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There are two typesetters that understand PostScript.  Both are produced
by Allied Linotype.  They are the Linotronic 100 and 300.  The L100 has
a maximum resolution of 1270 DPI, and the L300 has a maximum resolution
of 2540 DPI.  Both can be bought with or without the PostScript interface
(called a RIP or Raster Image Processor).  The L100 costs approximately
$30K with the RIP, and the L300 approximately $60K (1986 costs).

Both typesetters have the same communications ports as a LaserWriter:
Appletalk and Serial.  The maximum serial speed supported is 57.6K baud.
Both XON/XOFF and DTR toggling are supported as flow control.

The typesetters come with the standard LaserWriter fonts (the Plus fonts
may be purchased separately).

We have used a service with a L100 quite extensively, with few problems.
The only incompatibilities come about due to the way the pages are
oriented on the L100:  the film comes from a roll that is 12" wide.
The pages are printed "sideways" or with the y axis along the 12" part
of the page.  The image area of the page is exactly 8 1/2 x 11 inches,
and there is an operator specific to the Linotronic RIP that changes
the image area and page orientation.

If you have the money and need to do PostScript typesetting, these
machines are IT.  The quality of the output at 1270 DPI rivals many
machines at higher resolutions due to the imaging mechanism: a laser
scanning the page raster by raster.  At 2540 DPI, the L300 is one of
the best typesetters going.  It can also run at 1270 DPI, and will run
faster than an L100 on text-intensive jobs.

Pat Wood
Editor, The PostScript Language Journal