MEX was "Silicon Graphics

Silicon Graphics

Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...

' original high-performance windowing system

Windowing system

A windowing system is a component of a graphical user interface , and more specifically of a desktop environment, which supports the implementation of window managers, and provides basic support for graphics hardware, pointing devices such as mice, and keyboards...

", used on 68k

68k

The Motorola 680x0/m68000/68000 is a family of 32-bit CISC microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and were the primary competitors of Intel's x86 microprocessors...

-based IRIS

SGI IRIS

The SGI IRIS series was a line of terminals and workstations from Silicon Graphics built in the 1980s. They used the Motorola 68000 family of processors originally, but moved to early-generation MIPS processors later on.-External links:***...

 systems and early IRIS 4D systems. MEX was originally loaded over a network through the utilization of GL1 routines kept on a remote host machine, usually a VAX

VAX

VAX was an instruction set architecture developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in the mid-1970s. A 32-bit complex instruction set computer ISA, it was designed to extend or replace DEC's various Programmed Data Processor ISAs...

. When the IRIS 1400 workstation and GL2-W (IRIX

IRIX

IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...

) were introduced, MEX was allowed to run locally. MEX was used in IRIX from the GL2-W2.1.0 release to the 4D1-2.3 release.

With the introduction of 4D1-3.0 (IRIX 3.0), and the complete migration to MIPS

MIPS architecture

MIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...

 processors, support for the GL / GL2

IRIS GL

IRIS GL was a proprietary graphics API created by Silicon Graphics for producing 2D and 3D computer graphics on their IRIX-based IRIS graphical workstations...

 powered MEX ended in the late 1980s, replaced by Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

' NeWS

NeWS

NeWS was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S. H. Rosenthal...

 and the 4Sight

4Sight

4Sight is the name of a desktop computer telephony software product made by 4Com. 4Sight is the name of the client software product. The associated server product is called 4Sight Server. The main purpose of the software is to provide integration between business telephone systems and CRM software...

 window manager

Window manager

A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment...

.