Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!ucsdhub!jack!nusdhub!rwhite
From: rwhite@nusdhub.UUCP (Robert C. White Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: How did they make the printer so cheap?
Message-ID: <1237@nusdhub.UUCP>
Date: 21 Oct 88 05:35:33 GMT
References: <15626@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: National University, San Diego
Lines: 18

Guess what this line does  (smack gurgle blurb!)  ;-)

in article <15626@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, ilan343@violet.berkeley.edu says:
> It is not a postscript printer. Is this a change in Adobe's licensing
> policy? I thought you had to have postscrip in the printer.

According to what I read, the NEXT's printer driver uses display
postscript in a virtual buffer in memory to construct the immage
(using the CPU et al) in a virtual screen memory buffer, and then
transcribes the bit-image into a VERY simplified dump protocol for the
printer.  The brains of the printer live on a single VLSI (custom)
chip which controls an otherwise standard engine (don't know the
manufacturer).

No muss, no fuss, no bother.

(this from info-world)

Rob.