🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <cZsNFDO00VswE1p342@andrew.cmu.edu> jaap+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jaap Akkerhuis) writes:
>Suppose you have a (hypothetical) fast printing engine, say 100 pages a
>minute for raw speed...
>minute or so. It is easy to imagen a setup where you have a couple of
>processors with (quite) some disc space. Each individual job is directed
>to a different proccessor, the bitmaps are stored to disk and the
>printer can be fed with the bitmaps at full speed (after which the
>bitmaps are removed) with the bitmaps of one job while the other jobs in
>the queue are calculated. 

Such as a XEROX 9700 with several ENTIRE postscript(tm) engines.  This
technology does exist, and is used widely - on large systems.  People 
interested in PostScript such try to get hold of the XEROX-L mailing
list, or the bit.listserv.xerox-l feed from uunet.  This stuff comes up there
a lot - everyone wants to reclaim the capital invested in large central
laser printers, few of which natively do PostScript.

XEROX-L is available from LISTSERV@TAMVM1 and other listservers.

Very long report follows:


NET 55
 
 1990 Jan 25 at 22:38  EDT
 
 from:       <XEROX-L@TAMVM1.BITNET> (NETNORTH)
 
 subject:    Xerox, PostScript, etc...
 
 Reply-To:     The Xerox Discussion List <XEROX-L@TAMVM1>
 From:         Edward Garay <U12570@UICVM.BITNET>
 Subject:      Xerox, PostScript, etc...
 
The following article will appear on the proceedings of the Xplor
International Annual Conference, San Antonio Texas 1989.
 
I am sending it to the Xerox-L list as it may provide some further
information on inquiries recently posted.
 
--- Ed
 
--- -------------------------------------------------------------------
[19965] FRI 12/29/89 20:41 FROM U12570: Xplor'89 PostScript QTIE
 
Session:    PostScript QTIE
Chaired by: Edward Garay
            University of Illinois at Chicago
 
Attendance: 100 people, approximately
 
The chairperson presented an overview of the recently announced
Xerox 4045 Model 160 laser printer.  He shared his experiences,
thus far, with the X4045/160 beta test:
 
The Xerox 4045 Model 160 is an innovative state of the art printer.
It can print up to 10 pages per minute.
It comes standard with 4 megabytes of memory, one input tray
(250 sheets), a resident XGRAPH (vector commands) capability for use
in 2700 mode, and an Intel 80386-based Electronic SubSystem capable
of supporting five printer emulations: 2700 mode (XDCS commands),
HP LaserJet Plus/500 Plus, PostScript, InterPress and Diablo 630 ECS.
The X4045/160 has the 35 "standard Apple LaserWriter Plus" Contour fonts
for use in the PostScript and InterPress PDL emulations.  In addition,
there are 7 Raster fonts available for non-PDL printing.
Printer emulations can be switched dynamically, under software control.
It also comes standard with the Centronics parallel and RS232 serial
communications interface.
 
The X4045/160 offers a number of upgradable options including a 2MB
memory upgrade for a total of 6MB RAM, a high-capacity Feeder-stacker
for a total of 750 input sheets with collated output, and a Dataproducts
parallel or RS422 serial/Appletalk communications inteface.
 
This 300 dpi laser printer is essentially a Xerox 4045/150 print engine
equipped with the necessary electronics to support the five printer
emulations, particularly, PostScript and InterPress.
 
The PostScript implementation works extremely well, although it is not
an Adobe implementation.  The 35 contour fonts are Bitstream fonts in
Xerox Font Interchange Standard (FIS) format.  Xerox officials stated
that the X4045/160 will support Adobe Type 1 ("hinted") fonts by 4Q90.
 
Among the many plusses of the X4045/160 are its software switchable
printer emulations, its robustness (20K monthly duty cycle), and
its high input/output capacity.
 
Preliminary runs at the University of Illinois have shown that the
Xerox 4045 Model 160 is approximately 30% faster than the Apple
LaserWriter NTX ($5,999 list price), and about 50% faster than
the QMS PS-810 ($3,999 list price).  For the most part of the beta
test at UofI, the X4045/160 is connected as an RSCS (spooling system)
device on an IBM 3081 mainframe.  The connection is done through an
IBM 7171 Communications Controller, using the serial interface at
9600 baud with XON/XOFF handshaking.
 
The primary documents being tested at UofI are being printed using the
2700 and PostScript printer emulations.  2700 tests include soft fonts
downloading, vector and raster XGRAPH graphics, UDK documents created
by miscellaneous document composition systems and FAX documents printed
as bitmapped graphics.  PostScript tests include printing of small,
medium and large size documents of diverse complexity, some with
integrated text and graphics, others in foreign languages, or with
mathematics and complicated scientific notations and formulae.
 
