🚀 go-pugleaf

logier@cheops.qld.tne.oz.au (Rob Logie) writes:

>>	1) Has anyone connected a IBM bus/tag protocol printer (preferably
>>       Xerox) to a UNIX host or TCP/IP terminal server?  If so please
>>       send me details.

>	Probably the cheapest option would be to buy a new interface for
>	the printer.  The Pyramids have a "DataProducts" interface for 
>	high speed printing, as well as using either direct RS232 type 
>	connections (They can run to 38 k if you are lucky).  Also a centronics
>	interface is avaliable for the xmi card.  If you still need to 
>	get access to the printers from the SNA side, Pyramid have  
>	32xx emulation cards/software avaliable.

>There are many ways of addressing the problem, depending on all the usuals
>of facilities required, exisiting facilities to be supported and cost.

>-- 
>Rob Logie                         | The opions expressed are mine alone and in
>AOTC  ( A.C.N. 051 775 556 )      | no-way reflect the views or policies of the
>TNE Computer Support Services     | Australian and Overseas Telecommunications
>EMAIL: logier@cheops.qld.tne.oz.au| Corporation. "These are my opinions alone"

This is likely correct, except the hardware is a called a Spur Adapter and 
is sold by Xerox. It converts a Centronics parallel interface to an IBM 
channel interface (this interface may well be the last pair of buss and tag
cables left in our shop!). It of course costs the moon (around $10,000 as I
recall), but then so did the printer so that shouldn't be a problem.
	As I recall a 9700 does better than 100 pages a minite (its smaller
brother, the 4090, that we have does 92 pages a minite) so it needs a little 
more data than 38k (a channel will drive it at about 1 megabyte / sec), a VAX 
running over ethernet through a terminal server into a Centronics port (because
the VAX Dataproducts interface we have is slow) will drive it reasonably hard.
This may be an option for you it the Pyramid DataPoducts is too slow (I know
nothing of Pyramids so there may be no problem). Now if the Spur just let
you execute arbitrary  channel programs so we could get mainframe 3420s and
3480's onto an ethernet ...

Peter Van Epp / Operations and Technical Support 
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Canada