!twolf (Thomas Wolf)
We bought a version of Bell Tech's X11 product just before they got gobbled
up by Intel. As you mentioned, it appears to be AT&T's XWIN, but with some
additional libraries/unsupported applications. The version we got (v1.1) does
has support for TCP/IP as well as the VDC-600 monitor (800x600) - neither of
which worked in v1.0.
I am not sure which AT&T XWIN version is equivalent to Bell Tech's v1.1.,
however. When AT&T began selling their OpenLook Toolkit product, we installed
that and got rid of Bell Tech's stuff (except the extra libraries/applications,
of course. :-)
I am not sure about speed-increases in newer X Servers. The new OpenLook
stuff will not win speed-records by any means (but that may be due to the
fact that we're running the thing on a 'mere' 6Meg of RAM instead of the
suggested MINIMUM of 8Meg :-( I hear, though, that the next update will have
much better performance...but this may just be another rumour.
Hope this helps,
Tom
P.S. I guess I should say to OpenLook's defense that the reason for the
8Mb RAM suggestion is due to the OpenLook Workspace-, File-, and
Window-Managers, all of which eat up lots of memory and cpu-cycles...They're
pretty neat, though, and should be tried at least once :-) And in addition,
I have my doubts whether Motif would run any faster in a '386 box.
(Oh, btw, the views expressed are my own and not that of my employer.)
---
+---------------+-----------------------------+ I don't remember,
| Tom Wolf | Phone: (201) 949-2079 | I don't recall,
| Bell Labs, NJ | E-mail: twolf@homxb.att.com | I have no memory,
+---------------+-----------------------------+ Of anything at all. P. Gabriel
/* ========================================================================= */
From uunet!ntc!olaf
We are in the same situation - hoping for Intel/Bell to come out with
a new version based on Release 3. There is no commitment from them
so we are temporarily using an NCD X terminal as display having
ported the Rel. 3 libraries to the Bell PC ourselves.
We had serious trouble getting Streamlined Networks to install & run
correctly. We switched to Bell TCP/IP from Lachman instead asnd it
works.
/* ========================================================================= */
From uunet!pmafire!dave (Dave Remien)
THe first version out from Bell was a straighforward port of AT&T, and
only supported Starlan.
There is a newer version, 1.3 I believe, that supports the Lachman
network drivers (but not the Streamlined Net stuff), for I586, 3c50[13],
and the WD8003 cards. It's a leetle bit faster, but still VERRRY slow,
compared to other implementations. It's still 11.2, as well. Works
better on a VGA card than it does on the BLIT mono.
I wasn't real satisifed with Streamlined from Bell Tech; it worked
mostly, but various things were somewhat broken. The Lachman stuff is a
whole lot better.
Getting hold of Intel/Bell is a major pain in the ass these days.
Hope this helps; let me know if I can fill in details.
Dave
---
Dave Remien - WINCO Computer Eng. Group -{uunet | bigtex}!pmafire!dave-
"And who's birthday is today?" "Why, nobody, Hugh" (Firesign
"In history, Patty, before they changed the water...." Theater)
/* ========================================================================= */
From scottw@ico.isc.com (Scott Wiesner)
I know this really doesn't directly answer your questions, but Interactive
supports the Bell Tech Blit, and based on the numbers that have been mentioned
on the net, our performance appears to be better than that provided by
Bell Tech's product. We also are X11.3, support tcp/ip ethernet, and in
the next update, will have a working xload client. The bad news (for you
at least..) is that our X11 package runs only on our own 386/ix version
of System V.3.x
Scott Wiesner
Interactive Systems
X Development Group
/* ========================================================================= */
From izen@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Steven H. Izen)
You may want to send a copy of your question to Jim McKim
(mckim@mildred.lerc.nasa.gov)
He is using the hardware you describe and is running X on it. I know
he doesn't read the news, so that would be the only way of getting
the question to him.
Steve Izen
--
Steve Izen: {sun,uunet}!cwjcc!skybridge!izen386!steve
or steve%izen386.uucp@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu
or izen@cwru.cwru.edu "My second bike is a car."
/* ========================================================================= */
From tmb@ai.mit.edu (Thomas M. Breuel)
I have X11R2 Version 1.0 and 1.1 from BellTech. 1.1 supports TCP/IP
but is still slow. According to my sales rep, SVR4 and X11R3 (or,
at least, an improved X11R2) will be out in "October".
Thomas.
/* ========================================================================= */
Thanks again to everyone who responded. It looks like I'm going to
get Lachman TCP/IP, XWIN 1.1 (and maybe OpenLook).
--
Scott Weitzenkamp, Talarian Corporation, Mountain View, CA
uunet!talarian!scott scott@talarian.uu.net (415) 941-9417
"Welcome to the late show, starring NULL and void" -- Men At Work
Mail responses, and I'll summarize to the net.