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From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: How did they make the printer so cheap?
Message-ID: <25428@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 22 Oct 88 07:10:04 GMT
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In article <231@lloyd.camex.uucp> kent@lloyd.UUCP (Kent Borg) writes:
>In article <25141@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) writes:
>>The imager can image much faster than this printer can print (8ppm),
>>so the bottleneck is in the printer.
>
>I have seen unimpressive pages on which a LaserWriter cranks well
>over an hour to output... Someone can always throw a more complicated
>PostScript program at his NeXT cube.

Quite so.  That 8ppm, as with any printer that prints images described
by an interpreted language, will of course be achieved when imaging
simpler pages.  For more complex pages, the bottleneck will move from
the print engine into the imager.

Still, given the speed improvement between a 68000 driving a
LaserWriter imager and a 68030 driving a NeXT cube imager, I'd expect
that as we move to more complex pages, the bottleneck stays in the
print engine longer - that is, a NeXT cube/printer can probably
maintain its full rated speed on more complex pages than those on
which a LaserWriter can maintain its.

Now, if you're also doing SQL retrievals of your Sybase multi-composer
style guide so your Common Lisp engine will compose a Sousa-like march
in real time to send to your DSP to listen to while you wait for your
document, you might find your printer slowing down just a bit :-)
-=-
Zippy sez,								--Bob
.  I don't know why but, suddenly, I want to discuss declining I.Q.
 LEVELS with a blue ribbon SENATE SUB-COMMITTEE!