Accelerated-X™ Summit Series

News


News about Summit - new hardware supported, new features available, and so on. Color coded by Series.


SPARC Gets Wall Display HX Series HX

The new WallDisplay HX Series is now available for SPARC platforms. The HX Series was recently released for the x86 platforms running Linux or Solaris. With Accelerated-X, it was a simple matter to move the code base to the SPARC platform and Solaris (for SPARC) kernel. Solaris is a very strong operating system, and large wall display systems on Sun's SPARC hardware seems to make sense for installations where solid hardware, solid OS software and solid graphics support software is required.


HX Series Now in Silver and Bronze Editions HX

The new WallDisplay HX Series is now available in two Editions. Both Editions comes in three "Levels" - support for up to four monitors, up to eight monitors, and up to sixteen monitors. Each Level can support multiple SLS xscreens and a mix of SLS and single-monitor xscreens. The Silver Edition has all that plus (synchronous) video in, rotate, and overlay support. Both Editions provide full hardware acceleration on all monitors, and an easy to use graphical configurator utility. Check out all the new features.


SPARC Gets ATI 9250 Accelerated-X Support WX

There seems to be a need for high-quality, high-performance OpenGL graphics support software on SPARC computers that is not being met by Sun. We have recently (privately) fielded a Beta of a new Workstation Platinum package to some organizations for initial testing. The ATI 9250 card is the standard PCI version with Intel bios. The SPARC computer must have an incumbent graphics chip/card with OpenBoot bios for booting. After that, the Summit SW takes over. Performance is quite pleasing, so we are anxious to make a release soon. Support for other cards will follow soon, too.


New HX Series for Wall Displays HX

Designed especially for Wall Display systems, the HX Series has SingleLogicalScreen capability - aka "Xinerama" in some circles. Besides supporting one or more "stretched desktops" in a single system, as well as a mix of SLS xscrens and single-monitor screens, the HX Series has eliminated the 4,096 "stride" limitation that has plagued the single logical screen configuration for many years. Now 32768 is the new limit of pixels in either dimension, so the large monitors do not pose a problem for this SW. HX Series is available in three "Levels" - Level 1 for up to four monitors. Level 2 for up to eight monitors, and Level 3 for up to sixteen monitors. Beyond that, contact us.


Support for ATI FireMV Cards MX

The FireMV multi-head card models are now supported in the MX Series. Both the 2- and 4-monitor versions and the PCIe versions are supported. ATI advertizes these cards for 2D applications only, and claim Linux support, but ...


New Summit License Key Format DX LX MX WX CX

We have increased the capabilities of the Summit Series License Keys to discriminate. Now "normal" Keys take into account more items of the computer system on which it resides, tightening up the key "pindown," and making it more difficult for cheaters. Volume customers and OEMs are allowed to use the "loose" form of Keys after signing licensing agreements governing the use of the keys. If you are a volume user and need to utilize the same key across multiple computers, we have a simple, efficient system of licensing for you. Give us a call.


Panasonic Toughbooks Supported in Summit Series CX

Six or seven of the latest Panasonic Toughbook laptops with integral touchscreens are now supported by Summit. Two Government Prime Contractors have tested the CF-29 models with the latest version of the Army's FBCB2 code) as used for Blue Force Tracking running on Solaris systems and have reported no problems. The CX drivers for the Toughbook boxes support OpenGl, and DualView, too. Downloads of the Toughbook are controlled because of hacking attempts by certain (unnamed) organizations; if your organization is interested in testing the demos, give us a call. We have both Linux and Solaris packages. Both are very good.


Air Traffic Control uses Summit Series CX

Several European countries are now using XiG's Summit software to drive their large (2Kx2K) displays, including the new LCD panels. We currently support hardware from Matrox and 3Dlabs. The Summit drivers currently operate on 32-bit Intel platforms running Linux or Solaris, and on 64-bit HP computers running HP/UX, and other platforms are under consideration.


Intel i865G "Extreme Graphics 2" Supported in Desktops and Motherboards DX

This chip is a follow-on to the i845G. Faster, and can use more RAM memory.


Advantech PCM-9372 Single Board Computer Supported in LX LX

All four Summit LX flavors are available for this SBC. It uses the VIA C3 Eden processor with the S3 ProSavage ("Twister T") graphics. Testing was done on the 400 MHz version of the Advantech product. Good OpenGL performance, considering the CPU speed, but that is because the drivers make full use of the C3's MMX and 3D Now! special instructions for optimization of graphics processing.


Intel i855G "Extreme Graphics 2" Supported in Notebooks LX

This new chip from Intel has what they call the i852 graphics core integrated into the North Bridge i855 chip. The 'G' means the bridge chip has the graphics included. A bunch of laptops from a bunch of manufacturers are using the i855GM chip - 'M' means mobile, apparently. Accelerated-X provides great support for i855G, including the 1280x768 LCD resolution used by at least one notebook model (from Fujitsu). The hardware overlay plane in this chip is also supported.   Download a Summit LX demo and see how easy it is to install and configure, and how fast it runs.


