COMMERCIAL: Beta testers for Accelerated-X Release 1.2

Jeremy Chatfield jdc at crab.xinside.com
Wed Dec 7 09:28:39 EST 1994


David,

Thanks for your offer to help test our Server and my apologies for
the delay in responding. We've been flooded with requests so it has
taken some time to reach your email!

I've attached details of the Beta program and of the current product,
so you can see where we are and where we're going.  I've also
annotated your email.

Cheers, JeremyC.

David Chow writes:
> 
> In article <3b7k0i$acu at kruuna.Helsinki.FI> you write:
> >Name:  David Chow
> >Email address:  chow at cc.gatech.edu
> >Phone number:  404-206-0691
> >
> >Hardware details -
> >CPU and speed: 486-DX2-66
> >Amount of RAM[MB]: 16
> >
> >Operating System:   Linux 1.1.18
> >Swap space[MB]: 50
> >
> >Applications in use -
> >Are you writing your own software?  no
> >What software will you be using to exercise the Server?  X11 apps/games
> >
> >Graphics board details -
> >Maker (e.g. Diamond, ATI, Matrox, etc): #9
> >Model (e.g. Imagine-128, Stealth 32): GXE64
> >Graphics chip (if known): 864
> >RAMDAC (if known):
> >Graphics memory[MB]: 2
> >Bus used for graphics board: VESA Local

A standard graphics board for us.  Should be no surprises.

> >Mouse -
> ># of buttons: 2
> >Connection type: Serial

We've changed the Emulate3Buttons behavior, so that it seems more
natural.

> >Testing experience -
> >Can you give some idea of what type of testing you've done in the past?
> 	none - just setting up and running apps
> >Can you identify any bugs in any software you are using now - could you
> >report it below, so we can assess your skills?
> 	basically whether is works or not..
> >
> 	let me knwo if i can help..
-- 
Jeremy Chatfield, +1(303)470-5302, FAX:+1(303)470-5513, email:jdc at xinside.com
        X Inside Inc, P O Box 10774, Golden, CO 80401-0610, USA.
  X Inside Inc email lists: send message 'help' to majordomo at xinside.com
----+++++=====***** Accelerated-X Release 1.2 Beta Enroll *****=====+++++-----
This file is for people that want to enroll in the Beta Test program 
for Accelerated-X.  The latest version of the file is available from 
our anon-FTP Server as URL:

	ftp://ftp.xinside.com/accelx/1.2/betadetail.txt

This version is dated Nov 29, 1994.

-+=*=+-
What's in it for me?
-+=*=+-
If you have Accelerated-X for Intel UNIX Systems Release 1.1 now, you 
get an upgrade to 1.2 for free - we'll cover the cost of standard 
mail.  If you want it faster, then you'll have to pick up the 
difference.

If you don't have 1.1 now, then buy it.  Then you get a free upgrade
to the final release of 1.2, as above.  The idea is that if you've 
bought the product, you'll be a lot more interested in making sure it 
works exactly right!  You could then continue to the Release 2.0 Beta 
test cycle, where we'll be focussing on PEX, XIE and the "best" Beta 
testers from the 1.2 cycle - they'll get the 2.0 and ancillary products 
for free.

	Sales contact info:
	Phone:  +1(303)384-9999 or (800)XINSIDE for US callers.
	FAX:    +1(303)384-9778
        Email:  sales at xinside.com
	Mail:   Sales
		X Inside Incorporated
		PO Box 10774
		Golden, CO 80401-0610
	Price:  BSDI/free, Linux|FreeBSD/$99.50 + P&P, System V/$199 + P&P


-+=*=+-
HEY - THIS IS A BETA - WHY ISN'T IT FREE!
-+=*=+-
Well, by the time you reach the 2.0 product, you'll be looking at 
somewhere between $500 and $1500 of products.  As a first step, we
wanted parity with existing Release 1.1 customers (why should they 
have to pay for 1.2, when you, buying a week later, get it for free?)
and we wanted a $$$ investment for the following, lengthy, reason.

On one of our supported platforms, the product has an incremental 
cost of $0 (each additional license is free or nearly so, due to an 
arrangement with the OS vendor).  The problem reports from those users 
are quite different in style from those of our normal customers.  

Almost all UNIX implementations are delivered with a free X Server 
included, or you can get a free X Server.  We are selling our X
Server, so we have to provide something that the included servers do
not have.  If you buy the product, you are looking for the things
that are different and that you hope will be better.  If you don't
pay for it, you only look to see if it makes life easier and you live
with certain types of problem, rather than reporting them.

