[rescue] Various machines for sale

[Skeezics Boondoggle]

On Thu, 9 Jan 2025, Dave McGuire wrote:

>
> On 1/9/25 00:22, Mike Spooner via rescue wrote:
> > The SPARCprinter and NeWSprinters from Sun were not SCSI, they used a
> > hacked graphics/video interface and a wierd connector.
> >
> > At least, according to the Sun documentation.
>
>    That's correct, though I don't think it's fair to call it "hacked".
> Most of the laser printer engine manufacturers provided a direct video
> interface to their packaged printers.  This was used by
> manufacturers...NeXT, QMS, etc.
>
>
Hacked?  No.  A bit abstruse?  Oh yeah.  The Canon "video interface"
originated, I believe, with the 240dpi LBP-10, a tabletop sized beast that
"only" cost around $18K in 1981, when that was real money.  At least when
you bought one from Three Rivers Computer rebadged as the "PLP-10" to hook
up to your PERQ.  It was also available on the LBP-CX, the hugely popular
300dpi desktop model that was in practically everything in the mid-80s.

Having reverse engineered the Canon interface for software emulation based
on the two manual scans from Bitsavers, the PERQ schematics, microcode and
PROM dumps, all I can say is "the printer knows where the end of the page
is, because it knows where it isn't."

And it isn't telling _you_.


>    The NeXT laser printer is driven via that direct video interface, and
> QMS made an ISA board with a 68020 on it that executed PostScript and
> drove a Canon CX or SX laser printer engine via the direct video interface.
>
>    It was an intended, documented use of these engines, no hacking about
> it.
>
>
In the NeXT case it obviously made sense to use the direct interface since
the OS obviously has the Postscript interpreter built in.  And those early
PS printers weren't cheap!  IIRC, the $3500  SX-based NeXTprinter (400dpi!
woo!) was around $1500 cheaper than the CX-based Laser{Writer,Jet}s at the
time.

Now the problem is that their innards have all turned to goo. :-(  Even if
I ever could scrape the money to try to find an expert who could thoroughly
disassemble, clean and revitalize my two old CX engines OR my old
NeXTprinters, the people with that knowledge are all likely "aging out" by
now too.  Way too many fiddly tiny parts, and my eyesight ain't what it
used to be.  Sigh.  PDFs just ain't the same as holding the pages in your
hands, still warm out of the output tray!

-- c
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