Centronix interface on a VAX?

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Article #5084

#5084

From: Alan Wm Paeth
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 1988 19:03

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We recently acquired a high-performance raster printer which can be "driven" by
a Centronix printer port (eg, signals for data0-data7, strobe, ready, error,
and ground), but nothing else. DEC does not know how to make our VAX8600 talk
Centronix; they insist on their own DEC printer interface. Given the data
rates (about 1 meg for a full-color raster) involved, a stock "RS232-serial-
to-Centroix" box is unacceptable, even at 19.2Kbaud. Advice most welcome.
I looking for an "off-the-shelf" solution.

     /Alan Paeth
     Computer Graphics Laboratory
     University of Waterloo
    
PS -- More nuts and bolts for serious suggestors:

Our VAX8600 includes a DMF with a parallel output port for driving DEC
printers. Its documentation is vague. I need a simple DMA channel with
handshake to move bytes, not full printer formatting capability (and besides,
I'm not sure if the DMF control signals have the same polarity as Centronix).
As our VAX has a unibus hiding inside, I can revert to a tried-and-true DRV-11
or LP-11 card, but this means the time and expense of fabrication and
debugging to get the cables dressed. Are there Unibus/Centronix cards out there
with premade cables?

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watcgl!awpaeth
From: awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Alan Wm Paeth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Centronix interface on a VAX?
Message-ID: <7100@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 88 19:03:42 GMT
Reply-To: awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Alan Wm Paeth)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 22