Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!ames!lll-lcc!lll-winken!csustan!polyslo!jeff
From: jeff@polyslo.UUCP (Jeff Weinstein)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Mit X conference and who has the PC/RT server ?
Keywords: X on PC
Message-ID: <1152@polyslo.UUCP>
Date: 4 Feb 88 06:29:20 GMT
References: <2007@elrond.CalComp.COM> <6532@oberon.USC.EDU>
Reply-To: jeff@polyslo.UUCP (Jeff Weinstein)
Organization: Cal Poly State Univ,CSC Dept,San Luis Obispo,CA 93407
Lines: 79


  I just could not keep my mouth shut about this one.  What makes 
things worse is that the guys still at IBM are not allowed to post to the 
net to respond to this.  Why do I know so much about this?  Well, I
was one of the guys that designed and wrote the Megapel server while
I was on co-op at IBM.

In article <6532@oberon.USC.EDU> papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:
>In article <2007@elrond.CalComp.COM> jam@elrond.UUCP (Julie A. Melbin) writes:
>>Help! Does anyone who attended the MIT X consortium know who was running the
>>X server on the PC/RT with a Megapel Display in Kresge? We would like to beg,
>>borrow or steal (:)) a copy of this server (source or binary). Also, what
>>operating system was this ported under? Any help, phone numbers, et al
>>is GREATLY APPRECIATED!
>
>The X-11 Megapel server was developed jointly by IBM and the USC Advanced
>Computing Support Center. 

	Actually, the Megapel server started out with about 10 low level 
	display dependent routines written by the ACSC.  They were  poorly 
	written, slow and dependend on their own hacked kernel mods that 
	caused our kernel people to cringe.  We threw most of these routines
	out in the first week, and as of several months ago they were all 
	gone.

>                           The server shown in Kresge was a multi-display
>server running concurrently with 3 display devices: the Megapel, an apa-16
>(B&W) and an EGA.

	Actually the EGA was running as a seperate server because someone
	wanted to see two servers running at the same time.

>                   The IBM MIT group that showed it in Kresge was one of the
>original beta testers of the Megapel server.  

	The server shown at MIT was being shown by Erik Fortune and
	Tom Paquin, who along with myself developed the server at
	IBM Academic Information Systems in Palo Alto.  These were
	the actual developers, not beta testers.

>                                              An earlier version of the
>server was shown at the EDUCOM conference in LA, late last year.

	The rumor I heard was that when people came to the IBM display
	at EDUCOM they asked why the server they had just seen at the
	ACSC was slower than the one on display at the show.

>The server runs on an IBM RT PC with IBM/4.3 (Not to be confused with
>the AIX X-11 version announced for September 1988).  As such it is still an
>unreleased and unannounced product.  (Though, you won't have to wait long :-)

	Gee, commenting about unannounced IBM products?  Better look over
	your shoulder Marco, here come the IBM cops.  :-)

	FYI: The Megapel/AED/APA-16/EGA server shipped yesterday.  As far
	as I know this is the first production quality X11 color server
	on the market.

>At the MIT Conference, there were rumors that the server would go on the next
>release of X from MIT, but it was unclear whether it would be only in binary
>form or not.  MIT probably knows more about it than we do.

	Last I heard the RT servers will be on the MIT tape, with complete
	source code for all but the machine independent color code that
	we wrote to make porting to different color displays easier.  I
	guess the powers that be at IBM don't want to give this away to 
	the competition right now.

>
>I like the display a lot, especially the 16 in., though I cannot be considered
>an impartial party.  
>
>-- Marco Papa
>   USC Advanced Computing Support Center

	Jeff Weinstein
	Computer Systems Lab
	Cal Poly State Univ., San Luis Obispo
	(805)756-2147
	ucbvax!voder!polyslo!jeff