We have documented evidence of this thinking in our email archives.
We're asking people to pay for the Beta cycle because they will think
more carefully about the value that they are getting and will tend to
make better reports, more suited to a commercial product's focus.

We *have* found some excellent Beta testers in that other OS 
environment, and many of them do Beta testing on a product with
low incremental cost and whose next release will also have a low
incremental cost.  They do Beta testing because they like working
with the product.

The value is also being made symmetric for existing customers.  We're
not asking current 1.1 users to pay for a Beta of 1.2.  However, if
they want to upgrade to 1.2 and not take part in the Beta, they'll have 
to buy it, like anyone else, except that they get a discount for
being an existing customer.  If an existing user has registered a bug
with us, that can't be fixed in 1.1, we'll *give* them an upgrade to
1.2 - we're in the business of giving you a Server that works, not a
broken product that chains you to a never ending, for-fee upgrade
cycle.

We will be continuing to a Beta Test of 2.0.  This is expected to be a 
long, long test.  We have a huge list of things that we want to do for
our 2.0 release *and* we want to improve the reliability of X11R6.  We
expect that we will release a Beta of 2.0 every 4-8 weeks.  Our goal is 
to complete our 2.0 around June-July next year.  Slippage for the sake 
of quality *will* be permitted, and we will seriously consider even last 
minute lobbying for a new feature to delay 2.0.  We expect it to be a 
piece of true magic :-)

Amongst the features of 2.0 will be Accelerated-PEX & XIE, with hardware
accelerated 3D graphics (some of this may be retro-introduced in 1.2 as
a minor rev change from 1.2 to 1.2.1 or similar), Video support, etc.

Participants in the 2.0 Beta will get a free license to 2.0, 
Accelerated-PEX, XIE and other products included in the continuing test.
We expect that Accelerated-PEX and XIE will attract a separate fee in 2.0.
The transition from 1.2 to 2.0 will otherwise be fee-bearing.  We expect
that 2.0 will be perceived as a quantum jump in the performance and
features of an X Server.

As in all commercial things we reserve the right to change this plan, 
without notice!

-+=*=+-
What do we want?
-+=*=+-
We want you to use the Server and tell us if you find anything wrong.
If the chipset driver is not working properly, we'll either withdraw
support for this release, or fix it - depending upon the severity of
the problem and the estimated time to fix.  We don't want to ship
something that we can't support.

If you have major installation suggestions or other large enhancements
suggestion, we'll probably add those to the list for the next release.

In the first few rounds of Beta testing we distribute with a standard
installation mechanism across all OS's.  The final product should have 
the UNIX System V implementations on a single diskette, installable
with 'custom', 'installpkg' or 'pkgadd'.  The Linux/FreeBSD diskette
will be a gzipped tar archive - unless we can find a diskette file
system supported by standard installation procedures on both OS's!

-+=*=+-
What Other OS's Will Be Supported In The Final Release?
-+=*=+-
We might support NetBSD for i386, if we can find a way to advertise 
to the users.  We have no other serious suggestions for where we
might find a user base on Intel UNIX systems.

-+=*=+-
How does X Inside do Beta Testing?
-+=*=+-
We usually rev the Server quite fast at the beginning of the cycle,
as we get customer reports.  Over a period of a couple of weeks we
usually fix up everything reported, or start marking problems up as
unresolved and to be fixed in a future release.  When the problem
reports slow to a teeny trickle, most of which are false reports, we
reckon the Server is ready for release.  I am certainly willing to
hold the Server for a single confirmed problem report on one chipset.
If we are on hold for too long, and the chipset is intended to be
newly supported, we may elect to drop support for that chip and issue
a supporting module after the product is released.

The Beta Test files are kept on our Anonymous FTP Server.  You *MUST*
have access to anonymous FTP or a mail path capable of handling 2MB
mail files.  Further, the Beta Test files are encrypted.  You must 
*phone* me (I'll try to phone foreign students if they give me phone 
numbers and times) for a decryption key.

Encryption will be done using 'pgp' and 'des' or 'bdes' depending
on the OS and the export status.  Non-US Beta testers should pull
over the 'pgp' files, as the sources to that are available outside
the US.  No, I don't want to know a US site you can use to pull the
DES sources from.  The US Government doesn't want this stuff spread
around - as a permanent resident alien (or is that permanently alien
resident?), I'm not about to argue the point.

The Software Evaluation aka Software Problem Report Form is located on
the Anon-FTP Server as ftp.xinside.com:/docs/evalform.txt or evalform.ps.
This can be sent to you by email if you have problems collecting it.

