pda@stiatl.UUCP (Paul Anderson) (04/19/89)
This is a collection of information that I have bee pulling together based on my own experiences and responses from the net. I hope you will find it useful. I will endeavor to update and post this monthly. Paul Anderson --------------------------------------------------------------------- How to Get X ============ >From: rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) >Date: 31 Mar 89 12:53:28 GMT >MIT I know that someone at M.I.T. is distributing it, but I need a name and address. Call the X Hotline at MIT, (617) 258-8330, for ordering info. X11 for 386 Unix ================ >From: Dimitri Rotow >Bell Technologies. >Date: ~1/15/89 The Bell Tech Blit series of boards all run X. That we ship X10 as our present commercial implementation doesn't detract from the numerous 11 efforts on the Blit. We'll be shipping 11 in the weeks ahead based on AT&T's own X11 port. AT&T's stuff, by the way, is hands down the very best X11 port on Intel processors running System V. Their XWIN product is available off the shelf today and is absolutely rock solid. Even if you don't have one of our Blit boards, get the AT&T product and run it on your EGA (ugh!). The current line of Blits support 1662 x 1200 resolution in monochrome, and 640 x 480, 1024 x 768, 1024 x 1024 and 1280 x 1024 in color. The new "Instant Workstation" unit combines 1662 x 1200 in mono, plus 640 x 480 in color, plus thick and thin Ethernet, plus a mouse port on the same card. As well as X it runs TCP/IP, NFS and/or RFS for netstuff. These things plug into any '386 clone. Packages similar to Microsoft Windows for X =========================================== >From: Doug Toppin >uunet!melpar!toppin >Date: ~1/15/89 I use something at work called 'Viewnix' from the Five Paces Software company in Atlanta, Georgia. I run IBM Xenix V on an AT. It is configured into the kernel and provides multiple, simultaneously displayed windows on the console. Each window can be the size of the screen or smaller. The windows can remain in the background undisplayed or be floated to the foreground. Each window is in the device directory and is thus treated just like a terminal. Processes can be running in each window and each process believes it controls an entire terminal. I am extremely impressed with its performance and features. I believe the cost is ~$250.00 a pop but it is worth it. Visual Technologies X Window Terminals ====================================== >From: Paul Anderson >Sales Technologies, Inc. >Date: ~1/15/89 Visual Technologies "Visual 640" X Display Station X11R2, TCP/IP, has support to use NFS for font downloads, TELNET terminal mode. 700 KB ROM with X Server and Ethernet Software. Monochrome display, 14" diagonal crt, 1024x800. Thick and thin wire Ethernet interfaces, as will as SLIP at 38.4 kbd. Optical mouse, DEC VT220 compatible keyboard. 68000 Cpu clocked at 10 Mhz, 1MB ram standard. Ed Heinze, Visual Technologies 1703 Middlesex St. Lowell, MA 01851 (508) 459-4903 1 (800) VISUAL-C >From: Paul Anderson >Date: 4/18/89 Visual Technologies now has a 19" display station available. The crt is finally bright enough and stays in focus. And it is fast! They have increased the clock rate on the cpu and have really been at work on the server firmware. The operation is crisp and makes using a terminal fun. The price will be about $1000 more. Acer Counterpoint X Windows Terminals ===================================== >From: Paul Anderson >Sales Technologies, Inc. >Date: ~1/15/89 Acer Counterpoint, Inc. "Acer Xebra 100" X11R2, TCP/IP, FTP for font downloads, TELNET & RS232 terminal mode. 512 KB ROM with X Server and Ethernet Software. Monochrome display, 14" diagonal crt, 640x480. Thick and thin wire Ethernet interfaces, as will as SLIP at 38.4 kbd. 8086 Cpu clocked at 10Mhz, 640KB ram standard. 