All problems or bugs encountered during the beta test have been fixed
or are being corrected by Xerox in a timely fashion.  One problem of
extreme importance to the University has been the retention of raster
soft fonts (e.g. X2700 downloaded) across PostScript emulation switches.
As of this writing, the problem has been resolved as follows:
A 4MB RAM configured printer is capable of retaining up to 70KB of
raster fonts; a X4045/160 outfitted with 6MB of RAM can retain up to
800KB of bitmapped fonts, approximately.  The number of font retainable
bytes is specified via X4045/160 non-volatile-memory commands.  These
NVRAM commads are very easy to use and are another interesting feature
of this printer.
 
All things considered, UofI feels the X4045/160 has only two drawbacks:
1) its HEFTY price: $9,995 list price for the standard configuration,
and $11,695 with the Feeder-stacker option; and 2) the fact that it
currently is not a fully compatible Adobe PostScript printer in that
it does not support Adobe Type 1 "hinted" fonts -- however, as stated
earlier this represents a minimal problem and should only affect those
shops who must use and download additional Adobe PostScript fonts.
It should be noted, however, that Xerox provides additional PostScript
compatible contour fonts through the Xerox Font Center.
 
Chis Scussel, of AT&T Bell Laboratories in Naperville Illinois, is also
beta testing the Xerox 4045 Model 160.  He seconded the review presented
by Ed Garay, and also agrees that while the X4045/160 is a great printer,
it may be priced a bit too high.
 
After the Xerox 4045 Model 160 presentation and discussion, the floor
was opened for miscellaneous questions and answers.  The following is
a brief description of what was discussed in this lively session.
 
A couple of Xerox fellows gave a very quick overview of the new
Xerox 4030 -- an 11ppm/300dpi HP LaserJet compatible printer recently
made available in Europe.  It is based on a Fuji-Xerox print engine.
Xerox plans to make available a PostScript cartridge for this printer.
As for all PostScript cartridge implementations, it is expected that
the PostScript interpretation be somewhat slower than for actual
PostScript compatible printers.  Also, while the X4030 was being
demonstrated at the conference's exhibit, it was unclear when the X4030
was going become available in the US.  Numerous attendees showed a lot
of interest in this printer, however.
 
A brief discussion on PostScript Simple took place as initiated by
Bruce Damer of Elixir Technologies.  The principle behind a simplified
PostScript subset is that it could allow for faster interpretation
to keep up with higher speed print engines such as the Xerox 4090
and Xerox 4650.  It was stated that Bezier cubics processing for
high speed laser printers may require 2 million MIPS of CPU power!
Such high CPU intensive requirements, make it virtually impossible
*today* to interpret PostScript directly at the high-speed electronic
printing system.  Front-end converters such as Entire, Xerox Archer
and cdpScript are unfortunately needed to allow printing of PostScript
documents on Xerox high-speed output devices.
 
Several Xerox technical staff, and users of these front-end converters
proceeded to describe these products: Entire Fibre 200, Xerox Archer
and CIS Postscript Compiler, and cdpScript.
 
Entire's Fibre 200 and Xerox Archer are essentially similar products.
They are turnkey systems which convert PostScript to Interpress Graphics
(i.e. GHO IMG files with XNS jobticket headers).  The XNS datastream is
fed to the Xerox Electronic Printing System in the background, through
an XNS gateway.  Both are Unix applications, costing between $15K - $20K.
 
Entire's Fibre 200 runs on an Intel 80386 PC.  It supports TCP/IP, and
can also convert HP LaserJet (PCL), PC PaintBrush (PCX) and Tagged Image
File Format (TIFF) datastreams for X9700F EPS printing.  Customization is
available, and at least one person in the audience was using it and was
quite pleased with it.  For more information, contact Entire: 445 West
Commercial Street, East Rochester, New York 14445; (716) 381-7500.
 
Archer, is a new product being marketed by the Xerox Custom Systems
Division.  It is based on the Control-C software, and like Entire,
Archer also supports TCP/IP and can also be customized.  Archer runs
on a SUN/3 workstation and was scheduled for launch in January of 1990.
There are also plans to port it to a SUN SparcStation in the near future.
In fact, it may be probably ported to other platforms in the second half
of 1990.  For more information, contact Xerox Custom Systems Division:
1616 N. Fort. Meyer Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22209; (703) 247-7160.
 