-+=*=+-
What Are The Differences Between 1.1 And 1.2?
-+=*=+-

Here's the summary, details and implications are below that.

o	New chipsets

o	Support for 24bpp packed operations

o	Dynamic H/W <=> S/W cursor switching

o	Multiple PCI graphics boards

o	Emulate3Buttons has changed.

o	Touchscreen device supported

o	Improved Tablet Support (Beta 2)

o	New memory management

o	Site Information File

o	Mach32 disable/relocate Linear Aperture

o	Lots of teensy bugs fixed.

* New Chipsets

We've added support for the Avance Logic family, expanded S3 support
to include new chipsets, and added Compaq QVision 1024 & 1280 support.
Depending upon our board sample size, we estimate probabilities for
this initial Beta release working correctly on other boards:

	Avance Logic 2301	90%+
	Avance Logic 2228	90%+
	Avance Logic 2101	90%+
	S3 866			80%
	S3 868			80%
	S3 968			80%
	S3 TRIO32		80%
	S3 TRIO64		90%+
	QVision 1024 (Triton)	90%
	QVision 1280 (Ariel)	100%
	QVision 1280 (Orion)	90%

* Support for 24bpp packed

In Release 1.0 and 1.1 we supported 24 bit color using only a 32 bit
model (4 bytes used for 24 bits of color data).  This gave us correct 
memory alignment for improved performance, and we knew that some chips 
disabled the accelerator when running in 24bpp mode.  So we were
looking at perhaps 10% penalty for misaligned mameory and 50%-75%
performance loss from the lost accelerator functions.  Since then,
we've been playing around...

Using 24bpp packed mode, we pass 25% fewer bytes.  If the Accelerator
functions are available, then the Server can actually run faster in
24bpp packed mode.  We are so satisfied with the performance that we
currently have the default mode for 24 bit color on the Mach64, set
as packed mode.  The benchmarks should show around 15% performance
improvement.

* Dynamic Hardware <=> Software Switching Support

In earlier releases, we examined all the resolutions requested in the
/etc/Xaccel.ini file.  If *any* mode required that we use a software
cursor, *all* modes were given a software cursor.

We have rearranged the cursor code and now select whether the cursor
can be hardware or software in each specific mode, when a new mode is
selected.  We will also dynamically switch to a software cursor when
a cursor is larger than the hardware cursor can handle.

* Multiple PCI Graphics Boards.

The PCI bus and BIOS permit multiple graphics boards to be supported.
We've found that a couple of specific boards can't be used this way,
or at least, in our PCI systems.

If you have two or more PCI slots and boards, you should be able to
set them up quite easily.  The fastest way to do this at present will
be to use the Xsetup configuration tool to configure each separate
board, copying the /etc/Xaccel.ini file to a safe place between each
configuration.  Then edit the /etc/Xaccel.ini file and splice in the
last section (it starts "[SCREEN]") of the other board(s).

* Emulate3Buttons has changed.

We support both 2 and 3 button mice.  Many apps require a middle button.
We emulate the middle button by detecting a near-simultaneous two button
push.  See if you prefer the way we've done the support this time.  You
may want to switch back to the old Server to see how that worked.

* Touchscreen Device Supported

The Elographics Duratouch 280 is now supported.  There is a new
directive in the /etc/Xaccel.ini, "[TOUCHSCREEN]" that sets up the
device used for position reporting, the protocol and the scaling
coordinate system.  For example:

	[TOUCHSCREEN]
	    Device         = "/dev/ttyS0";
	    Protocol       = Duratouch280;
	    OriginX        = 0;
	    OriginY        = 0;
	    Size           = 256x256;

This would replace the normal "[MOUSE]" or "[TABLET]" directive.

We made a silly mistake in Beta 1 with the calculations of offsets
for this.  The calculations are corrected in Beta 2.  If you want to
test this in Beta 1, we have a workround.

     0                                                                    255
   0 +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 0
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |           OriginX                                                  |
     |           v                                                        |
     | OriginY > +---------------------------------------+     -          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |     The Area where the Touchscreen    |  Size y        |
     |           |     something back.                   |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           |                                       |     |          |
     |           +---------------------------------------+     -          |
     |                                                                    |
     |           |--------------- Size X ----------------|                |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
     |                                                                    |
 255 +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 255
     0                                                                    255
 
 The formula the server uses is:
 
       dx = (float)(ddxInfo.currentScreen->width *
                    (dx - pDDXPointer->originx)) /
                      (float)(pDDXPointer->sizex -1);
       dy = (float)(ddxInfo.currentScreen->height *
                    (dy - pDDXPointer->originy)) /
                      (float)(pDDXPointer->sizey -1);
 
Where dx, dy is initially what the Touchscreen reports back.

