From: mod@westford.ccur.com (Michael O'Donnell 508-392-2915)
Subject: Re: EISA, Xwindows, graphics, WD7000 SCSI
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corp.
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:13:33 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.210235.10186@westford.ccur.com> I wrote:
>
>I'm only moderately uninformed regarding EISA, Xwindows and
>BSDJ, so I was wondering if the following is unreasonable:
>I want to have BSDJ on a 486 box with a bus mastering EISA
>graphics card with enough processing power and RAM onboard to
>run the entire X server, so the 486 isn't saddled with all that
>graphics bit bashing.  Resolution would have to be a MINUMUM
>1280x1024, and I can at least HOPE to have 12bits per pixel
>(R/G/B -> 4/4/4) but that may require too many dollars.  How
>tough would it be to do this?  I am interested in organizing
>a group purchase of the appropriate stuff for two important
>reasons: 1) I'd hope to get a volume discount, and 2) I'd know
>that I wouldn't be the only one in the world trying to run BSDJ
>with an oddball Xwindows configuration unsupported by the rest
>of the BSDJ gang.  Let me know if you'd be interested in "such
>a deal", assuming that we can all agree on what we want.

The replies I've received so far indicate that my proposal was
unclear, so allow me to apologize here and to clarify:  I (think
that I) am willing to manage a group purchase of hotrod graphics
peripherals - each individual would be responsible for acquiring
their own base system.  This would all be subject to negotiation
among the participants, but I was mostly interested in coordinating
a group purchase of graphics controllers and possibly monitors and
mice, as well.  At this stage I'm just trying to determine the level
of interest out there and I'm also looking for recommendations as to
which controller we should buy.  My intention is that the controller
would have a CPU and RAM and would run the entire X server (after
we've ported it), which would communicate with client BSDJ processes
via DMA and a simple demon.  I'm assuming that we'll need EISA boxes
to get any reasonable performance, but I'm open to suggestion -
maybe EISA would be overkill.

The "kwai" disaster in misc.forsale.computers should give us all
pause.  I'm looking for tips on how to organize a group purchase
with a minimum of hassle and risk.  For starters:

 - Why should anybody trust me?  Are there clever tricks we can
   play to protect all parties?  Escrow?  The only thing I want
   out of all this is a cool BSDJ Xwindow system, not enemies.
 - Could each item somehow get shipped directly to the intended
   owner or would my living room look like a warehouse while I
   broke up a bulk shipment and reshipped.  I don't want to be
   the owner-of-record for each subsystem, yet I can't see any
   advantage for an OEM to give a quantity discount if they're
   going to end up doing as much paperwork on the deal as they
   would for a bunch of individual purchases. (I hope I'm wrong)

If it does turn out that a group purchase of entire systems rather
than just graphics subsystems is preferred, I suppose I'm willing
to manage that, but I think this limited approach is preferable -
less room for disagreement over features and such.  At any rate, I
hope we can use the net to our advantage in this.  Maybe the right
approach would be to simply debate the "best controller" issue in
this newsgroup and then everybody go and make their own best deal.
Then we could just focus on getting the server running...

Regards,
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 Michael O'Donnell     mod@westford.ccur.com     uunet!masscomp!mod
 Concurrent Computer Corporation     Westford, MA     (508)392-2915
 NOTE:  Opinions I express are unlikely to be those of my employer.
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