hsieh@rscene.hac.com (Julia Hsieh) (02/16/91)
I am looking into possibly switching platforms from the MacOS to a
Unix-X Windows platform. Since I am set up with a SuperMac 19" 24 bit
color monitor and board, and if I switched to one of the Sun's here,
I'd need an upgrade (more paperwork), I was wondering if anyone else
has tried or if anyone knows of what problems I will run into.
SuperMac has confirmed that my monitor will run under A/UX 2.0, but
they know nothing about X Windows. Also, recommendations about
whether I will need MacX or if X11R4 will be sufficient.
My current set up contains:
Mac IIfx with 32 MB of internal memory.
Apple's internal 160 MB hard drive
(we will be getting a separate 200-300MB hard drive for A/UX)
Pinnacle Micro's eraseable magneto-optical drive
(will get A/UX driver)
Apple 13" monitor & card.
SuperMac 19" color monitor & Spectrum 24/Series III card.
(lots of fun toys, huh?)
Thanks in advance.
julia
----------------------------------------------------------------
julia hsieh My opinions are not intended to reflect
hsieh@rscene.hac.com those of Hughes Aircraft Company.
----------------------------------------------------------------gda@creare.UUCP (Gray Abbott) (02/18/91)
I've got pretty much the same setup you discussed (SuperMac and Spectrum 24 card) and run MacX on AUX 2.0. It works pretty well, except for needing more memory than I can give it (I've got 8 Mbytes and that doesn't seem to be enough). Note that the full color capabilities of the Spectrum 24 don't seem to be available - only 8 bit color. This is probably due to the lack of a driver for AUX. The one I used under MacOS (SuperMac) doesn't work under AUX, but the regular Monitor works for 8 bit color. Also, I haven't looked into ungrading to the newer releases of AUX (2.1?) or MacX - they may work better.
abm@alan.aux.apple.com (Alan Mimms) (02/19/91)
In article <13510@hacgate.UUCP>, hsieh@rscene.hac.com (Julia Hsieh) writes: |> |> I am looking into possibly switching platforms from the MacOS to a |> Unix-X Windows platform. Since I am set up with a SuperMac 19" 24 bit |> color monitor and board, and if I switched to one of the Sun's here, |> I'd need an upgrade (more paperwork), I was wondering if anyone else |> has tried or if anyone knows of what problems I will run into. |> |> SuperMac has confirmed that my monitor will run under A/UX 2.0, but |> they know nothing about X Windows. Also, recommendations about |> whether I will need MacX or if X11R4 will be sufficient. Yes, the SuperMac 24-bit displays work fine on A/UX. If you have a PDQ accelerator card, though (I see you do not, but FYI), it will NOT accelerate on A/UX. This is due, I believe to the generic problem such cards have with virtual memory operating systems. MacX does NOT support a 24 bit per pixel X11 display type. It will WORK on a 24-bit display, though, but it will be slow and will be unable to do any color table animation when used on such a display. Perhaps you can settle for 8 bits per pixel? The only other X11 server that I know of that works in the Macintosh world is eXodus from White Pine Software in Nashua, NH, and they don't have 24 bit per pixel support either. The X Window System for A/UX contains both MacX and a "Native X" server which is incompatible with the Macintosh world (i.e., you can run Macintosh applications OR Native X, but not both at once). It does not support 24 bits per pixel either. Of course you can use your monitor in 8 bit mode and get along just fine with any of these solutions. The problem with 24 bit support is that present Macintoshes (with their NuBus video cards) don't quite have the horsepower to support 24 bit without some additional help (hence the 8-24*GC card). X11 servers that just use the main CPU for their graphical operations and access the video RAM via a NuBus won't be very usable on today's hardware (we've tried it). On the other hand, we ARE wondering what kinds of things people use 24 bit X11 displays for -- is there enough demand for us to create some 24 bit support for future versions of our X11 products? If you have any comments or suggestions, I would appreciate email. |> My current set up contains: |> Mac IIfx with 32 MB of internal memory. |> Apple's internal 160 MB hard drive |> (we will be getting a separate 200-300MB hard drive for A/UX) |> Pinnacle Micro's eraseable magneto-optical drive |> (will get A/UX driver) |> Apple 13" monitor & card. |> SuperMac 19" color monitor & Spectrum 24/Series III card. |> |> (lots of fun toys, huh?) Yes. That 32MB will come in handy if you run a lot of X11 applications and the Macintosh world with MacX... |> Thanks in advance. |> |> julia |> ---------------------------------------------------------------- |> julia hsieh My opinions are not intended to reflect |> hsieh@rscene.hac.com those of Hughes Aircraft Company. |> ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hope this helps. -- Alan Mimms (alan@apple.com, ...!apple!alan) | My opinions are generally A/UX X group | pretty worthless, but Apple Computer | they *are* my own... "Laugha whila you can, monkey boy..." -- John Whorfin in Buckaroo Banzai "Never rub another man's rhubarb" -- The Joker in BatMan