3 button (or optional 2 button) optical mouse, DEC VT100 compatible keyboard. Centronics parallel port. Summary: The 640k of ram in the workstation was too little for our application so we were unable to evaluate the unit. Contact: Anil Singh, Acer Counterpoint 2127 Ringwood Ave. San Jose, CA 95131 (408) 434-0190 Fax: (408) 434-0273 Telex: 856884 Tektronix X Windows Terminals ============================= >From: Ken Lee klee@daisy.uucp >Daisy Systems Corp., Interactive Graphics Tools Dept. Tektronix (Beaverton, OR), model 4211 Graphics Netstation, 386SX cpu, TI 34010 graphics processor, 1024x768 color, 15" screen, $6495 NCD-16 X Window Terminals ========================= >From: Richard A. Johnson raj@ics.uci.edu (Internet) >UCI ICS Assistant Support Manager ucbvax!ucivax!raj (UUCP) >Date ~2/10/89 NCD-16 X Window Terminal We recently picked up one of the NCD-16 X Windowing terminals (the one which was at the Usenix in San Diego in case you know the one to which I'm referring) for a 1 week evaluation. (We would have liked to keep it longer but these things are really in demand and NCD doesn't have too many of them as yet. (We got serial number 50 or so! Something like that.) I thought I'd give everyone our impressions of it. General description: -------------------- 16 inch black and white square non-interlaced monitor. Resolution of 1024 x 1024. IBM-PC style keyboard layout. .5 - 4.5 Mb of memory (using SIMs) There are 4 SIM slots in the base. The unit has .5 Mb with nothing installed in these slots. You can put in 256K SIMs or 1Mb SIMs. (Are other size SIMs available? I don't use Macs so I don't know too much about SIMs really.) (Our unit had 1.5 Mb using 256K SIMs. We wish we had some 1Mb SIMs to try it with, but I couldn't find any at the time.) Software is at rev. 3 of X11. (Visual is currently in Beta testing of Rev. 3.) Supports thick and thin ethernet plus SLIP. Good points: ------------ The 16 inch screen is a LOT better than the small 14 inch Visual one. Also the non-interlaced monitor doesn't flicker like the Visual screen does. (This "flicker" is really evident if you use "twm". The header bars when you're focused on a window are really bothersome on the Visual, but are nice and clean on the NCD-16.) The pixels are closer together on the NCD and thus pictures appear sharper. The keyboard feels rather nice. I liked it a lot better than the Visual keyboard. (And MOST keyboards are better than a Sun, so that was no competition! :-) ) Setup and use was very straight forward. If you know enough about networking to set something like this up, then you can figure out how to do it easily. (By the way, we didn't have a manual, but we set it up with no problems.) The NCD system has a special graphic processor. This was really evident to me when I ran "texx" and panned around the zoomed image. On a Sun this flickers so badly that it's a really pain in the !@#$%, but on the NCD it was really smooth and fast. A few orders of magnitude improvement! Honest! The hardware has a little network activity light. It was nice when wondering why something (like getting a font) was taking so long. Bad points: ----------- It doesn't have NFS access for font files. It uses TFTP. This seems slower than the Visual using NFS. They said they will shortly have NFS (another month or so). Apparently you can't have more than around 20 or so TCP connections at once. This was a problem for us (the support staff), but probably wouldn't be one for general users. They said they could increase the limit and asked what was a good number. I told them 50 or so at least, but closer to 100 would be even better. It doesn't support compressed fonts. I haven't told them about this yet. I'll report back on their response when I do. We found 1 minor bug and 1 major one: 1) Minor: "xset fp" seems to do one of two things; both wrong. Sometimes it will set the font path to "(none)". This results in all font manipulations failing making the terminal unusable. Sometimes it simply "bombs" the system in such a way that it tells you push a letter to affect a system reboot. Both of these are bad, but you can avoid them by simply explicitly resetting the same font path. I haven't told them about this one either. I'll let you know. 2) Major: Sometimes the whole system just "locks up". When this happens the little network monitoring light stays on constantly and no mouse buttons or keyboard input works. The system still tracks the mouse but that's all. Killing X programs doing output on the system doesn't have any effect. They said they haven't seen this but they'll take note of it and see what can be done. Summary: -------- If I could get one in my office right now, I'd gladly give up my Sun 3/50! The increase in speed of the unit more than makes up for the lack of real estate in my opinion. Others in our support group feel the same way. We'll probably order a few of them, however we'll have an agreement with them first that we continue getting free software updates until