Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!island!rich From: rich@island.uu.net (Rich Fanning ) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Host software alternatives to PS engines? Message-ID: <369@island.uu.net> Date: 22 Sep 88 18:47:44 GMT References:<599@sering.cwi.nl> <1687@osiris.UUCP> Reply-To: rich@island.uu.net (Rich Fanning ) Organization: Island Graphics, Marin County, California Lines: 18 In article <1687@osiris.UUCP> phil@osiris.UUCP (Philip Kos) writes: >+ An "onboard" (i.e. running inside the main system) PostScript "engine" > will communicate with the host system via its bus, and with the print > "engine" via a system I/O port. > >+ A system's bus will tend to have much more bandwidth than any one of its > I/O ports. ^^^^^^^^ In at least one example I know of, the connection from the PS engine, or RIP, to the printer is actually coaxial cable with a high-bandwidth "video" signal. This signal does not connect back to the PC bus in any way. Note that this "video signal" is not NSTC, RGB, or anything of the sort, but reduces the time required to transmit the full page bitmap to something on the order of a second or two. -- Rich Fanning {uunet,sun,well}!island!rich (415) 491-1000 Island Graphics Corp. 4000 Civic Center Drive San Rafael, CA 94903