[comp.laser-printers] Need Info about EBCDIC-to-ASCII Protocol Converters

robert@peregrine.peregrine.com (Robert Young) (09/06/89)

I would like to know if you people in netland have information about protocol
converters (EBCDIC to ASCII) that allow an ascii printer to be used with an
IBM mainframe. I am currently testing one of these protocol converters from
BlackBox. So far it's worked OK but I would like to test some more as this is
needed for PostScript graphics that our product supports. The idea is as
follows:

	The User generates graphics stored in our database and has the choice
	of outputing it in table, bar, pie , etc. all those fancy graphics 
styles. The data is sent to an ascii printer attached to the mainframe through
a protocol converter. 

Any clues, phone numbers, company names, etc, will be appreciated.


Thanks



Robert Young
(Peregrine Systems)
(714) 727-3341

tat@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey) (10/06/89)

In article <8910051545.AA01151@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> robert@peregrine.peregrine.com (Robert Young) writes:
 >
 >I would like to know if you people in netland have information about protocol
 >converters (EBCDIC to ASCII) that allow an ascii printer to be used with an
 >IBM mainframe. I am currently testing one of these protocol converters from
 >BlackBox. So far it's worked OK but I would like to test some more as this is
 >needed for PostScript graphics that our product supports. The idea is as
 >follows:
 >
 >	The User generates graphics stored in our database and has the choice
 >	of outputing it in table, bar, pie , etc. all those fancy graphics 
 >styles. The data is sent to an ascii printer attached to the mainframe through
 >a protocol converter. 
 >
 >Any clues, phone numbers, company names, etc, will be appreciated.
 >
We use a KMW channel attached 3211 emulator attached to a Xerox 3700
printer.  The printer is Great.  The KMW is AWFUL!!!!
Their emulation is very poor (e.g. they do not return the correct number
of sense bytes to the OS forcing us to hack up the printer driver). Their
support is poor (e.g. we coerced them into building us a marginally
acceptable PROM and they didn't keep a copy!!).  I have heard that other
users of KMW emulating a 3203 have had better results, but, I never want
to see another KMW box of any kind.
-- 
Tom Thackrey sun!amdahl!tat00

[ The opinions expressed herin are mine alone. ]