they support NFS, have fixed all of the bugs we found, and maybe until they support compressed fonts. They're worth checking into. Definitely. By the way, I was told they plan a larger (19 inch) unit later this year (but who doesn't? 8^) ). Phone contacts: Main number for NCD: (415) 694-0650 I talked to Judy Estrin, who refered me to Janak Pathak, the sales manager. GraphOn X Windows Terminals =========================== >From: SMITHKLINE.COM!WOOD ("Bill Wood, Upper Merion IS X5163 L331") >Organization: The Internet >Date: 22 Feb 89 04:56:00 GMT I use X at 9600 baud all the time, and the response is fabulous! My secret is the new Graphon X terminal. This terminal uses a Graphon protocol to communicate with the host computer, so it avoids the 3 layers of protocol inherent in X over SLIP (you have the X protocol, the SLIP protocol, and the TCPIP protocol). The Graphon communicates directly with an X server running on a Unix machine. Right now I am connected to a 9600 baud Microcom modem, which is dialed in to work; there it connects to another modem, thence to a Dec terminal server running LAT protocol. From there, I am connected to another terminal server which is offering the serial port on a Sun 3 as a service. The Sun, in turn, is running Graphon's X server. I have an xterm session, and from it I did an rlogin to our Vax system, and sent this message. You have to try this terminal to believe it. ICO runs like a bat out of hell! And there are virtually no memory restrictions, since the server is on the Sun. GraphOn is: GraphOn Corporation 67 S. Bedford St. Suite 400 W. Burlington, MA 01803 (617) 229-5829 Tony Parisi BBN Software Products -- >From: klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee) >Date: 27 Feb 89 17:58:54 GMT >Daisy Systems Corp., Mountain View, Ca. There's an article discussing the GraphOn and several other X terminals in the Feb., 1989 issue of *Mini-Micro Systems*. GraphOn Corp. is located in San Jose, California. The GraphOn OptimaX 200 terminal will reportedly be formally introduced at Uniforum this week. >From: emory!gatech!rutgers!mcdchg!usenet >Date: Tue Mar 28 15:40:17 EDT 1989 >GraphOn Corporation X WINDOW SYSTEM DISPLAY FROM GRAPHON FEATURES INTERACTIVITY THROUGH UNIQUE RS-232 ARCHITECTURE SAN JOSE, CA, Mar 6, 1989 -- A new low-cost approach to providing X display capability has been introduced by GraphOn Corporation. The OptimaX 200 connects to any Sun 3 or 4 workstation with a serial RS-232 cable. In addition to direct connection, the link may be made through a terminal server or via modem. The OptimaX 200 can serve as an X display for client programs running on the Sun and/or on any computer networked with the Sun. The OptimaX 200 uses a tilt-and-swivel non-glare page white display, refreshed at 75 hertz noninterlaced to eliminate flicker. Resolution on the 14-inch CRT is 800 by 600, yielding essentially the same pixel density as a standard Sun display. An enhanced VT220-style keyboard is standard, and a three button mouse is optional. The footprint is only 12 inches square, and no fan is required. List price is $1395. Availability is immediate with shipment 30 days after receipt of order. OptimaX Software, supplied on a quarter inch cartridge tape for loading onto the Sun, is priced at $395. Only one copy of the tape is needed for any number of Suns. (The tape is needed only once per Sun host for installation, then it may be used for others without restriction.) This software contains the GraphOn X11 Release 3 Server, the Xt toolkit, the Xaw widget set, and sample clients such as the twm window manager, xterm terminal emulator, and xclock. It is shipped with complete documentation, including an installation guide. The unique feature of the OptimaX architecture is that the server runs on the Sun, not on the OptimaX 200. This frees its 12 MHz 68000 processor to concentrate on display and communications tasks, preserving the interactive performance that makes X on a workstation so productive. By creating an efficient communication protocol between the server on the Sun and the display controller on the OptimaX 200, GraphOn has brought interactivity to RS-232 based windowing. Direct connection to the Sun allows communication at up to 38,400 baud, but operation over a 9600 baud modem gives roughly comparable throughput. For many tasks such as program development in xterm windows, even 2400 baud modems are acceptable. In