Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hp-vcd!neff
From: neff@hp-vcd.HP.COM (Dave Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: bubble-jet
Message-ID: <1170022@hp-vcd.HP.COM>
Date: 9 Mar 91 01:09:19 GMT
References: <91051.161815GHGAQZY@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA
Lines: 33

>I'm not sure you'll want to get rid of your ImageWriter. I haven't seen a 
>StyleWriter yet (although I will in about 45 minutes; under 
>non-disclosure, so please don't bombard me with requests for info), but 
>I've heard a rumor from a moderately reliable source that it's slower than 
>an ImageWriter. This sounds unlikely to me, but possible.

This seems likely to me in fact. The BJ-10E was probably optimized for text
printing on MS-DOS machines.  Consider how much data is involved in a
page of 360 DPI graphics.  Ten inches of such data is about 1.25 meg.
It takes allot of time to move that kind of data over the datacom and
handle it in the printer (I would expect the BJ to use some data compression
of course).  And just what serial baud rate is likely to be in the BJ-10E?
MS-DOS machines go no faster than 19.2 K baud.  I bet the StyleWriter will
run at 19.2K baud -- but the DeskWriter goes at 57.6 K baud for serial
and at 230K baud for AppleTalk.  Good printer performance also requires
very fast IO hardware and firmware inside the printer.  These
are some of the reasons that the DeskJet 500 and the DeskWriter are
just as fast (and often faster) than non-PostScript laser printers --
the limit isn't the print engine, but is the datacom rate, the driver
speed, and the firmware inside the printer.

Thats why I said the Stylewriter will probably be 50% to 100% slower than
the DeskWriter.  What I meant was I would bet the DeskWriter will
print a page AT LEAST 1.5 to 2 times faster than the StyleWriter.  I am
just speculating based on what I know about the BJ-10E on MS-DOS machines.
Maybe something has been done to speed it up, but I doubt it.  Of course
all speculation will soon be moot as we all start to get our hands on the
actual StyleWriter.  But based on what I know about the BJ-10E, I
wouldn't expect it to be a speed demon -- in fact, it could be quite
slow.

Dave Neff
neff@hpvcfs1.HP.COM