Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!kent From: kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: HP ThinkJet and DEC LA-50 Message-ID: <693@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> Date: 11 Jan 91 19:38:00 GMT References: <22504@frog.UUCP> Sender: news@swrinde.nde.swri.edu Organization: Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas Lines: 35 In article jms@vanth.UUCP (Jim Shaffer) writes: [...] >the bus has an address which is set by (usually) DIP switches. You would >need to locate a GPIB interface and driver software for your Amiga, and >then hope that it supports using a device as a printer. I can't say I've >ever heard of anyone other than HP producing GPIB printers and plotters, >and I have no idea why they did it. Again, there are no GPIB device drivers for the Amiga. The ASDG card uses a run-time library (really is a shared library, but the software can only effectively handle one process talking to it at a time). I believe the ACDA card uses a link library with source, but don't remember for sure. There have been other GPIB printer makers. Most were plug-in interface boards like the one Epson did for their FX series printers that HP sold. Even Commodore used the GPIB for their Pet computer interface. The Vic-20 and C64 'serial' interface was an adaptation of the GPIB. There are thousands of GPIB devices. Though most of them are instruments, you can get pen digitizers, picture digitizers, plotters, disk drives... In short, GPIB was the first really successful external bus which could really deal with multiple 'intelligent' devices, much less multiple bus controllers. HP put so many of their products on GPIB because, from a hardware perspective, you could truly plug & go, every HP tech computer had a GPIB (HPIB) interface, and you could truly handle multiple devices in a fairly high-speed, asynchronous environment, ... Phew. Nope, I don't work at HP. Also, I want to see most of this stuff moving over to SCSI when applicable - You see, I need this 12-channel 50MHz digitizer that transfers at hard disk speeds ... Kent Polk: Southwest Research Institute (512) 522-2882 Internet : kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu UUCP : $ {cs.utexas.edu, gatech!petro, sun!texsun}!swrinde!kent