Xsgi

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Xsgi was the Silicon Graphics (SGI) implementation of the X Window System (X11) server for its IRIX-based graphical workstations and servers. Xsgi was released in 1991 with IRIX 4.0 on the SGI Indigo workstation.

History

Work on Xsgi began in May 1989 when Tom Paquin left IBM to join SGI to integrate the X Window System with SGI's IRIS GL interface.^[1] Paquin recruited a set of software engineers experienced in X server implementation: Jeff Weinstein, Erik Fortune, Paul Shupak, John Giannandrea, Peter Daifuku, Michael Toy, Todd Newman, Spence Murray, and Dave Spalding.

Graphics hardware designed by Silicon Graphics provided accelerated rendering access through graphics hardware commands rather than memory-mapped framebuffers manipulated by the CPU. This made the Monochrome FrameBuffer (MFB) and Color FrameBuffer (CFB) device-dependent rendering layers supplied with the MIT X11 Sampler Server inappropriate for Silicon Graphics hardware. Jeff Weinstein developed the No FrameBuffer (NFB) device-dependent rendering layer to support the Silicon Graphics style of hardware access. SCO later incorporated the NFB layer in its X server porting layer.^[2]

Silicon Graphics hardware included overlay planes to provide a hardware overlay. Initial efforts by Todd Newman to implement overlay plane support in Xsgi eventually led to Peter Daifuku's "fully functional" support for overlay planes. Daifuku separated the notion of a window's visibility clipping region from the window's renderable clipping region. Previously the MIT X sample server treated these two clipping regions as being the identical region. Xsgi advertises overlay planes as X11 visuals with their overlay characteristics described by the SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS convention.

Eric Fortune developed the X keyboard extension (XKB) for Xsgi.

Xsgi supported the X11, IRIS GL, OpenGL, Display PostScript, and PEX PHIGS rendering models.

Publications

Jeff Weinstein, "NFB, an X Server Porting Layer," Proceedings of the 6th Annual X Technical Conference appearing in The X Resource, Issue 1, January 1991.
Mark J. Kilgard, "Going Beyond the MIT Sample Server: The Silicon Graphics X11 Server," The X Journal, SIGS Publications, January 1993.
Mark Kilgard, Simon Hui, Allen Leinwand, Dave Spalding, "X Server Multi-rendering for OpenGL and PEX," Proceedings of the 8th Annual X Technical Conference appearing in The X Resource, January 1994.
Todd Newman, "How Not to Implement Overlays in X," Proceedings of the 6th Annual X Technical Conference appearing in The X Resource, Issue 1, January 1991.
Peter Daifuku, "A Fully Functional Implementation of Layered Windows," The X Resource, ISBN 1-56592-020-1, pgs. 239-249, 1993.
Elias Israel, Erik Fortune, The X Window System Server, Digital Press, ISBN 1-55558-096-3, 1993.

References

External links

Xsgi Man Page

v t e Silicon Graphics

Company	Silicon Graphics (1981–2009) Silicon Graphics International (since 2009)

People	James H. Clark Kurt Akeley David J. Brown Herb Kuta Abbey Silverstone Bob Lutz Rick Belluzzo Paul Haeberli

Motorola 68000 computers	SGI IRIS

MIPS architecture computers	IRIS 4D Indigo Indigo² Indy Crimson O2 Octane Challenge Origin 200 Origin 2000 Onyx2 Origin and Onyx 3000

Intel-based computers	Visual Workstation Altix Prism

Graphics hardware	Geometry Engine Elan Impact VPro RealityEngine InfiniteReality

Other technology	IRIX Image format MEX Workspace 4Sight Interactive Desktop Xsgi 4Dwm XFS IRIS GL OpenGL GIO XIO NUMAlink IndyCam

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