* Improved Tablet Support.

>From Beta 2, directives can be given to set baudrate, parity, etc 
for the digitiser tablet.

* New Memory Management

Several of the supported OS's have pathological memory growth when
exposed to certain common conditions in the X Server.  This is not,
strictly, a leak, as we know exactly what is happening with the
memory and it is being freed when it should be.  However, for various
reasons, malloc can grow the program size and keep growing and keep
growing...

This memory allocator has many features that make it a better fit
with an X Server, including decreasing the size of the process, when
possible.

* Site Information File.

There are a number of addresses of various sorts built in to the
product.  This information is intended to be replaced with OEM and
Site specific information.  The Support* fields are fairly innocuous.
The BugReportEmail address is possibly contentious.  When the Server
fails, if it can do so, it will leave a panic trace file called
'X0panic', which it then tries to email to the BugReportEmail address.
Sites concerned with security, may set this value to '""' (null) to
prevent email from being sent at all.  Others may wish to centralise
their support issues.

[SITE_INFO]
    SupportPhone   = "(800) 946 7433";
    SupportFax     = "(303) 470 5513";
    SupportEmail   = "support at xinside.com";
    SupportFtp     = "ftp.xinside.com";
    BugReportEmail = "bugs at xinside.com";

* Mach32 disable/relocate Linear Aperture

We've a couple of reports that the Linear Aperture causes problems, 
when non-standard addresses are used.  We are introducing a feature
to permit the Linear Aperture to be disabled altogether, or to have
a non-standard address used.  We expect this to be in Beta 2.  A
version of this has been made available to some Release 1.1 customers,
using an environment variable, so we know the Linear Aperture 
disable/relocate code works, we just don't like the way the information 
is passed to the Server.

* Many small problems have been fixed.

This list will be increased before General Availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for your interest in Accelerated-X, X^max.
     -----+++++=====##### Accelerated-X #####=====+++++-----

This file is ftp.xinside.com:/accelx/1.1/prodinfo.txt, dated Nov 21, 1994.

Special promotional pricing for Linux & FreeBSD version - 50% off!
The Server is normally sold for $199.00, we're offering Release 1.1
for only $99.50.  Student and academic discount does not apply to the
promotional rate (i.e. you don't get the product for $49.75, but your
normal discounted $99.50 price).

Orders placed from Nov 19, 1994, qualify for an upgrade to Release 1.2, 
for only the cost of post & packing.  Release 1.2 is now in Beta Test.

For "What is an X Server anyway and why would I want to buy one when 
I have one already", see the file accelx/1.1/background.txt on the 
Anon-FTP Server ftp.xinside.com .

Major features:

o	PCI Board Performance Rankings, in xStones, nearest 10,000
	(approx error 10%):

	Following measurements made using Intel Plato motherboard, 
	Pentium/90, 32MB RAM, 256k cache, BSDI 1.1 at 1024x768, 256 color 
	on Acer 76i monitor.  Use of 1024x768x8 is to provide comparable 
	results, rather than to indicate max resolution.  See detailed 
	benchmarks for other depths and resolutions.

	490,000		#9 Imagine 128, 4MB, PCI (#9 I-128)
	360,000		#9 GXE64pro, 4MB, PCI (S3 964)
	350,000		Matrox Impression Plus, 4MB, PCI (MGA ATHENA)
	350,000		Diamond Stealth 64, 2MB, PCI (S3 964)
	340,000		Matrox Impression Plus, 2MB, PCI (MGA ATHENA)
	320,000		ATI Pro Turbo, 2MB, PCI (Mach64)
	290,000		Diamond Viper, 2MB, PCI (P9000)
	270,000		#9 GXE64, 2MB, PCI (S3 864)
	190,000		Diamond Stealth 32, 2MB, PCI (ET4000/W32p)
	150,000		Orchid Kelvin 64, 2MB, PCI (GD5434)
	150,000		STB Nitro, 2MB, PCI (GD5434)
	90,000		Actix GE64, 1MB, PCI (S3 864)
	50,000		STB Nitro, 1MB, PCI (GD5434)

	ISA Board Performance Rankings, in xStones, nearest 1,000
	(approx error 10%, 2% if below ~50,000):

