Dennis@tgr.UUCP (12/10/84)
A prototype remote printing facility has been built and tested by the Advanced Development group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Printing and typesetting (troff) functions are automatically of- floaded to a dedicated microprocessor through an extension to the lpr-lpd remote printing mechanism. Test facilities consist of an IMAGEN 8/300 and an Integrated Solutions Optimum 5/10 attached to the Laboratory Ethernet. The system currently handles straight ascii printing, troff input or output, and Tektronix 4010 files. The ability to process TeX output has been demonstrated. The system, usable from six client 4.2BSD systems on the Ethernet, has been popular with users. Success of the prototype has prompted plans for expansion. The Integrated Solutions (IS) box appears to be reliable and powerful enough to handle typesetting for three IMAGENs, or one IMAGEN and one Versatec. Two prototype IS systems have run without interruption for five months. This includes survival through two major power failures. The IMAGEN is somewhat less reliable, but service has been excellent. Four thousand to eight thousand pages per week through an IMAGEN appears to be possible. Quality of print from the IMAGEN is significantly better than the Versatec. Current plans call for conversion from troff to ditroff, support for TeX, an IS driver for a Versatec V80, improved accounting in- formation, transparent access from VMS systems, and GKS graphics support for the IMAGEN. Details are available from Bill Johnston (johnston@lbl-csam), or Dennis Hall (hall@lbl-adv2). However, Hall will be on vacation until January.