this case the performance of a window is virtually the same as that of an ASCII terminal running 2400 baud. The overhead present in other serial communication strategies, such as using SL/IP plus TCP/IP to carry the client-server dialog, makes operation over low speed lines impractical. Other X terminals have taken the first step toward the OptimaX architecture: eliminating the local execution of client programs. This allows cost savings in the processor and memory, but the local execution of the server and communication protocols still requires processing power, EPROM or RAM memory to hold the server, and an unpredictable amount of RAM memory for working space. Because the communication between the client and the server is verbose, a high-speed connection must be built into a conventional X display. Adding internet protocols further increases cost and reduces communication efficiency. The OptimaX approach places system resources in the optimal locations. The human interface consists of a display, a keyboard, and a mouse. The display device controls the bitmap, font storage, and serial-line communication with the server. The host workstation (which already contains a powerful processor, general-purpose RAM memory, network support, access to fonts, and a virtual memory based operating system) runs the server and handles client-server communication over a network. It may also run clients, in which case an attached OptimaX 200 contributes zero traffic to a potentially busy network. The OptimaX 200 has a built-in VT100/220 mode for convenience in session startup (or for general-purpose use). Through xterm in the X Window System, the user can have access to a number of ASCII screens, each in a separate window. No program downloading is required for initialization of either the VT100/220 or the X mode. "Quite a few skeptics had to play with X on the OptimaX before they would believe it was possible. Now they are as excited as we are," observed Walt Keller, president of GraphOn. "We're offering something that's not only new, but it also makes lots of sense for people with an installed base of workstations." At UniForum GraphOn announced a special introductory offer that includes a 15 day free trial and free OptimaX Software when an OptimaX 200 is purchased for $1395. One to a customer. GraphOn was founded in 1982 to combine emulations of DEC and Tektronix terminals in a single unit. It now offers a broad range of color and monochrome terminals for this market. The OptimaX architecture has been under development for two years, drawing heavily on the fast graphics algorithms and technology of earlier GraphOn products. Company contact: Mark Brown, vice president of engineering GraphOn Corporation 1980 Concourse Drive San Jose, CA 95131 (408)435-8400 ..!uunet!graphon!xinfo GKS Software Toolkits for X =========================== >From: doyle@ingr.com (Doyle Davidson) ..uunet!ingr!doyle >Date: 23 Mar 89 22:13:23 GMT >Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL; Workstation Graphics Standards > I am looking for a package that sits on top of x windows and can do > forms, draw lines, etc. > Before you reply 'use a toolkit!', I would also like to be able to > send this stuff directly to a plotter (perhaps of varying sorts, maybe > even PostScript). Kinda like GKS, or something. > If you are interested in GKS under X I would suggest that you might try Prior Data Sciences in Ontario. Their number is (613) 591-7235. I know for a fact that it works because I have used it a little on our own workstations. As far as for what machines... how about ours! X Servers for IBM-PCs ===================== >From: bloom-beacon!gssc.UUCP!rrs (Russ Sprunger) >Graphic Software Systems >Date: 12/14/88 Graphic Software Systems has been shipping GSS*X/386 for several months. GSS*X/386 is an implementation of X Version 11.2 running on INTERACTIVE 386/ix. X/386 - complete X11R2 implementation for 386 UNIX, supporting EGA/VGA and DGIS (e.g NEC MVA-1024, TI SDB, Imagraph) boards. cost: $695 PC-Xview - X11R2 servers running under DOS 3.2 and 3.3. includes servers for EGA/VGA and DGIS. cost: $295 The following machines, devices and OS releases have been tested and are known to work with GSS*X/386: 386/ix: Release 1.0.5 Release 1.0.6 386 machines: Acer 386 ALR 386 AT&T 6386 Compaq 386 Eltech 386 NEC PowerMate SX NEC PowerMate XL EGA Display Controllers: IBM EGA (640x350x1) Compaq EGA (640x350x1) Quadram QuadEGA (640x350x1, 640x480x1) Video Seven VEGA (640x350x1, 640x480x1) Tecmar EGA Master (640x350x1, 640x480x1, 800x600x1) VGA Display Controllers: Orchid VGA (640x480x1) VGA Wonder (640x480x1) Genoa VGA (640x480x1) Compaq VGA (640x480x1) IBM VGA (640x480x1) DGIS Display Controllers: TI SDB (640x480x4) NEC MVA-1024 (1024x768x4) Imagraph TGIF 1210-4 (1280x1024x4) Note: GSS*X/386 will work with any DGIS*34010 display controller. All that is required is a std Unix kernel driver for the controller. The above list represents those cards with known kernel drivers. Input devices: Microsoft 2 button (Serial and Inport) Mouses Systems PC Mouse (Serial) and compatibles Networking: TCP/IP via Excelan 205T h/w and EXOS 205 s/w. GSS*X/386 is available in binary form to developers and in source form for OEM's. The single user binary development product lists for $695 in the U.S. For purchasing binary copies, contact GSS and ask for X Sales at (503) 641-2200. Russ Sprunger Graphic Software Systems 9590 SW Gemini Dr Beaverton, OR 97005 (503) 641-2200 ...!{tektronix,decwrl}!sequent!gssc!rrs ----- >From: gatech!stiatl!pda (Paul Anderson) >Sales Technologies, Inc. >Date: 3/2/89 For the Excelan 205T ethernet board, contact David Hart at Excelan (800) 392-3526 or (408) 434-2300. You will also need their "Lan Workplace for PCDOS host share package", which is bundled with the board. Make sure you ask for it. The bundled price is $1150. ----- >From: William S. Cole, University of Southern California >ARPA: cole@dworkin.USC.EDU >Date: ~1/15/89 For those interested in using X Windows Version 11 on an IBM-AT or compatible, Integrated Inference Machines has developed an X11 server which runs under MS-DOS using Microsoft Windows. The server converts an IBM-AT into an X Windows terminal. It requires a system with at least 2Meg of extended memory and currently requires an Excelan ethernet board (others are planned). Because the server runs under Microsoft Windows, a large variety of monochrome and color displays are supported. For more information, contact: Tricia Nuskin or Charles Ross Integrated Inference Machines 1468 E. Katella Avenue Anahiem, California 92805 Phone (714)978-6776 FAX (714)939-0746 ----- >From: mbroadbe@gldsyd.OZ (Mark Broadbent) >Organization: Gould Electronics, CSD, Sydney, Australia >Date: 20 Feb 89 04:15:35 GMT >I am looking for the x window on IBM PC/AT compatibles with EGA >or VGA (maybe others?) graphics display. We have pcXsight running on a Commodore PClone and a NEC Powermate IV, connected to a Gould PowerNode Unix Super-minicomputer. This software runs on 8088, 8086, 80286, 80386 IBM PC compatibles, under DOS 3.1 or later, with an EGA, VGA, Hercules, or AT&T 6300 graphics adaptor. A chap called Peter Brown is distributing the software here in Australia. You can contact him on (02) 957-2522. X Servers for Sun Workstations ============================== >From: mcmacken@watvlsi.waterloo.edu (John R. F. McMacken) >Date: 6 Apr 89 20:02:24 GMT >U of Waterloo, Ontario; {backbone}!watmath!watvlsi!mcmacken Thanks to all who responded to my request for info on fast(er) XV11R3 servers for colour Suns. [See] International Quest Corp., Santa Clara, CA (408-988-8289). They claim to have an optimized R3 server for sun3/4/386i under Rel4.0. The package includes their own window manager and goes for $995 per cpu ($845.75 educational places). Has anyone tried this system? I'd like to hear of anyone's experience with it before we pop such big bucks! X Servers for IBM RT's ====================== >From: Scott Schwartz <schwartz@shire.cs.psu.edu> >Date: ~2/20/89 In article <1709@ssc.UUCP>, fyl@ssc (Phil Hughes) writes: >Mike Kupfer writes: >> Is anyone running X on VGA displays? Is anyone working on it? >I haven't seen it run but Everex claims their X (X11 R3 which comes with >ENIX, their 5.3.2 port for the 386) works with both EGA and VGA. IBM ships X11 and drivers for the VGA with AOS (a.k.a. 4.3BSD) for their 6152 workstations (little RT's). Works fine. X Servers for DEC hardware ========================== >From: fisher@decwin.DEC.COM (VMS DECwindows Engineering, 381-1466) >Date: 7 Apr 89 12:49:19 GMT >DEC > Does anybody know the specific models of VAX workstations that > support X, and is ULTRIX the required OS for X? > Thanks in advance! Re: the MIT distribution: If you were asking about the DEC-supplied X stuff (DECwindows), then the answer is that it runs under both VMS and Ultrix. I am most familiar with the VMS side, but I think the supported hardware is close to the same for the VAX line. That is basically any "mainstream" VAX-based workstation that DEC has made since but not including the VAXstation I. The VAX-based workstations include things like VAXstation II (Original MicroVAX II-based workstation, 1-plane) VAXstation II/GPX (MicroVAX II, with graphics accel hw. 4 or 8 plane) VAXstation 2000 (MicroVAX II chip in a desk-top box, 1-plane) VAXstation 2000/GPX (Same as above, but with GPX graphics. 