	80,000		Actix GE32plus, 1MB, ISA (S3 801)
	77,000		Reveal VC700, 1MB, ISA (IIT AGX14)
	63,000		ATI Graphics Ultra +, 2MB, ISA (Mach32)
	52,000		Tseng ET4000/W32, 1MB, ISA (ET4000/W32)
	51,000		Diamond Speedstar 64, 1MB, ISA (GD5434)
	51,000		Orchid Kelvin 64, 1MB, ISA (GD5434)
	50,000		Paradise Accelerator 24, 1MB, ISA (WD90C31)
	46,000		Diamond Speedstar Pro, 1MB, ISA (GD5426)
	44,000		ATI Graphics Wonder, 1MB, ISA (Mach32)
	35,000		STB OEM board, 1MB, ISA (GD5428)
	34,000		ATI Graphics Vantage, 1MB, ISA (Mach8)
	17,000		Reveal VC300, 1MB, ISA (GD5422)
	6,000		Trident TVGA8900D, 1MB, ISA (TVGA8900D)

	Following measurements have been made on a Genoa X4 motherboard,
	Intel 486DX4/100MHz, 16MB RAM, 256k cache, BSDI 1.1 at 1024x768,
	256 color on a Packard Bell 8517 monitor.

	177,000		ATI Xpression, 2MB, VESA (Mach64)
	169,000		Tseng ET4000/W32p, 2MB, VESA (ET4000/W32p)
	169,000		Tseng ET4000/W32i, 2MB, VESA (ET4000/W32i)
	150,000		Techworks Thunderbolt-VL2, 2MB, VESA (ET4000/W32p)
	96,000		Boca Vortek-VL, 1MB, VESA (IIT AGX015)
	58,000		Diamond Stealth 24, 1MB, VESA (S3 805)
	53,000		Orchid Kelvin 64, 1MB, VESA (GD5434)

	ISA Board Performance Rankings, in xStones, nearest 1,000
	(approx error 10%, 2% if below ~50,000):

	78,000		Reveal VC700, 1MB, ISA (IIT AGX14)
	51,000		Paradise Accelerator 24, 1MB, ISA (WD90C31)
	46,000		Diamond Speedstar Pro, 1MB, ISA (GD5426)
	35,000		STB OEM board, 1MB, ISA (GD5428)
	6,000		Trident TVGA8900D, 1MB, ISA (TVGA8900D)

	The following measurements have been made on a US Logic
	machine, Intel 486DX2/66, 16MB RAM, 128KB cache, SlackWare 1.2
	(Linux 1.0.8), at 1024x768, 256 color on an Acer 76i monitor.

	VESA board performance:

	ISA board performance:

	265,000		ATI Pro Turbo, 4MB, ISA (Mach64)

o	Comprehensive support of new ATI Mach64 boards including
		ATI Graphics Xpression
		ATI Graphics Pro Turbo
		ATI Graphics Win Turbo (as Pro Turbo)

o	Supports 4/8/15/16/32 bit color on suitable chipsets
	(24 bit color is 4-byte for performance, 24-bit packed
	color representation is not supported in this release; this
	only makes any significant difference with a 4MB board, where
	1280x1024 becomes realisable instead of an 1152x900 maximum
	with 32 bit representation).

o	Runs on 386DX/20 and up (486DX min recommended, prefer
	486DX2/66 or any Pentium) on these OS's:

	Linux 1.0 - 1.1		FreeBSD 1.1.5 - 2.0
	SCO ODT 2.0 - 3.0	ISC 4.0 - 4.1
	UnixWare 1.0 - 1.1 #	Solaris 2.1 - 2.4
	Sinix-Z			Esix 4.0.4
	Unix System V Release 4.0 and 4.2 derivatives.

	(If marked with #, then OS requires a 387 or full 486DX).

o	Easy installation and configuration.

o	Fully compatible with all standard X clients under X11R4,
	X11R5 and X11R6 (e.g. you can use XFree86 3.x clients, fonts,
	libs, etc).

Details, details, details...

