umross27@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Christopher Winston Ross) (01/25/91)
Sorry to ask but I am wondering about the SparcPrinter. Who makes it ? What is it capable of ? What version of Adobe Postscript is it running ? and (most important) how much $$$. Thanks in Advance Chris Ross Management IV Accounting University of Manitoba, Canada UMROSS27@CCU.UMANITOBA.CA
jback@trine.East.Sun.COM (Joe Backo - PS Mgr Sun Washington) (01/28/91)
In article <1991Jan25.084804.26979@ccu.umanitoba.ca>, umross27@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Christopher Winston Ross) writes: |> |> Sorry to ask but I am wondering about the SparcPrinter. Who makes it ? |> What is it capable of ? What version of Adobe Postscript is it running ? |> and (most important) how much $$$. |> |> Thanks in Advance |> |> Chris Ross |> Management IV |> Accounting |> University of Manitoba, Canada |> |> UMROSS27@CCU.UMANITOBA.CA The Sparcprinter is manufactured by Sun Microsystems, Inc. , and costs ~$2600 (before edu discounts, etc are taken into account). I've no idea what version of Postscript it supports, but I'd surmise that since it was just introduced ~2 months ago it is a fairly recent version. We have one of these in our Columbia, MD office, and it is quite nice - and at 12+ ppm is quick too.. -- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Joe Backo Sun Microsystems Internet: jback@East.Sun.COM 8219 Leesburg Pike Usenet : ...!uunet!sun!sundc!jback Suite #700 AT&T : (703) 883-0444 Vienna, VA 22180 FAX : (703) 893-0576 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
jeffe@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (George Jefferson ) (01/29/91)
:|> Sorry to ask but I am wondering about the SparcPrinter. Who makes it ? :|> What is it capable of ? What version of Adobe Postscript is it running ? :|> and (most important) how much $$$. :|> I understand that the SparcPrinter depends on the host Sparc to do its postscript imageing. ( a-la NeXt, I guess ) -- -george george@mech.seas.upenn.edu
poynton@vector.Eng.Sun.COM (Charles A. Poynton) (01/29/91)
In article <1991Jan25.084804.26979@ccu.umanitoba.ca>, umross27@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Christopher Winston Ross) asks: > ... about the SparcPrinter ... What version of Adobe Postscript is it running? I was waiting for an expert to answer this question, but ... "SPARCprinter" in the broad sense refers to the SPARCprinter laser printer -- which itself contains little intelligence -- and the PostScript(R)-language compatible NeWSprint software RIP running on the host SPARC machine. The NeWSprint RIP is derived from the interpreter that James Gosling originally wrote for the NeWS window system. It will drive a wide variety of printers including ... well, let's not get commercial, but it's been demonstrated with ink jet, dot matrix, thermal transfer, electrostatic etc. It has no Adobe interpreter. C. ----- Charles A. Poynton Sun Microsystems Inc. vox 415-336-7846 2550 Garcia Avenue, MTV21-10 fax 415-969-9131 Mountain View, CA 94043 <poynton@sun.com> U.S.A. -----
brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot) (01/30/91)
In article <12317@sundc.East.Sun.COM> jback@trine.East.Sun.COM writes:
<
<The Sparcprinter is manufactured by Sun Microsystems, Inc. , and costs
<~$2600 (before edu discounts, etc are taken into account). I've no idea
<what version of Postscript it supports, but I'd surmise that since it
<was just introduced ~2 months ago it is a fairly recent version. We
<have one of these in our Columbia, MD office, and it is quite nice - and
<at 12+ ppm is quick too..
The SparcPrinter is nothing but an engine with no printer language smarts.
It is part of the NeWSprint software for the Sun Sparc Workstations. The
PostScript emulation is done on the Sparc and the results sent to the printer.
There are other emulations provided as well. We don't have ours yet, so I
can't go into further details.
