dan@n44a.UUCP (05/31/83)
I had submitted a query to USENET, asking if anyone has had experience with QMS laser printers, especially on UNIX. I have received numerous requests for summaries and info, but I haven't gotten any info from USENET. If anyone knows anything, please post something. I believe there is at least one group within Bell that is using the QMS and trying to port DITROFF to it. This is what I know of from QMS themselves, Their address is: Quality Micro Systems PO Box 81250 Mobile, AL 36689 205-633-4300 They are producing the Lasergrafix 1200, which is a Xerox XP-12 dry toning engine, driven by their 68000? box. They can provide RS232, 20ma, Dataproducts parallel, and various IBM compatible synchronous interfaces. They have "put an Ethernet interface on the backburner". The base list price is $24,995 and they say "no educational discounts". Various optional firmware can provide Plot-10 graphics, TROFF and TEK compatibility, and Versatec compatibility. The literature says that it comes with .5Mb program memory and 1.4Mb of page memory and can produce an 8.5x14 inch image. The samples sent look good, like any produced on the Xerox engine. The blacks are very nice, even in large patches. I believe the machine could produce a real black piece of paper. The fonts they sent weren't particularly impressive or varied, but maybe they have better. They say "service by Xerox". I still don't know if the QMS works well with TROFF (the TROFF package isn't going to be out for a month or two), or how good the graphics are, or whether one could convert the VTROFF fonts or other available fonts, or whether bit-map dumps work, or how easy a DITROFF port is, or what their support is going to be. I guess, for us, it will be between the QMS and Imagen. I like the Xerox engine quite a bit better. Any input on the questions above would be appreciated. Dan Ts'o ...ima!n44a!dan ...wjh12!n44a!dan