• X Features
• OSF Motif
• Applications Software
• Testing and Verification

• XFree86
• Solaris DDX
• PX Windows

Overview of X Windows

The X Windows System is a public domain, machine independent, network-based windowing system for graphics workstations. It runs on computers ranging from PCs to supercomputers. X was originally developed as a joint project of MIT's Project Athena, IBM, and Digital Equipment Corporation, as well as many other contributing companies. The primary development effort is now controlled by x.org.

X supports a large number of bitmapped display controllers and workstations, many text fonts (both fixed and variable width), keyboards and pointing devices (e.g. trackball, mouse).

The X Window System divides the graphics function into two parts - the server, which controls the hardware dependent functions such as the mouse, keyboard and graphics display; and the clients, which are the actual programs which the user wants to interact with. The clients might include a terminal emulator (such as mwm or xterm), a process control application (DataViews), desktop publishing (Interleaf), or an image processing package like PV-WAVE. The server and the clients may be on the same computer, or they may be connected through the network.

The client applications are usually linked to the standard X library (XLIB) which manages the actual communications with the server. Other libraries, called Toolkits, are available which add more functionality to the X Windows programming environment.

Features

The X Window System includes overlay support, the Xie image extension, and a a number of other extensions. As appropriate to the board, Rastergraf has added several extensions to the basic PX Windows offering, including Overlays, OpenGL (GLX), Xinput, Xtest, and proprietary crosshair cursor, touchscreen, and fast frame buffer and draw bypass functions.

OSF Motif

Among the variety of Graphic User Interfaces (GUI) which PX Windows supports is Motif from the Open Systems Foundation. Contact Rastergraf for availability of Motif 2.0. Many OS vendors bundle supply Motif into their distributions.

Applications Software

Numerous applications are available which use X. Some of those tested with PX Windows include mwm (Motif Window Manager), VAPS, PV-Wave, Interleaf, Dataviews, Framemaker, ATC-GKS, and IDL.

Testing and Verification

The PX Windows server functionality is verified with the X Test suite. While not capable of testing every last function, it provides a high degree of certainty that the server is functioning correctly.

Rastergraf X Windows Solutions:

XFree86

Drivers for Linux's XFree86 server, Rel. 4.1 are supplied with distributions of Linux. For information on X Windows drivers for use with Rastergraf graphics boards, please visit the XFree86 Project website. Supported boards include TopazPMC and GarnetPMC.

Solaris DDX

Rastergraf provides Solaris-compatible device drivers and a DDX module which supports Sun Microsystems' X-Windows server, Xsun. Supported boards include Eclipse3PMC, Eclipse3CPCI, Eclipse3PCI,
ArgusPMC, and GeminiPMC.

Rastergraf's DDX implementation provides graphics acceleration and support for multiple displays, including support for Sun's Xinerama.

A wide variety of window resolutions and sync formats are supported, including Sync-on-Green. Solaris 2.6, 2.7 (7), 2.8 (8), and 9, both 32-bit and 64-bit kernels, are fully supported. A simple installation method, compatible with Sun's package utilities, is also provided.

PX Windows for the VFX-M, VCQ-M, and VFG-M

The XVGP version of PX Windows is a complete, X11R6-derived distribution for the for VFX-M, VCQ-M, and VFG-M. Note: XVGP is only available as an unsupported distribution.