[comp.laser-printers] Ethernet for LaserWriter

km@emory.UUCP (Ken Mandelberg) (03/06/88)

Does anyone know about any efforts to market an ethernet
interface for the Apple Laserwriter? My impression is that
the high end of the new line of Apple Laserwriters has 
enough expansion capability to accomodate other network
interfaces.

I know about other solutions (Gator/Kinetics) to bridge
an Appletalk to ethernet, and I know about other vendors
like Imagen who make ethernet interfaces with there own
printers. I'm just hoping for a convenient built in Apple 
solution for our next laserwriter.
-- 
Ken Mandelberg      |  {decvax,sun!sunatl,gatech}!emory!km  UUCP
Emory University    |  km@emory                             BITNET
Dept of Math and CS |  km@emory.ARPA                        ARPA,CSNET
Atlanta, GA 30322   |  Phone: (404) 727-7963

roy%phri@UUNET.UU.NET (Roy Smith) (03/21/88)

km@emory.UUCP (Ken Mandelberg) writes:
> Does anyone know about any efforts to market an ethernet interface for
> the Apple Laserwriter? [...] I know about other solutions (Gator/Kinetics)
> to bridge an Appletalk to ethernet

	I remember having a conversation with somebody (probably Charlie
Kim <cck@columbia>, but I'm not sure) a while ago about throughput to a
laserwriter via a kbox.  He claimed at the time that, contrary to what you
might expect, you can do better with a 19.2k serial line to a LaserWriter
than going through a kbox over the ethernet.

	One of our applications for the LW is printing 512 x 512 bitmaps;
the PostScript is basicly just a single image operator followed by a half
Mbyte of hex data.  Seems to me that if you could just shove the bits into
the LW fast enough, you should be able to reach the mythical 8ppm speed the
LW print engine is capable of.

	What's a "Gator"?
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016