4 or 8 plane) VAXstation 3500 (CVAX CPU, about 3xVAXstation II. 8 planes, I think) VAXstation 3200 (I think...a small-box version of the 3500) VAXstation 3520/3540 (Multi-processor, multi-colormap, 8 or 24-plane) VAXstation 3100 (Latest and greatest, cvax cpu, tiny box, etc etc.) Last, but far from least, DECwindows is supported on Ultrix only with the new DECstation 3100 (the MIPS Risc machine). Note that the VAXstation I and the VAXstation 100 are excluded (but you probably don't have those anyway). There are a couple special-purpose workstations made for specific customers which are also not supported. You probably don't have those either. There is also the VAXstation 8nnn (don't remember the exact number...it is an E & S Graphics Hot Box on a VAX) which, while it does not fall under the DECwindows program as such, it does support X11 with extensions for dial boxes, etc etc. (Disclaimer: I think the above is right, but I'm an engineer, not a marketer. I may have messed up a number or a description.) X Servers for the NCR TOWER =========================== >From: heath@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM (Robert Heath) >Date: 28 Mar 89 13:11:07 GMT >NCR Corp., Engineering & Manufacturing - Columbia, SC > Well I've been waiting for some comments from you netters, > but have not heard any. Has anyone used, seen, or heard > of the NCR Towerview? How does it seem to compare to the > NCD or Visual products in terms of speed, features, .. Heard of the TOWERVIEW ? I've got one sitting here on my desk. I can sit here and be logged into to several machines at once, cut and paste between windows, englarge the windows, shrink the windows, move them around. It's much better than a PC for what I do. The version I've got runs only XNS protocols, but I'm getting a version that runs XNS or TCP/IP. X Servers for the MAC II ======================== >From: alan@metasoft.UUCP (Alan Epstein) >Organization: Meta Software Corporation, Cambridge MA >Date: 2 Mar 89 15:54:27 GMT > we'd like to run the new eXodus X server on the mac II. as i > understand it, we can use TCP/IP with ethernet cards running > in the Mac II, or we can use the Appletalk Data Stream Protocol > with our Kinetics box. The second option requires ADSP to be > running on the host (a Sun 3 in this case). > [where may the necessary items be obtained?] Contact Jon Simmonds at IPT (Information Presentation Technologies). Their number is (818)347-7791. I'm not sure if they have ADSP running on the Sun 3 yet, but they were getting close back in November. They definitely do have some software for the Sun 3. I saw it running when I worked with them, and I saw an announcement for product shipment back in early January. I used the software on a MIPS M/120 last year, and it was great. I ran a MacII diskless (well, I had to boot from floppy, but after that it asked me for a Unix login, kicked out the disk, and warm-booted from the network). Also, it gives Unix/Mac access to printers on both networks, so you can access a LaserWriter from Unix and a Unix printer from the Mac. There's also a Unix mail interface and a few other neat items. My point is that it can be useful for many needs, not just ADSP. -- >From: dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David L. Williams) >Date: 11 Apr 89 17:20:16 GMT >Hewlett Packard, Cupertino >Does anyone know of a X11 windowing software for the Macintosh >(using the native operating system) ? Yes. White Pine Software, is coming out with eXodus, which implements the X server on the Mac OS. It supports localtalk, TCP/IP(must get tcp services from apple or kinetics or anyone else), and DECnet. It will be B&W first release and is about $499 I think. Contact White Pine 603-886-9050 for further details. -David -- Paul Anderson "But Why?" gatech!stiatl!pda "Because they tried to make it (404) 841-4000 secure..."