--
harvard\ att!nicmad\ spool.cs.wisc.edu!astroatc!vidiot!brown
Vidiot ucbvax!uwvax..........!astroatc!vidiot!brown
rutgers/ decvax!nicmad/ INET:<@spool.cs.wisc.edu,@astroatc:brown@vidiot>amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) (01/31/91)
In article <12317@sundc.East.Sun.COM> jback@trine.East.Sun.COM writes: >In article <1991Jan25.084804.26979@ccu.uman, umross27@ccu.umanitoba.ca >|> Sorry to ask but I am wondering about the SparcPrinter. Who makes it ? >|> What is it capable of ? What version of Adobe Postscript is it running ? >The Sparcprinter is manufactured by Sun Microsystems, Inc. , and costs >~$2600 (before edu discounts, etc are taken into account). I've no idea >what version of Postscript it supports, but I'd surmise that since it >was just introduced ~2 months ago it is a fairly recent version. ... >at 12+ ppm is quick too.. First: When did SUN stop contracting apple to make the printers for them. Second: Is postscript built into the printer or not (several people said different things. Thirdly: If SUN makes it themselves (and it isn't really a apple IINT(x) with (possibly) more software in rom and possible more standard memory... a. What interfaces does it have (serial, parallel, ether, localtalk) and how well can we select between them/use all of them... (for sharing with other systems...) b. How much memory DOES it have. c. What additional real world features does it have over the 'standard' apple laserwriter IInt or so (in reality). d. If the claim of 12+ ppm is to be believed by many of us, what CPU does it use, running at what clock, and using what interface (and at what rate if applicable) and postscript code are you using for this spec. How about posting source to a 3 page demo graphics (say 3 defined shapes each with a associated grey scale and a plot type banner of prop text, 8x11) that will print at over 12 PPM. Inquiring minds need to know. al -- Al. Michielsen, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University InterNet: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu amichiel@sunrise.acs.syr.edu Bitnet: AMICHIEL@SUNRISE
kusumoto@chsun1.uchicago.edu (Bob Kusumoto) (01/31/91)
just to make a point before proceeding, I don't own a sparcprinter (yet) although the information below is information I gathered when it came out and it's pretty much from memory so it might be a bit off. If you really want an answer, call Sun (1-800-USA-4SUN) and talk to a sales or tech rep to give you the lowdown. Anyway... amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) writes: > First: When did SUN stop contracting apple to make the printers for them. got me. call Sun :-) > Second: Is postscript built into the printer or not (several people said >different things. No. Its basically a bitmap printer. If I understand the way it works correctly, the sparc sends a bitmap to the printer to print out. Given that the sparc can process a lot of information to send to the printer, it can come close to it's 12ppm rating. > Thirdly: If SUN makes it themselves (and it isn't really a apple IINT(x) >with (possibly) more software in rom and possible more standard memory... >a. What interfaces does it have (serial, parallel, ether, localtalk) and how > well can we select between them/use all of them... (for sharing with other > systems...) I assume serial, although it could be a specialized S-bus card (or an S-bus card that has a parallel or some other interface). It must be attached to a sparcstation though (unless you want to build your own driver :-). >b. How much memory DOES it have. dunno, call Sun :-) >c. What additional real world features does it have over the 'standard' apple > laserwriter IInt or so (in reality). Has 51 scalable fonts (I believe Sun literature said something to the effect Folio fonts, not exactly sure on this point). It's supposedly faster. It works only off a sparcstation. >d. If the claim of 12+ ppm is to be believed by many of us, what CPU does it > use, running at what clock, and using what interface (and at what rate if > applicable) and postscript code are you using for this spec. How about > posting source to a 3 page demo graphics (say 3 defined shapes each with > a associated grey scale and a plot type banner of prop text, 8x11) that will > print at over 12 PPM. why it's using the SPARC chip that's in the sparcstation that its attached to (depending on which sparc you get, 1, 1+, 2). -- Bob Kusumoto | I just come from the land of Internet: kusumoto@chsun1.uchicago.edu | the sun/ from a war that must Bitnet: kusumoto%chsun1@uchicago[.bitnet] | be won in the name of truth. UUCP: ...!{oddjob,gargoyle}!chsun1!kusumoto | - New Order, "Love Vigilantes"
robert@jetsun.weitek.COM (Robert Plamondon) (02/02/91)
I have Sun's brochure on the SPARCprinter. The printer itself is a
"dumb" printer -- no processor, no memory, just a high-speed interface
to an S-Bus card that plugs into the workstation.
The PostScript interpreter runs on the SPARCstation itself, creating
a page map that is then sent to the printer in real time, through the
high-speed interface. This minimizes the printer's cost by using
the processor and memory in the workstation (which you have anyway),
rather than putting a processor and memory in the printer.
