philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (09/29/90)
I posted the following to comp.sys.next: >The next thing I did was to do a slightly unconventional comparison with the >Mac price list. Imagine you are in the market for a laser printer with a fast >PostScript engine, e.g., a LaserWriter IINTX. Stanford price: $3820. Does >NeXT offer an alternative? Their printer is 400dpi (which I presume is an >advantage), but needs a NeXT workstation to drive it. Stanford price for a >NeXT printer: $1229. Total for printer plus minimum NeXT: $4382. Now, this >is $562 more than the Apple printer, but the LaserWriter doesn't have a >nice screen to preview your PostScript, or a 105M hard disk. Also, it's >processor isn't as fast as the NeXT's and it doesn't include a unix >workstation in the price, or very much bundled software... This wasn't entirely meant to be a serious suggestion, but a NeXT engineer pointed out to me that their combination has some major advantages, like the high speed of the 68040, 8M of RAM, and virtual memory (which should allow very complex imaging). So, if anyone has access to an NTX and one of the new NeXTs, a benchmark would be really interesting. I don't have any suitable benchmarks, (or for that matter, an NTX or a NeXT) - so I can't take this any further myself. -- Philip Machanick philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (09/30/90)
> >advantage), but needs a NeXT workstation to drive it. Stanford price for a > >NeXT printer: $1229. Total for printer plus minimum NeXT: $4382. Now, this > >is $562 more than the Apple printer, but the LaserWriter doesn't have a > >nice screen to preview your PostScript, or a 105M hard disk. Also, it's That is a *very* interesting thought. Quite valid also. Unfortunatly, it appears that those prices are for schools mere mortals in the real world might have quite a bit more money to lay out, if you can even get ahold of one, but I think that If I were in the market for such, I would certianly give this quite a bit of consideration. Unfortunatly, the only NeXT station that I have had a chance to see, was one of the early ones, and I could accomplish more faster with a pencil and paper ;^) Even Windows on an 8086 seemed faster. That undoubtably has changed now, with faster operating systems, and the abandonment of the SLOWWWW optical disk (quite an inovation , but then that is what Steve specializes in 8} ). At any rate, I believe that GLENN has one such beast. Perhaps he can post some benchmark stuff. I happen to like to have the printer scale each of the 35 faces at about 20 points, and render all uppercase, lowercase and numbers. This takes about 30 min on an older laserwriter. > So, if anyone has access to an NTX and one of the new NeXTs, a benchmark would > be really interesting. I don't have any suitable benchmarks, (or for that Cheers Woody
jacob@gore.com (Jacob Gore) (09/30/90)
/ woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) / Sep 29, 1990 / > That is a *very* interesting thought. Quite valid also. Unfortunatly, it > appears that those prices are for schools mere mortals in the real world > might have quite a bit more money to lay out In case you're wondering, the list prices are: NeXTstation: $4,995 NeXT printer: $1,795 ------ $6,790 Jacob -- Jacob Gore Jacob@Gore.Com boulder!gore!jacob
philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (10/01/90)
In article <650005@gore.com>, jacob@gore.com (Jacob Gore) writes: |> / woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) / Sep 29, 1990 / |> > That is a *very* interesting thought. Quite valid also. Unfortunatly, it |> > appears that those prices are for schools mere mortals in the real world |> > might have quite a bit more money to lay out |> |> In case you're wondering, the list prices are: |> |> NeXTstation: $4,995 |> NeXT printer: $1,795 |> ------ |> $6,790 I was wondering (the list prices aren't on the Stanford NeXT price list). The list price for the LaserWriter NTX _is_, though: $5999 ($791 less). Still farily close - though it depends how much dealers will discount. NeXT used to be much tighter on discounts than Apple. -- Philip Machanick philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
hudgens@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Hudgens) (10/01/90)