CIS PostScript Compiler is a product being marketed by the Xerox
Commercial Integrated Systems division.  It is an MS-DOS application
based on the popular Freedom Of The Press interpreter from Custom
Applications Inc (CAI).  In synthesis, this front-end uses the CAI
interpreter to ultimately convert PostScript documents into InterPress
masters.  It runs on an IBM PC/AT 80386/80486 workstation and can be
tailored for each customer's unique input/output and job management
environment.  Printing is supported on X9700F EPSs *and* Xerox 4045
Models 50/150 and Xerox 3700 distributed laser printers.  For more
information, contact: Xerox Commercial Integrated Systems, 1616 N. Fort
Meyer Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22209; (703) 247-7160.
 
cdpScript is a product developed by CDP Communications Inc that runs
on an MS-DOS platform.  It is based on the GoScript interpreter from
LaserGo Corporation, and converts PostScript to Xerox IMG (GHO) graphics.
Unlike the previous decomposers, cdpScript/97 is more limited, but less
expensive ($3,999 list price).  There is a version called cdpScript/45
available for the Xerox 4045s.  This company has announced an MVS port
for IBM mainframes scheduled for release in 1990.  For more information,
contact: CDP Communications Inc, 17 Dundonald Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto,
Ontario M4Y 1K3; (416) 323-9666.
 
Although not discussed at the QTIE, two other possible ways of printing
PostScript on high-speed Xerox EPSs should be mentioned: 1) IBM shops
with a solid Advanced Function Printing (AFP) installation could
convert PostScript with the IBM PostScript to AFP/DS interpreter, and
further convert the AFP datastream with Xerox XPAF.  Although it is felt
that this may be an overkill approach, it may attractive to those users
who already have AFP and XPAF software installed.  2) CAI's Freedom Of
The Press ($499) interpreter could be run on MS-DOS to output HP LaserJet
PCL which could then be converted for Xerox printing with Elixir's
HP2XRX ($2,500) utility.  Freedom Of The Press is a very useful tool.
It converts PostScript into numerous non-PostScript datastreams -- from
dot matrix printers, to HP LaserJets and Color InkJet output devices.
CAI has versions of FP that run on PCs, PS/2s and Macintosh systems.
 
Regardless of the front-end in use, there are several critical issues
affecting the imaging of PostScript documents on non-PostScript printers.
Several of these were discussed at length, during the QTIE.
 
All enablers support the 35 Apple LaserWriter Plus outline fonts.
Some support additional PostScript fonts, others do not.
Most, including Archer, CIS PostScript Compiler and Archer can output
images in multiple resolutions (e.g. 300dpi and 600dpi, for example).
PostScript interpretation is inevitably slow.  Initial decomposition
is usually very very slow: 2 - 4 minutes.  The less font variations and
graphics are used, the faster the document will be decomposed.
Accurate page rendition is directly dependent on the quality of the
PostScript code emitted by the originating document and/or graphic
composition system.  While PostScript is an industry standard, there
is "well behaved and conforming Postscript", and then, there is poorly
written PostScript which not always will print correctly.  Xerox and
several other vendors at the conference expressed their concerns about
poor PostScript emitters.  Duplex printing of X9700F IMG graphic files,
which all the front-ends currently use, is limted by the complexity of
the generated graphic files and the target printer.  For instance, the
new Xerox 4090 and 4650 EPSs will be able to print virtually all
"PostScript converted documents" in Duplex, if enough GVG graphic
memory is available on this printers; older Xerox 8790 and 9790 EPSs
with a more limited GHO graphic memory, on the other hand, may not
always be able to print large graphic IMGs in Duplex mode.  Besides
the difference in GHO vs. GVG graphic memory limitations, there may be
the additional complication of the printer's speed to read the page logs
and IMG files off the printer's disk(s).
 
Another subject discussed during the QTIE was the performance and user
experiences with the Kodak 1392 Model 24 PostScript printer. For the most
part, current customers are happy with this 92ppm/300dpi $200K+ printer.
One attendee stated that he is getting about 25ppm throughput on the
first copy, and full speed 92ppm printing on multi-copy runs. Customers
agreed that the Kodak UltraScript PostScript interpreter is a robust one.
In line printer mode, the Kodak 1392/24 prints sysout at about 72ppm,
on the average.  High marks were also given to the Kodak Service staff.
 
It was also interesting to note that, unlike Kodak, Xerox officials
do not seem to believe that there is a market for multi-copy PostScript
high-speed output devices.  Some customers, however, told Xerox that
indeed they have requirements to print multi-copy and large-size
PostScript documents *today*.
 
Finally, in liue of the complexity and infinite variety of pages which
can be imaged with PostScript, all vendors and customers at the QTIE
agreed that there should be a Common Performance or Benchmarks standard
developed to better attest the execution of PostScript enablers and
output devices.
 
End of NET 55
 
--
Henry Troup - BNR owns but does not share my opinions
..utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!hwt%bmerh490 or  HWT@BNR.CA