I was disappointed by the lack of Adobe Type 1 font support, and have
no idea how faithful Sun's PostScript clone is. I'm particularly
interested in how well the SPARCprinter does when used with Interleaf
TPS. Has anyone tried it?
-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon
robert@weitek.COMrberlin@birdlandEng.Sun.COM (Rich Berlin) (02/06/91)
I am posting this on behalf of Rob Fellows. -- Rich ==================================================================== ==================================================================== In response to some inquiries to this group, I am forwarding a description of three recently introduced printing products from Sun. They are: SPARCprinter, a 12 page per minute laser printer; NeWSprint, a software raster image processor (RIP); and SBus Printer Card, a single-wide SBus card providing a DMA interface to both the SPARCprinter port and Centronics-compatible bi-directional parallel port. SPARCprinter: ------------ Sun no longer offers the Sun Laserwriter II. The SPARCprinter, which was announced last September 28th, is its replacement. The US list price is $2695. The SPARCprinter has no processor (or memory) in the printer itself. The interpretation of the PostScript and the imaging of the page to be printed takes place on the host SPARCstation CPU and memory by Sun's NeWSprint software (shipped with SPARCprinter but available unbundled as well). In our testing on a SPARCstation 1, printing a PostScript job takes about 10-20% of the available CPU. Requirement are SunOS 4.1 and a SPARCstation with an SBus, 12 MB memory is recommended. The print engine is manufactured by Xerox. NeWSprint: --------- NeWSprint is a software RIP, (a PostScript clone if you wish) and operates on any SPARCstation under SunOS 4.1. NeWSprint allows any raster output device to become PostScript compatible. A Developer's Kit is included with each copy to develop interfaces (device handlers) to any printer. The PostScript-compatible interpreter used by NeWSprint is the same interpreter that Sun developed for the NeWS window system. This allows the same rendering for the screen as for the output. It is compatible with the Laserwriter II. To applications, a NeWSprint printer looks like a PostScript printer. Applications such as Framemaker, Island Write, TeX. etc. can use SPARCprinter without modification, at 12 pages per minute. NeWSprint Fonts: --------------- NeWSprint contains a core set of 57 scalable outline fonts in F3 format, from major trademark owners like Linotype, Monotype, ITC and Bigelow and Holmes. F3 fonts are "hinted" outlines, providing high quality bitmaps regardless of resolution or size. The 57 F3 fonts are a superset of the industry-standard LaserWriter font set, and are metric- and shape- compatible with these PostScript fonts. Therefore: you can display F3s on the workastation in OW and print using the resident PostScript fonts in your LaserWriter you can display and print F3 fonts using applications like FrameMaker with NeWSprint you can send PostScript files generated from non-F3 applications like Island Write to NeWSprint and they will print with line-for-line compatibility Hundreds of additional F3 fonts can be obtained from the F3 font suppliers for use with NeWSprint and OpenWindows. Printing Interfaces: ------------------- Although NeWSprint allows printers to be attached via serial, parallel, SCSI, and Ethernet, the SPARCprinter is only connected through Sun's SBus Printer card (shipped with SPARCprinter but available unbundled as well). This card provides a real time interconnect to the SPARCprinter as well as a bi-directional parallel port. Both ports have independent DMA channels providing for low CPU overhead. For the SPARCprinter port, the data rate is approximately 6 Mbits/sec. Summary: ------- The SPARCprinter also has the following features: * 300 or 400 dpi resolution (software selectable) * 250 sheet paper adjustable tray (8.5x11", 13" & 14" legal, A4 and B5) * 10 meter SPARCprinter cable, SBus Printer Card, NeWSprint included * $2695 US End User List Price NeWSprint provides the following features: * 57 F3 fonts (a superset of the LaserWriter II font set) * Extensible replacement for Transcript * Works with OpenWindows and SunView environments. * Performance scales with host CPU * Transparent access from the network * Support for H-P LaserJet and DeskJet printers, and Seiko color printers (with SBus Printer Card) * $495 US End User List Price SBus printer Card features include: * Single-wide SBus card * Two independent DMA ports -SPARCprinter -Configurable, bi-directional Centronics-compatible parallel * 5 meter Centronics cable, NeWSprint included * $1195 US End User List Price Rob Fellows Product Manager Printing Products Sun Microsystems ==================