Product Names:	Accelerated-X for UNIX System V
		Accelerated-X for Linux & FreeBSD
Version:	1.1, Build 1100
Price:		$199.00 + Post & Packing
		Linux & FreeBSD promotional price, $99.50.
		50% Academic & student discount except on promotions.
		SGCS, Metrolink, Hyper-X, 50% discount on submitting
			proof of purchase
		XFree86, no competitive upgrade or rebate.
		Support Staff at Operating System and X Client
			software companies should ask for our
			cooperative support pricing.
		VAR pricing available.
		Site Licenses available.
Payment method:	VISA, Mastercard accepted, money order or cashiers' check.
Evaluation:	30 day money back guarantee.
Availability:	Now.
Distributors:	None; direct sales from US/Canada.
X Release:	X11R5 + some X11R6 features
CPU Support:	386DX, 486SX/DX, Pentium
OS Support:	Linux 1.x ( Tested on SlackWare 1.2, SlackWare 2.0, 
			Yggsadril Summer '94)
		FreeBSD 1.1, 2.0
		BSDI 1.1
		Solaris/x86 2.1, 2.4 
		SCO ODT 2.0, 3.0 or SCO UNIX 3.2.4 + SCO X
		Interactive (ISC) 4.0, 4.1
		UnixWare 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2
		USL UNIX SVR4.0 derivatives (Esix, Dell, UHC/Worldwide)
		USL UNIX SVR4.2 derivatives (ICL, On Site)
		Siemens-Nixdorf Sinix-Z
OEMS:		BSDI, ELSA, OnSite, ICL, Esix.
Technology Licensees:	SunSoft.
OS Non-Support:	QNX, Coherent, NetBSD, Minix, NeXtStEp/486
		MS-DOS, MS-Windows, OS/2, Windows/NT.
Media:		Single diskette, 3.5", 1.44MB for Linux, FreeBSD, BSDI.
or:		Single diskette, 3.5", 1.44MB for System V derivatives.
Disk space:	Less than 3MB, 3.6MB needed for installation.
Chipsets:	ATI Mach8, Mach32, Mach64
		Cirrus Logic GD5402, 5420, 5422, 5424, 5426, 5428,
			5429, 5430, 5434
		IBM 8514, VGA, XGA
		IIT AGX014, 015
		Matrox MGA-I, MGA-II
		Number 9 I-128
		Oak Technology OTI-067, 077, 087
		S3 86C801, 805, 805i, 864, 911, 924, 928, 964
		Trident TVGA8900B, 8900C, 8900CL, 9000, 9000i
		Tseng Labs ET3000, ET4000, ET4000/W32, ET4000/W32i,
			ET4000/W32p
		Weitek P9000
		Western Digital PVGA1, WD9500, WDC90C00, 90C11, 
			90C30, 90C31
Boards:		All sorts - text files permit adding new boards
		quickly, if based on chipset above.  See URL
		ftp://ftp.xinside.com/accelx/1.1/Boards
		(Board vendors should ask about programs to support
		their products).  Board vendors with support agreements
		include:
			Actix, Boca, ColorGraphic Communications, 
			Compaq, ELSA, Matrox, Number 9, STB, Tseng.
Bus support:	ISA, EISA, VESA, PCI
Max Resolution:	1600x1200 Non-interlaced (needs suitable chipset &
		RAMDAC and a good monitor!)
Virtual Desktop:	up to 1600x1280 (chipset and RAM dependent)
Modes:		16, 256, 32k, 64k, 16.7M colors (4, 8, 15, 16, 32 bit)
Multiheaded:	Up to 8 monitors per server, up to 8 servers per system
		(depends on boards/chipsets in use)
Mice:		Microsoft, Mouse Systems, Logitech serial, keyboard
		PS/2 or Bus mouse with 2 or 3 buttons (3 button use
		can be emulated on 2 button)
Tablet:		Bit Pad One and MM compatible are supported.
Keyboards:	American, Japanese and European support
Monitors:	VESA compatible and many others (text file
		configured).  Sync-on-Green is not supported in
		this release.
X Extensions:	MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD, XTEST, Multi-Buffering, 
		SHAPE, XIdle, XsightExtension, SHM
Compatable X Releases:
		Standard commercial UNIX implementations,
		All known releases of XFree86 (2.x, 3.x) & X386.
Performance twaddle:
		We can get a Pentium/90MHz with BSDI and #9 I-128 on
		a PCI bus, to hit better than 490,000 xStones and 7.0
		Xmarks.  Your mileage will vary due to different
		memory and cache architectures, bus chips, monitors,
		RAMDACs, OS revisions, phase of the moon.  The most
		honest thing we can say is that the server is
		blatantly faster than anything else we've seen on a
		PC, even for standard VGA chips, let alone the fast
		chips... and our customers seem to agree.

		A bunch of xbench output, together with the script used 
		to collect the figures and the xbench sources we used,
		are on this Anon-FTP server.  Customers report broadly 
		similar answers so we're confident that we're not 
		cheating; as a quick validation check, there are memory
		bandwidth problems that cause certain chips to max 
		out.  Anyone reporting a faster Tseng ET4000
		implementation is almost certainly stretching the 
		truth (on one particular machine/bus combination, we
		know that about 80MB/s is physically realisable; we've 
		seen one product claiming a benchmark that would mean 
		more than 1GB/sec, which is not realisable on the
		H/W!).  We're actively looking for an authoritative,
		respectable and economically priced 3rd party
		benchmarking service for the Server and our
		competition.

