🚀 go-pugleaf

mfinn@eng.umd.edu (Michael J. Finn) writes:
I wrote:
>>  We have a Xerox 4850 and are using the Entire software. We've had the
>>printer only a few months and are still adjusting to running it, but
>>we've run into some problems with large (2,600+ pages) PostScript jobs.
>>  First, it's slow. Each page is converted to an Interpress *.IMG and
>>transferred over the network. The file must be completely received
[description of problems trimmed]
>
>Stu,
>Not much about PS in prticular, but a couple of questions come to mind:
>1) Which ESS/Controller do you have? Is it the newer SCSI model (CPU,
>   peripheral cabinet are separate) or the FDDC (one piece)?  The SCSI
>   unit fixed a number of quirky printing problems, and is faster.

  Our controller is one piece.

>2) What controller OS is being used? V3.5, or V4.0? I seem to remember a
>   problem with the controller page processing having to 'catch up' to the
>   printer, but it was fixed I think with V4.0 R1.8.  There were also
>   disk fill up/freeze up probs w/older versions, if memory serves me
>   correctly.

  Looks like we're running V3.7, but yes we see the 'catch up' problem too.

>3) Are you using an Ethernet network or otherwise? Until recently, I belive
>   they were _still_ perfecting ENET w/ the OS.

  We're using Ethernet (10BaseT). The controller and Sun host are talking
XNS while everything else on the network talks TCP/IP. When we send
our big .PS jobs we see a lot of collisions at the controller's
transceiver, though our network people tell us we're not filling up
the bandwidth. Even so, there are plans to move the Sun host and
controller to a 'quieter' sub-net.
  We also have a tag-and-bus connection to our Unisys mainframe, and this
is the channel for 90% plus of our print work.

>
>Also, these IMG files can be rather large. This combined with your print
>volumes may warrant a larger drive. During devel./test of the 4850 and
>4890, we used either a 492MB ESDI or 500MB SCSI drive, each with our
>test library which included the whole Xerox library of images, fonts,
>forms, and logo files used internally for Image Quality, and all sorts
>of other stuff, and still had a fair amount of work space. I think the
>base drive is a 250MB or so.

  We have 2 drives, but all the status commands give sizes in terms of
blocks or sectors. Each drive has 306,005 blocks and it looks as if the
blocksize is 512, ergo a pair of 125MB drives.

>  Sounds like maybe Mr./Mrs. Salesperson
>didn't do their homework :-). Requiring contiguous disk space does seem
>a tad archaic, doesn't it. I remember that being the case withthe FDDC
>controller, but I'm not sure with the new units.
>
>As far as Postscript inparticular is concerned, Interpress is used almost
>exclusively where I was for obvious reasons, so my PS exposure w/ 4050F
>is somewhat limited to volumes much smaller than yours, though Entire is
>used w/in Xerox for 4050F PS printing. What do your friendly CSEs &
>TechReps have to say about these problems? Seems like they should be
>doing something for you.

  We wore out our friendly CSEs & co. on a weird intermittent hardware
problem. After swapping EVERY board, power supply, disk drive, back-plane,
print engine, etc. etc., and a visit from the California expert,
the problem persisted and we got a complete swap. The new machine's
good (knock on wood - we've had it 3 weeks), and the old one's being
autopsied. I hasten to add that the service support was timely and
appropriate. Anyway, we've been talking to the help-line folks a bit,
but mostly we've been in the "are we running this right?" mode. Our
PostScript work is of lower priority to us than other stuff, and we're
just now getting around to investigating the problems...


>Hope any of this helps.

  It has a lot. Thanks.



--
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Stu Derby          |
sderby@bcm.tmc.edu |      This space intentionally left blank.
Houston, Texas     |