MIT X Consortium - MIT X Consortium information
Release 5 of X Version 11 is brought to you by the MIT X Consortium.
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 release of X11R5 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 through 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. X11R5 is the fifth such distribution. The Consortium also sponsors an annual conference, open to the public, to promote the exchange of technical information about X.
The Director of the X Consortium is Bob Scheifler, rws@expo.lcs.mit.edu. The staff of the X Consortium are all full-time research staff employed by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. The staff members are as follows.
Donna Converse, converse@expo.lcs.mit.edu Stephen Gildea, gildea@expo.lcs.mit.edu Susan Hardy, sh@expo.lcs.mit.edu Jay Hersh, hersh@expo.lcs.mit.edu Keith Packard, keith@expo.lcs.mit.edu Dave Sternlicht, dave@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Ralph Swick, an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation working at MIT Project Athena, also worked directly with the Consortium staff on this release. Former MIT staff members Jim Fulton and Chris Peterson contributed to the early development of the release.
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
Apple Computer, Inc.
Bull S.A.
Control Data Corporation
Convex Computer Corporation
Cray Research, Inc.
Data General Corporation
Digital Equipment Corp.
E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, Inc.
Eastman Kodak Company
Evans & Sutherland
Fujitsu Limited
Hewlett-Packard Company
Hitachi Ltd.
Hughes Aircraft Company
IBM Corporation
Intergraph Corp.
Kubota Corp.
Matsushita Electric Industrical Co., Ltd.
MIPS Computer Systems
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Motorola, Inc.
NCR Corporation
NEC Corporation
Network Computing Devices
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Olivetti Systems & Networks
OMRON Corporation
Prime Computer, Inc.
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tandberg Data A/S
Tektronix, Inc.
Texas Instruments, Inc.
Unisys Corporation
Unix Systems Laboratories/American Telephone & Telegraph Company
Xerox Corporation
Adobe Systems Inc.
AGE Logic, Inc.
ASTEC, Inc.
Athenix Corporation
Bitstream, Inc.
CETIA - Compagnie Europeene des Techniques de l'Ingenierie Assistee
Chromatics, Inc.
Codonics, Inc.
Computer & Communication Research Laboratories
Frame Technology Corp.
Gfxbase, Inc.
GIPSI S.A.
HaL Computer Systems, Inc.
Institute for Information Industry
Interactive Systems Corporation
Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc.
IXI Limited
Japan Computer Corporation
Jupiter Systems
KAIST - Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Labtam Australia
Locus Computing Corporation
Metro Link, Inc.
University of Lowell
Megatek Corporation
Metheus Corporation
MITRE Corporation
Objectivity, Inc.
Open Software Foundation
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
PCS Computer Systeme GmbH
Peritek Corp.
PsiTech, Inc.
Quarterdeck Office Systems
Ramtek Corporation
Samsung Electronics Corp.
ShoGraphics, Inc.
Snitily Graphics Consulting Services
Solbourne Computer, Inc.
SOUM Corporation
SPARC International
Spectragraphics Corp.
Stanford University
Stardent Computer
Strategic Research Institute Inc.
Sumitomo Electric Workstation
Tatung Science and Technology
Template Graphics Software
Tyan Computer
Unipalm XTech
Visix Software, Inc.
Visual Information Technologies, Inc.
Visual Technology, Inc.
X/Open Company Ltd.