Product Support:

If you buy the stuff from an OEM (BSDI, etc) or VAR, approach them 
first.  They get a price break on the grounds that they do first line
support.

If you buy from us, we'll give you installation support.  If you don't
abuse the service, we'll give you some help & info for free, even if 
you bought from an OEM (we'll copy them on answers, so they know what 
their customers are interested in).  We're interested in growing the
whole market for X, but that doesn't mean we offer free phone or email
training services!

Email support is preferred, especially for initial contact; there's a 
bunch of files we'll want to see and email is the best way to get them 
to us.  Phone if you absolutely have to...

There are also mail lists for product announcements, patch
announcements, etc.  Send email to Majordomo at xinside.com with the
message 'help'.

Patches are put up on the Anonymous FTP service and their presence anno
announce by email to accelx-patches at xinside.com .

If the Server crashes, it will send us email, with a stack trace of the 
Server, so that we can diagnose the problem.  In the current release, this 
is hardwired.  In a future release, site configuration with OEM defaults
will be possible.  An example of a panic file is on the Anon-FTP Server:

	ftp.xinside.com:/docs/X0panic

Where we draw the Support line:

Sometimes vendors release new boards and chips with the same designation
as an older version.  They don't always tell us.  Sometimes, the first
we'll find out about it, is when *you* have a problem.  It may take
a week or two to establish that you have a different board or chip.
We will probably try to organise a loan of a known working board of 
the same type, so that we can examine the differences between your
problem board and our working versions.  You send us your failing board.
You hang on to the loaner board until we resolve the issue and return 
your board.

We're providing just the X server; that doesn't make us responsible for
various vendors broken bits.  For example, there's a few OS's that
support 256 color mode servers, and whose clients can't cope with a
color map of 32k or more colors.  There's nothing we can do to the
server to fix those problems.  We *know* that the most likely area of
difficulty with the server will be board/chipset problems, because we
sell on so many OS's and test with so many.  There are very, very few
OS specific problems, that are caused by the server; almost all problem
reports that we see of this nature are caused by X client implementation
failures or user misunderstanding.  Don't be surprised if we are unexcited
by problem reports that do not reference the chipset as exhibiting
anomalous behavior (i.e. unexpectedly different from that of another 
chipset).

Check out ftp.xinside.com:/accelx/1.1/releasenotes for known current
problems and any solutions.

Upgrade Policy & Programs:

We'll post patches for a release so long as we think it's meaningful.
Since we're focussed on performance and reliability, we reserve the
right to tweak and tune as we see fit, which may reduce the useful
lifetime of superceded builds.

Tentatively, we expect the policy will be $50 + P&P for an upgrade to 
a specific release level.  For $100/year, we'll just keep sending you 
new builds, to a maximum of four (otherwise we eat up all the money on 
Admin, P&P and diskettes).  For $100 and authority to use your FedEx or 
UPS account or to bill your credit card for P&P and we'll send you as 
many builds as we create for that release level...  With new chipsets 
and new features, we expect to release between four and eight builds a 
year.

When we introduce a new version, you may transfer the update agreement to
the new release for the usual upgrade fee, or keep it on the old release.  
We expect that items like chipset support will be provided on the last 
version of the old release (a virtue of our dynamic linker technology), 
but that active development of new features will probably disappear, the 
effort being put into the new version.  You must buy the upgrade to the 
new version as a separate transaction; the change of version is not free 
or included in the price of any support or upgrade schedule.

If you've got a working Server on some rev of an OS, and you choose to
change your OS to another rev, and the Server no longer works, we're
not going to give you a free upgrade to some version of the server that
does work on that release.  For example, suppose that Linux goes from
1.1.49 to 2.0.  You bought the Server and used it on 1.1.49.  Then you
choose to go to Linux 2.0 and the Server doesn't work.  That's not our 
fault.  We don't feel the slightest bit responsible, since we do not
control and cannot predict what will be done by any OS development group.
We're very likely produce a *current* version of the Server that works on 
that OS, within a few weeks of availability.  You only pay for the upgrade
of the Server to the new rev, not any "OS change premium".

If you think this is unreasonable, we'd love to know why.