VIA Eden (Twister T) Graphics Supported LX DX

VIA has a chipset consisting of their C3 CPU and S3 ProSavage graphics and a bunch of other stuff that is called Eden with Twister T. This set is low power consumption, but packs a pretty good wallop for OpenGL. It is supported in both the DX and LX Series, depending upon whether the chipset drives and LCD panel or just a monitor.


3Dlabs Wildcat VP 650 Added to Summit Workstation Series WX

This card is a "skinnied down" version of the new big VP line from 3Dlabs. It has good performance and a hardware overlay plane that is standard with most cards from 3Dlabs.


Intel i845G "Extreme Graphics" Supported in Desktops and Motherboards LX

This is a popular Intel chip that is found in many desktops and laptops from all the top manufacturers of such computer hardware. The chip does not have an overlay plane as is found in the i830G, for example. Dunno why. If you are having problems with XFree86 Linux graphics drivers, don't feel alone. XFree does a poor job of supporting this chip, especially on available resolutions. Download the Summit DX demo flavor of your choice and see how easy it is to install, and how easy it is to configure, and how fast it runs. Folks tell us it is a pure pleasure, after having blown a lot of time messing with XFree86 graphics. Hmmmm.


Notebooks w/ATI RADEON IGP Graphics Now Supported LX

This new ATI graphics chip line for notebooks is found in notebooks from Fujitsu, NEC, IBM, Legend, Packard Bell, HP, Compaq and MicronPC, etc. Some of the notebooks have been through our engineering labs for testing. Others "should work" with the generic IGP drivers available in the LX demos.


RADEON 9100 Card Supported in DX Series DX

All four "flavors" of Summit drivers are now available for the RADEON 9100 cards.


ARCON Olympus EBX SBC Supported on Embedded Linux LX

This SBC employed the S3 ProSavage graphics chip driving an LCD panel and came with a special version of Linux.


Compaq Presario 2500 & 2100 Notebook Drivers Released LX

These laptops employ the ATI RADEON IGP graphics.


Panasonic ToughBooks CF-28 & CF-72 Supported in Summit CX

These ToughBooks are supported in both the LX Series and the CX (Custom) Series. There are a total of five drivers for each box for both Linux and Solaris. The CF-28 uses the Intel i830 chip, while the CF-72 employs the ATI Mobility RADEON 7500 graphics chip. The CX Series drivers are essentially the LX Platinum drivers with added support for the embedded touch panel (touch screen).


Compaq Evo N800w Notebook Drivers Released LX

This laptop is is billed by HP as a "portable workstation." It is supported with four LX Editions each for Linux and for Solaris. It uses the ATI Mobility FireGL 9000 graphics chip. Very nice unit, and fast, too.


Sager NP8886 & NP5660 Notebook Drivers Released LX

These notebooks are very fast, and fully equipped. They are also supported with four LX Editions each for Linux and for Solaris. Both use the ATI Mobility RADEON 9000 graphics chip. Pretty fast.


Dell Inspiron 8200 Notebook Drivers Released LX

This laptop is supported with four LX Editions each for Linux and for Solaris. Uses the ATI Mobility RADEON 9000 graphics chip, and a 1.8 GHz CPU. Pretty fast.


Compaq Evo N800c Notebook Drivers Released LX

This laptop is supported with four LX Editions each for Linux and for Solaris. Uses the ATI Mobility RADEON 7500 graphics chip. Very nice unit, and fast, too.


RENDER extension in Summit v2.2 Highlights XFree86 Weakness WX

The X server RENDER extension is used by Gnome2 and other apps to produce anti-aliased fonts and icons. If implemented properly, the extension can be effective without causing much burden. If implemented in the manner XFree86 implements it, it can be very costly in terms of performance on test processing. Press Release


Los Alamos National Labs Running Cluster of Wildcats on Linux WX

Can't provide any classified details, but LANL reports they are "very pleased" with the performance of our Accelerated-X Summit Linux drivers for the Wildcat cards in some large clusters. Makes our day.


Full Scene Anti Aliasing With RADEON and Wildcat DX LX MX WX

Summit 2.2 now has multi-sampling and super-sampling for graphics hardware that supports it.   FSAA is now available on RADEON cards, the Wildcat II and Wildcat III cards, and laptops that use Mobility RADEON graphics.


RADEON 9000 Card Supported in DX Series DX

All four "flavors" of Summit drivers are now available for the RADEON 9000 cards.


RADEON 8500 Cards Added to DX Series DX

All four "flavors" of Summit drivers are now available for the RADEON 8500 cards.


Archive