The Abekas A60 can act as a frame buffer because it can receive images digitally across the Ethernet. (If the Abekas A60 is receiving a digital video signal through the D1 port, the frame buffer section of the Abekas A60 is effectively being bypassed.) In order to use the Abekas A60 completely across the Ethernet without sending a D1 video signal to it, two A60 configuration entries must be defined: one for the video controller functionality and one for the frame buffer functionality. For more information on the Abekas A60 video controller, see page 269.
Tip: The frame buffer functionality of the Abekas A60 can only be used if the video controller functionality is being simultaneously used. Thus, the buffer statement in the video controller configuration entry must contain the exclusive keyword when referring to its Abekas frame buffer, indicating that this frame buffer can only be used with that Abekas video controller device.
If multiple workstations are connected to your network, you can access the Abekas A60 from any of them provided that they have Ethernet access to the Abekas A60. Please refer to your workstation's network configuration manual for instructions.
If you have multiple A60s on your network, you may want to create a configuration entry for each of them. Be careful to ensure that the video controller configuration entries refer to the corresponding frame buffer configuration entries for the same physical device.
device frame buffer name
server_name server
server_id socket
server_host host
defn
name ethernet_name
format format
enddefn
enddevice
device frame buffer name
The name is the name used by the Abekas A60 video controller configuration entry to refer to this device. Since your Abekas A60 also has an Ethernet name, you may want to use that same name here. This name can be the same as the name of the corresponding video controller device.
server_name server
The server is the name of the executable that controls the Abekas A60. It resides in the product_bin. The server should be fbdabekas for the Abekas A60. (If you relocate the server executable, or if the server is running on a different host than your application, you must specify the server as a full UNIX pathname.)
server_id socket
The socket is the socket number through which your application communicates with the Abekas A60 server process. This number must be unique to your UNIX system for each defined device and (Alias|Wavefront and non-Alias|Wavefront) server process. If you are defining multiple Abekas A60 configurations, you must use a different socket number for each Abekas A60. The socket numbers must be different for the video controller and frame buffer configuration entries for the same Abekas A60.
server_host host
The host is the name of the workstation on which the server executes. This is different than the Ethernet name of the Abekas A60. This can be any of the workstations on your Ethernet network, but you must ensure that your application has been installed on the server workstation as well. If your application is accessing an Abekas A60 from many workstations, you must ensure that each workstation's configuration file defines the same host (and not localhost) for that Abekas A60 server process. The same host should be specified in both the video controller and the frame buffer configuration entries for a given Abekas A60.
name ethernet_name
The ethernet_name is the name of the Abekas A60 on the Ethernet network.
format format
The format indicates whether your Abekas A60 recognizes NTSC or PAL-sized images. If this line is omitted, NTSC is used by default.