NAME

MIT X Consortium

SYNOPSIS

X11R4 is brought to you by the MIT X Consortium. 

DESCRIPTION

X Window System research began in the summer of 1984 at MIT as an informal joint undertaking between the Laboratory for Computer Science and Project Athena.  Since that time, researchers and engineers at numerous other universities and companies have been involved in the design and implementation. 

The MIT X Consortium was formed in January of 1988 to further the development of the X Window System.  It is part of the Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT, and has as its major goal the promotion of cooperation within the computer industry in the creation of standard software interfaces at all layers in the X Window System environment.  MIT’s role is to provide the vendor-neutral architectural and administrative leadership required to make this work.  The Consortium is financially self-supporting, with membership open to any organization.  There are two categories of membership, Member (for large organizations) and Affiliate (for smaller organizations).  A list of members as of the public release of X11R4 is given below. 

The Director of the X Consortium acts as the ultimate architect for all X specifications and software.  The activities of the Consortium are overseen by an MIT Steering Committee, which helps set policy and provides strategic guidance and review of the Consortium’s activities.  An Advisory Committee made up of member representatives meets regularly to review the Consortium’s plans, assess its progress, and suggest future directions. 

Most of the Consortium’s activities take place via electronic mail, with meetings when required.  As designs and specifications take shape, interest groups are formed from experts in the participating organizations.  Typically a small multi-organization architecture team leads the design, with others acting as close observers and reviewers.  Once a complete specification is produced, it may be submitted for formal technical review by the Consortium as a proposed standard.  The standards process includes public review (outside the Consortium) and a demonstration of proof of concept, typically established with a public, portable implementation of the specification, (although other methods are possible on a case by case basis). 

The MIT staff of the Consortium also maintains a software and documentation collection, containing both Consortium-developed and user-contributed materials, and endeavors to make periodic distributions of this collection available to the public without license and for a minimal fee.  X11R4 is the fourth such distribution.  The Consortium also sponsors an annual conference, open to the public, to promote the exchange of technical information about X. 

STAFF

The Director of the X Consortium is Bob Scheifler, rws@expo.lcs.mit.edu.  The MIT staff members are as follows. 

 Donna Converse, converse@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Jim Fulton, jim@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Michelle Leger, michelle@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Keith Packard, keith@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Chris Peterson, kit@expo.lcs.mit.edu

 
Ralph Swick, swick@athena.mit.edu, an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation working at MIT Project Athena, also works directly with the Consortium staff.
 

POSTAL ADDRESS

The MIT X Consortium can be reached by writing to

 Bob Scheifler
MIT X Consortium
Laboratory for Computer Science
545 Technology Square
Cambridge, MA 02139

MEMBERS

Apple Computer, Inc.
American Telephone & Telegraph Company
Bull S.A.
Control Data Corporation
Cray Research, Inc.
Data General Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Eastman Kodak Company
Fujitsu Limited
Hewlett-Packard Company
International Business Machines Corporation
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Motorola, Inc.
NEC Corporation
NCR Corporation
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
OMRON Corporation
Prime Computer, Inc.
Rich, Inc.
Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Siemens AG
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tektronix, Inc.
Texas Instruments, Inc.
Unisys Corporation
Wang Laboratories, Inc.
Xerox Corporation

AFFILIATES

ACER America Corporation
Adobe Systems
Advanced Graphics Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
CETIA - Compagnie Europeene des Techniques de l’Ingenierie Assistee
Codonics, Inc.
Evans & Sutherland
GfxBase
INESC - Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores
Integrated Solutions
Interactive Systems Corporation
Interactive Development Environments
Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc.
Key Systems Engineering Corp.
Jupiter Systems
University of Kent at Canterbury
Landmark Graphics Corporation
Locus Computing
University of Lowell
Matrox International
Megatek Corporation
MIPS Computer Systems
MITRE Corporation
Network Computing Devices
Nova Graphics International
Open Software Foundation
O’Reilly & Associates, Inc.
PCS Computer Systeme GmbH
Ramtek Corporation
Samsung Software America
SGIP - Societe de Gestion et d’Informatique Publicis
Software Productivity Consortium
Solbourne Computer Inc.
Spectragraphics Corporation
Stanford University
Stardent Computer
Tatung Science and Technology
UNICAD, Inc.
Visual Technology Inc.
X/Open Company Ltd.

X Version 11  —  Last change: Release 4