In article <1990Sep28.213733.26340@Neon.Stanford.EDU> philip@pescadero.stanford.edu writes: >I posted the following to comp.sys.next: >>The next thing I did was to do a slightly unconventional comparison with the >>Mac price list. Imagine you are in the market for a laser printer with a fast >>PostScript engine, e.g., a LaserWriter IINTX. Stanford price: $3820. Does >>NeXT offer an alternative? Their printer is 400dpi (which I presume is an >>advantage), but needs a NeXT workstation to drive it. Stanford price for a >>NeXT printer: $1229. Total for printer plus minimum NeXT: $4382. Now, this >>is $562 more than the Apple printer, but the LaserWriter doesn't have a >>nice screen to preview your PostScript, or a 105M hard disk. Also, it's >>processor isn't as fast as the NeXT's and it doesn't include a unix >>workstation in the price, or very much bundled software... > >This wasn't entirely meant to be a serious suggestion, but a NeXT engineer >pointed out to me that their combination has some major advantages, like the >high speed of the 68040, 8M of RAM, and virtual memory (which should allow >very complex imaging). [...] >Philip Machanick >philip@pescadero.stanford.edu Interestingly enough, I recently got the following blurb in the mail. It does sound somewhat similar to the NeXT printer.... -------- The other half of Sun's new open printing solution, SPARCprinter, provides twice the speed, much better print resolution and more fonts at less than half the cost of the Sun LaserWriter II that it replaces. SPARCprinter leverages the powerful SPARCstation CPU to print up to 12 pages per minute even on print jobs with complex PostScript graphics or multiple fonts. In contrast, many of today's PostScript laser printers commonly produce between two to three pages per minute. High quality is achieved with a resolution of 300 or 400 dots per inch (software selectable). SPARCprinter uses a high-bandwith interface, which gives it these fast printing speeds. SPARCprinter is attached via an SBus card to a SPARCstation 1, 1+ or IPC. The card contains a SPARCprinter port and a Centronics parallel port. -------- I think list on this is $2700 or so, with the software at $500. Discounts could get that down to $2000 or so. It's not really comparable to the above prices (for NeXT), I know, and not really that good a deal in comparison to a NEC890 or the new TI postscript printer. But has anyone seen one of these? Any opinions? -- Disclaimer: I didn't do it. Jim Hudgens Supercomputer Computations Research Institute hudgens@sun13.scri.fsu.edu
barnett@grymoire.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) (10/03/90)
In article <859@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> hudgens@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Hudgens) writes: > The other half of Sun's new open printing solution, SPARCprinter [...] > I think list on this is $2700 or so, with the software at $500. > Discounts could get that down to $2000 or so. > It's not really comparable to the above prices (for NeXT), > I know, and not really that good a deal in comparison to a > NEC890 or the new TI postscript printer. > But has anyone seen one of these? Any opinions? I haven't seen anything. Just read the blurbs. What they say: "Performance can also soar. In a demonstration, the SparcStation/Sparc-Printer combination finished printing a complex nine-page document before the Macintosh IIfx/LaserWriter II NTX could begin printing a second page." - Infoword Oct. 1 Pg. 28 Can the other printers in this price range compete in the page per minute? The SparcPrinter seems worthwile - if you happen to have a spare SparcStation lying around. Also, this is a PostScript Clone. the 35 LW+ fonts are included along with 22 other fonts. Have no idea how much extra fonts costs. Don't know if you can download Type 1 fonts from a Mac. I seem to recall saving an article posted to comp.windows.news that was a simple version of NeWSPrint. It just rendered a PostScript image to memory and did a bitmap transfer to a file. Re: the NeWSPrint package - current printers supported are HP LaserJets/DeskJets, Seiko CH 5504 and 5514 color printers. Future printers supported are laser printers from Epson, Fujitsu, Xerox, Talaris, ink-jet printers from Canon, Epson, and Kodak, color thermal printers from Raster Graphics and Versatec, and ion deposition printers from Talaris. -- Bruce G. Barnett barnett@crd.ge.com uunet!crdgw1!barnett
woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (10/04/90)
In article <BARNETT.90Oct3122235@grymoire.crd.ge.com>, barnett@grymoire.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) writes: > > But has anyone seen one of these? Any opinions? > > I haven't seen anything. Just read the blurbs. What they say: > > "Performance can also soar. In a demonstration, the Just watch the printers with the AMD29000 Chip. AT a 16 Mhz clock speed with NO branch table caching i.e. the most crippled chip, runs approx 3 times as fast as the latest 68020 based Apple engine. Just imageing what the 40 mhz rate with full caching is gonna do. This all points up the power of a faster processer, and one optimised for a highlevel compiler language. Cheers Woody