Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!ucbvax!WHARTON-10.ARPA!shull From: shull@WHARTON-10.ARPA.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.computers.laser-printers Subject: Tale of Xerox marketing woe... Message-ID: <8608030318.AA18095@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: Sat, 2-Aug-86 17:27:00 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8608030318.AA18095 Posted: Sat Aug 2 17:27:00 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 3-Aug-86 04:08:27 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: "CHRISTOPHER E. SHULL" Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 61 Approved: laser-lovers@washington.arpa I recently began investigating medium speed, medium duty-cycle laser printers to sit on a School-wide network, possibly front-ended by a MicroVAX. People around here seem to think this means 40 to 80 page per minute (ppm) and 25,000 to 50,000 pages per month. Although I confess to having been completely brainwashed by Adobe as to the wonders of PostScript, DEC's 40 ppm PS-40 continues to not be announced, and the next fastest PS printers are DataProducts' at 26 ppm (but it can't really interpret the PS that fast), and QMS' at 24 ppm (ditto). I therefore needed to evaluate printers from Xerox, so I called my local Xerox Printing Systems Division. I would like the folks from Xerox to pay special attention, because what I learned isn't really funny. First, I learned about some of the model numbers, their speeds and prices: 4045 10 ppm, $3,500 - $4,500 8000 is a 4045 for Ethernet 2700 12 ppm, $10,000 - $15,000 3700 24 ppm, $25,000 - $30,000 4050 50 ppm, $100,000, "centralized" printer 4060 same as 4050 but based on ion-deposition "centralized" means either stand alone with mag tape for input, or channel connected to an IBM mainframe. 8700 and 9700 built for speed with greater than 100 ppm and greater than $150,000. I assume little or no responsibility for the accuracy of the above data, but this is my current (lack of) understanding. Second, I asked what I thought to be a simple question, "Which of these printers supports Interpress?" Much to my surprise, the answer took the form of a question, "What is Interpress?" I said, "It is a sophisticated and powerful page description language and part of XNS." "Oh, who makes it?" Now at this point, I'm getting pretty worried, but I decide to pursue this a bit further, so I tell the poor guy that Xerox does. Well he promises to check on this with some guys who know all about Xerox printers. A week later he tells me that he got the same response from the "experts" that I got from him. Nobody has even heard of Interpress. All anybody knows is that the 4045 has two modes, Diablo emulation, and 2700-II mode. The 2700-II mode is also in the 2700, 3700, and "most" of the other printers. Now this sounds to me like 2700-II mode could be the Interpress beast we are looking for. But, if it is, then why doesn't anybody know? Is Xerox planning to secretly convert to PostScript and wants to avoid admitting it? So folks, what's the real story? -Chris Christopher E. Shull Decision Sciences Department The Wharton School Shull@Wharton-10.ARPA University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6366 215/898-5930 ------