What justifies a new Release or Version:

We'll rev the server for the following reasons:

	Performance improvements
	New chipsets
	X extensions that need Server changes
	A pitifully buggy server

We'll try to keep new stuff reasonably compatible with the old, but we 
explicitly reserve the right to change the way in which we structure 
*anything*, in pursuit of performance.

We expect to add three or four chipset families a year; one or two sets 
of global performance changes and small sets with other changes; one or 
two X extensions that may need Server changes per year.  Where possible, 
we'll roll these into one server minor rev change.

Inner technology:

We've reworked the DDX layer pretty much entirely.  A few companies
have OEM'ed the DDX layer and a number of others are in negotiation,
since it is so fast.  For example, Solaris/x86 2.4 uses our DDX.

We use OS specific program launchers (our own private dynamic linker)
to load the X Server proper.  The server loads chip support modules, X
extensions, etc, as needed.  Everything except the launcher is OS
independent, so it takes a day to generate all versions for the OS's
(mostly spent packaging).  Then it takes a week or so to test all the
boards, in all the combinations of bus and processor speed that we can
reasonably make.  Then we do the Beta test, which is open ended.  We ship
when the product is ready; we try not to make that call prematurely.

Some OS's need a device driver, if they don't normally support memory
mapped files.  We provide that and a few other services missing or
incomplete on some UNIX versions.  Most OS versions don't need the
drivers.

We've added some useful features.  One example is that if the server
panics, it will write a short human readable text file with some info
that let's us know where things are going wrong.  It will then try to 
email the problem report to us, automatically.

What's NOT included:

Developer support.  This is a replacement server for the X server 
included with the OS.  What's to develop?

It's not a complete X environment.  No huge set of fonts, no clients,
etc.  It's a high performance X Server with support for current
chipsets.

PEX & XIE.  PEX will be supported in a release, soon.  XIE will be
supported after we move to an X11R6 base.

3rd Party agreements:

We have relationships with a number of other companies.  For example,
we are:

	Matrox' X Server partner on all CPU's
	3DLabs X Server partner
	Number 9 X Server partner

We're also members of the usual consortia (X, etc) and various vendor 
developer relationship programs, such as SCO, Solaris, etc.  We have a 
relationship with RenderMorphics, Ltd.

Other products:

OSF/Motif for Linux, BSDI and FreeBSD will be released soon.
PEX will be made available soon.
XIE will be made available soon after we move to X11R6.
Other extensions will be announced.

Invitations:

We welcome feedback.  There's an online evaluation report form on this
server (/docs/evalform.txt).  We may not be able to tell you what we're 
planning (commercial secrecy stuff; we might tell you with a non-disclosure
agreement in place), but rest assured that we listen...  We also try
to avoid estimating dates, or even being too positive about what will be
in future releases.  We prefer to ship something that works.

Apps developers may be interested in our cooperative marketing and 
support efforts.  For example, we already provide some server 
optimisations that help certain applications at no performance cost 
to other apps.

Email:	sales at xinside.com
FAX:	+1(303)384-9778
Phone:	+1(303)384-9999
USMail: P O Box 10774
	Golden, CO 80401-0610
FTP:	ftp.xinside.com
WWW:	http://www.xinside.com/
WAIS:	Not Yet Available.
Gopher:	NYA
mailserver:	NYA
mail-lists:	accelx-users accelx-patches accelx-announce accelx
	pex-announce pex-users, etc, etc.
	(send email to majordomo at xinside.com with the message 'help'
	for details)

_______________________________________________________________________
Order Form:

Billing name & address:

Name:
Address:
Phone:
FAX:

Shipping name & address:

Name:
Address:
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Product:

# copies of Accelerated-X for Linux, FreeBSD & BSDI With Manual:
(Copies with manual are promotional price $99.50)
# copies of Accelerated-X for UNIX System V With Manual:
(Copies with manual are list price $199.00)

# copies of Accelerated-X for Linux, FreeBSD & BSDI diskette only:
(Copies without manual are list price $94.50, first order
	e189ust include at least one manual)
# copies of Accelerated-X for UNIX System V diskette only:
(Copies without manual are list price $189.00, first order
	must include at least one manual)

Student or Academic discount, 50%:

Post & Packing (prices for single copy with manual):

US Mail $5:
2nd Day (US only) $10:
Next Day (US only) $15:
Airmail (International) $20:
FedEx (International) $50:

Visa or Mastercard number:
Expiration date:

Where did you hear about X Inside and Accelerated-X?

What graphics board or chipset do you plan to use?

What monitor will you be using?

Which OS and version will you be using?

---------------------------------------
Accelerated-X                     X^Max






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