Benchmarking procedures used for Unix Today! 5/13/91 X terminal review. Necessary software: 1. x11perf version 1.2 -- available from UUNET in /X/contrib/x11perf.tar.Z x11perf requires the fonts 6x13, adobe-times-medium-r-normal--10-100-75, and adobe-times-medium-r-normal--24-240-75. 2. x11perfcompDR version 1.01 -- available on UUNET in /unix-today/benchmarks/x11perfcompDR 3. If you want to use our data files, they are on UUNET in /unix-today/benchmarks/51391.bench.tar.Z Our lab setup: The host: SparcStation 1 with 16Mbytes of RAM and 2x105mb Quantum internal hard drives. 32Mbyte swap partition. Color monitor. The official Sun designation for this machine is "Sun 4/60-GX-16-P3". It's running SunOS 4.1.1 with XTech's X11R4 server Release 2 available for compiling X client software. OpenWindows is not loaded. Direct serial [null modem] connection between the SparcStation and the X terminal. The NCD19 has 8Mbytes of RAM. The GraphOn 21 has 1Mbyte of RAM. The following X terminals were tested with these versions of X server software: monochrome: NCD19 -- XRemote PROM version 2.2.1 GRAPHON 21 -- Host version 3.0.4. Terminal revision 1.0.3 Preparing the X terminal for benchmarking: 1. Backing store is turned off on all terminals through the ROM setup. 2. Save unders are disabled on all terminals through the ROM setup. 3. On the NCD, arc caching is turned off. 4. No window managers are running. No clients other than x11perf are running. 5. All screen savers are turned off with xset or the ROM setup. 6. Serial line is set to 8bits, no parity, 9600bps. GraphOn is started with "startxgo -pl 3" for protocol level 3. NCD19 is started with xinitremote. SL/IP driver is the SunOS 4.1 beta package available on uunet.uu.net as /networking/slip-4.1-beta.tar.Z. NOTE: x11perf tries to turn off save unders, backing store, and screensavers when it starts up, however, some X-terminals can override those actions via ROM setup options. X11perf version 1.2 was used for testing. For monochrome terminals the following command line was used: x11perf -all -display testbed:1.0 > terminal_type.out where "testbed" is the name of the Sparcstation host. SL/IP tests were run with: x11perf -all -display 192.9.200.8:0.0 > terminal_type.out Results were summarized using x11perfcompDR on the SparcStation: x11perfcompDR terminal_type.out reference.out > terminal_type.out.comp The reference system for our tests was the NCD19 running SL/IP at 9600bps. SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT BENCHMARKING X TERMINALS OVER SERIAL LINES: The x11perf program turns off the screensaver for 8 hours before testing begins. If x11perf takes more than 8 hours to run, some X terminals may think that the screensaver has been turned back on and quit sending display data. The result is that performance numbers from the 8 hour mark on will be inflated. The GraphOn has this problems. Others may also. ------------------------------------------------ "Unix Today!" is published twice a month by CMP Publications 600 Community Drive Manhasset, New York 11030 (516) 562-5000