Accelerated-X™ Summit Series
Premium Quality X Servers & Graphics Drivers
for UNIX® and Linux Kernels
Since 1994, Xi Graphics has developed high-performance, high-quality X servers and graphics driver software for use with UNIX-based operating systems. The current product line is the Summit Series, a broad line of graphics sub-system products supporting graphics hardware from many manufacturers.

The Summit Series X servers are compliant with X Window Systems specifications through X11R.64, with many later extensions either included or available. While the Summit Series is X11 compliant, the software was architected and developed by Xi Graphics "from scratch," and does not include any open source code provided by the X Consortium, X.org, or XFree86. Similarly, all of Xi Graphics' graphics driver software was and is developed in-house by Xi Graphics engineers, using confidential hardware documentation provided under NDA by the hardware manufacturers, and utilizes a high degree of hardware acceleration for both 2D and OpenGL® 3D graphics operations.

OpenGL software in the Summit Series products was also developed by Xi Graphics in-house, and is compliant with OpenGL ARB standards. Xi Graphics is a licensee of SGI.

Benefits of Using Summit Series Graphics SW
It Works
With over 12 years in the business - its only business - Xi Graphics knows how to make X graphics software that is not only fast, it is also very well designed, and has evolved (with complete re-designs when required) as the graphics hardware and graphics systems have evolved over that time. As graphics hardware has progressed rapidly in speed, power, and complexity, it has created challenges for the graphics sub-systems software providers to efficiently make full use of the hardware capabilities. Few organizations have been able to meet this challenge. Xi Graphics is one of the few, and has done it for many graphics architectures, UNIX kernels, and CPU platforms.

Maintenance Support is Free
Putting its money where its mouth is (so to speak), Xi Graphics provides its customers with free maintenance support for its Summit Series software. If the SW were poorly designed and buggy, this twelve-year business philosophy of Xi Graphics would have put the company out of business years ago. By making quality software up-front, customers can install and ship quickly and with confidence. Bugs happen, and when they do, Xi Graphics support is there to quickly find and fix them. Free.

Highest Performance Available
Summit Series products offer the highest performance available for X graphics. This is accomplished by constantly moving the software architecture forward to keep up with the advances in graphics hardware, operating system kernels, and computer platform features. A quick comparison between a Summit Series package and the package provided by the graphics chip/card manufacturer shows the large differences. If the user does not need the higher performance and error-free operation, then the (free) graphics SW from the manufacturer is often the SW of choice. OTOH, ...

Wide Choice of Hardware
Because Summit Series is available for various graphics chips and computer platforms, a user can make use of different system configurations and still have consistent performance of the X graphics sub-system SW.

Linux, Solaris, HP/UX Supported
Most of Xi Graphics' customers use Linux or Solaris on x86, but some use Solaris on SPARC, HP/UX on PA RISC, or Linux on PPC.

Demos Available for Download and Testing
A large selection of full-function demos are available for free download and testing on target hardware prior to licensing. This takes the guesswork out of it. Installation and configuration (graphical) is easy and fast. One download fetches a tarball with the X server, one or more graphics drivers, and a kernel utility along with READMEs. Demos run for about 25 minutes before stopping the X server, but it can be restarted any number of times. For extended, non-interrupted testing, an Extended Testing License Key can be provided OEMs or SysAdmins, a free service.

On-Line License Key Purchase Available
A downloadable demo product can become permanent with the installation of a License Key. A License Key can be purchased on-line with a credit card, or by phone, email, etc. (Quantity purchases are not available on-line).

Summit - The Series
The Accelerated-X Summit v2.4 Product Line
  •  Supports OpenGL 3D
  •  Six Downloadable Series - Laptop, Desktop, Multi-head, Workstation, WallDisplay, and Custom Series.
  •  Some Series have four Editions - Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
 •  Feature Highlights - full hardware acceleration, SingleLogicalScreen, Rotate, Video, overlays and more
  •  Each Edition can be downloaded for testing on Solaris (x86) or Linux. Other OSs available by special request.
Summit Desktop (DX) Series
DX Series drivers/X servers are available in Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Editions. Cards that have a single graphics chip that can drive two displays (DualView) are supported in the Silver and Platinum Editions. Cards with more than one graphics chip are supported in the MX Series. See DX Series for more details of this particular feature.
 
Summit Laptop (LX) Series
Laptops that use graphics chips from Intel, ATI, Silicon Motion, SiS, VIA S3, either are, or can be, supported by Summit's LX Series. Laptops that have NVIDIA chips are not supported. See LX Series for more details. Laptops that have embedded touchscreens - such as Panasoic Toughbooks, the Miltrope units, etc. - are supported only in the CX Series. These seem to be popular for use with the FBCB2 and Blue Force Tracking programs.
 
Summit Multi-head (MX) Series
The MX Series of the Summit Series support a number of multi-head cards used in Public display walls, Combat Information Centers, Industrial Process Control System Displays and so on. This Series is about to get a major upgrade in capability to SingleLogicalScreen (one image displayed over many displays, even when using OpenGL 3D images) and a UNIX 'X screen' per display is available even on single graphics chips that are driving two displays. See MX Series for the current offerings.
 
Summit Workstation (WX) Series
Most of the Professional and high-end graphics cards supported in the Summit Series are in the WX Series. The Parhelia line of cards from Matrox will be supported soon and most will also be in this Series. This Series is all Platinum Editions, meaning top-of-the-line products.
Summit WallDisplay (HX) Series
Wall display systems that cover many monitors with one desktop ("stretched desktop") requires special design when the single screen is "stretched" across more than one graphics chip (i.e., across more than one FrameBuffer). The Summit (HX) Series, which was designed especially for large wall display system, can actually have more than one stretched desktops, mixed with some single-monitor xscreens, while providing hardware acceleration on all monitors. The MX Series can also handle multiple chips/cards, but each graphics chip will have its own xscreen(s).
 
Summit Custom (CX) Series
Xi Graphics can add special features and capabilities to its Summit Series products to meet customer requirements. Some of the resulting software may become a standard product, while other results are "special order only." Custom products may also have separate source code trees created and maintained under contract for long term code stability and change tracking. See CX Series for more information or contact us.