michael@orcisi.UUCP (05/07/87)
NEW DTP INTERFACE ANNOUNCED
April, 1987
Toronto, Canada
Optical Recording Laboratories Inc. recently announced
development of its IB-1000 interface board which will con-
nect the PC/AT or equivalent, to the heavily featured Canon
NP-9030 laser printer- scanner. The NP-9030 can now be used
in a Desktop Publishing system offering significant improve-
ment in throughput, image quality, and flexibility.
The design architecture is such that the CPU of the PC/AT
can be attached to the laser printer directly through the
IB-1000, allowing the optimization of throughput through its
own image bus. The intent is to retain all the flexibility
of the NP-9030 so that it can be used alternatively as a
publishing device, a facsimile receiver, a cluster printer,
and an office copier.
Optical Recording plans a family of interface boards based
on the IB-1000 design, successively incorporating
compression/expansion, and ultimately, support for the
Postscript page description language. The layout of the
boards was designed to optimize the space available in the
confined backplane of the AT.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Optical Recording invites inquiries from OEMs, VARs, and
Systems integrators.
For further information, contact:
Optical Recording Laboratories Inc.
141 John St.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 2E4
(416) 596-6862
Attention: Mr. Hugh R. Marks
_________________________
IBM, PC/AT, Canon, NP-9030, Postscript, are all re-
gistered trademarks.
SPECIFICATIONS
Bus Structure IBM AT bus compatible and a proprietary image bus
Board Size 13.5" x 4.5" (33.5cm x 11.5cm)
Construction Four layer PCB
Configuration Single slot for scanner and printer interface
Second slot at the backplane for scanner connector
Image Buffer Size 4 MB (enough to store an 11" x 17" page @ 400 dpi)
Image Buffer Addressing Memory-mapped into the IBM AT address space
Memory Width 16 bits wide
Supports 8 and 16 bit CPU cycles
Memory Wait States 1 wait state
Memory Cycle Time 500 nS for a 4 Mhz IBM AT
APPLICATION ... DESKTOP PUBLISHING
+ Image Capture
Graphic images are captured into the Image buffer using
the NP-9030 and processed by the host CPU (scaling, cut
and paste etc.) with the result deposited back into the
Image buffer.
+ Text Processing
Text generated from word processing or desktop publish-
ing software are converted to bit map image by using
the appropriate font.
+ Text/Graphic Merge
The captured image and the text are merged and the
resulting bit map representation is stored onto the
image buffer by the desktop publishing software.
+ Image Display
The resulting image representation in the image buffer
is sent to the high resolution display for verifica-
tion. The page layout and contents of the image can be
edited if necessary.
+ Image Compression
The resulting image can also be stored by the
Compression/Expansion processor before storing it onto
optical or magnetic disks.
+ Hardcopy
The final image in the image buffer can be sent to the
NP-9030 printer for a camera-ready hard copy.
Michael Herman
Document Storage Division
Optical Recording Laboratories Inc.
141 John Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 2E4
(416) 596-6862
UUCP: { cbosgd!utcs ihnp4!utzoo seismo!mnetor }!syntron!orcisi!michael
ALSO: mwherman@watcgl.waterloo.edu