Summary:X-terminals

From: Brian Atholl Murray (bam@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Date: Sat Feb 06 1993 - 01:19:57 CST


  About a week ago I asked about the use of X-terminals (specifically NCDs)
on a SUN network, here is a summary of the responses;

jpd@tardis.cl.msu.edu
hightowr@cadre.af.mil
kubipdal@uts.uni-c.dk
finnell@portia.mitre.org
pdijlh@pii.com
ron%drd.com%drd@uunet.UU.NET
lora%EDU.ROCKEFELLER.popcbr@ROCKVAX.ROCKEFELLER.EDU
davee@lightning.mitre.org
CCTR114@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
davis@udecc.engr.udayton.edu
ian@vortex.yorku.ca
trinkle@edu.purdue.cs
danny@ews7.dseg.ti.com
ted@usasoc.soc.mil
blymn@mulga.awadi.com.AU
gbs@stratus.swdc.stratus.com
ivan@durras.anu.edu.au
HOLDREGE+_MP%A1%PacifiCare@mcimail.com
se@comp.lancs.ac.uk
glenn@atm.ch.cam.ac.uk
D.Littlewood@teesside.ac.uk
dzambon@afit.af.mil
fetrow@biostat.washington.edu
trevor@ssci.liv.ac.uk

are all to be thanked and their responses are summarised, somewhat
briefly, below.

X-terminals are good, PC (486dx/33 w/4mg) with an Xserver, networking,
ethernet card are low cost option.
        
NCD X-term demo`ed, pleasing results. Problems with system crashes.

NCD15b terminals have a somewhat cheap feel, but they ARE cheap and useful.
local telnet windows are good. Problems with configuration filename,
'/tftpboot/usr/lib/X11/ncd/configs' not configured in EPROM.
Nevertheless, recommendable.

recommend buying diskless Sun ELC's in pairs & half that many 16-Mbyte
RAM expansions to give 16-Mbytes ELCs.
X terminals need more set-up, config, contain no 'console error messages',
cant run SunView programs.

PC'S (486, 4Mb) as X-Terminals gave good response using PC-Xview from NCD.
20" monitor is nice.

each X-terminal needs 4-5 MB of real memory available

NCD-16's and NCD15b's very satisfactory using xdm.
drawback is they take only 4.5Mb, need 8Mb.

NCD x-terms integrate well into TCP/IP and Vax/Decnet environment.
19c supports PEX.

NCD 16e's and 19c with 4 Mb enough for the monochrome but not colour.

14" NCD's need at least 8MB for most applications.
runs IslandWrite/Paint/Draw in black and white mode with 4Mb.
WordPerfect didnt run.

NCD 17cr on SS1+ with 8Mb was ok.

another option is SUN 3/50s with XKernel by Seth Robertson at
Columbia University.
problem is swap file, server grows, SunOS tries to swap, gets an error.
(see FAQ file for local swap configs on Xsuns)
good to run OpenWindows instead of MIT X11.

be sure you get 1280x1024 resolution, not 1024x768.

NB. cant use any NeWS based software (eg Answerbook)! on Xterms

NCD hard to setup. would not save the setup to eeprom.
have a habit of pausing for no reason.
think of Liberty and Tektronix also.
need plenty of memory and swap.
12-16Meg for each xterminal on the host.
PageView and WordPerfect 5.1 wont run.

NCD 19r with 4 Mb are ok.
easy to setup and good tech. support.

Memory in the Xterminal >= 4Mb
Memory in the server >= 4Mb per Xterm
Speed of the server about 2-3 MIPS per Xterm

NCD19r is the best mono. latest NCD software 3.0 has an X11R5 font server.

for mono. Tektronix range; starting at 750 pounds are good.

NCD 19r are good

ESS offer SUN-3/50s for #400 including monitor, P.D. package (X-Kernel)
to run these as Xterms seems good.
Pcs may be used also.
X-terminals are slightly-less-than-dumb terminals.

at least 8Mb needed in Xterms

NCD have a good compressed-format-X-over-serial-lines feature with
local-to-Xterminal-window-manager useable at 9600 bps. 4Mb okay.

   Please excuse the rough cuts of these but I will keep all the replies
I have if anyone wants them.
                         Thanks once more,
                                       Brian

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