Distributed Print Facility

[Dennis at tgr.UUCP]

A prototype remote printing facility has been built and tested by
the  Advanced  Development group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
Printing and typesetting (troff) functions are automatically  of-
floaded to a dedicated microprocessor through an extension to the
lpr-lpd remote printing mechanism.  Test facilities consist of an
IMAGEN 8/300 and an Integrated Solutions Optimum 5/10 attached to
the Laboratory Ethernet.  The system currently  handles  straight
ascii  printing, troff input or output, and Tektronix 4010 files.
The ability to process TeX output  has  been  demonstrated.   The
system,  usable  from  six client 4.2BSD systems on the Ethernet,
has been popular  with  users.   Success  of  the  prototype  has
prompted plans for expansion.

The Integrated Solutions (IS) box  appears  to  be  reliable  and
powerful  enough  to handle typesetting for three IMAGENs, or one
IMAGEN and one  Versatec.  Two  prototype  IS  systems  have  run
without  interruption  for  five  months.  This includes survival
through two major power failures.  The IMAGEN  is  somewhat  less
reliable, but service has been excellent.  Four thousand to eight
thousand pages per week through an IMAGEN appears to be possible.
Quality of print from the IMAGEN is significantly better than the
Versatec.

Current plans call for conversion from troff to ditroff,  support
for TeX, an IS driver for a Versatec V80, improved accounting in-
formation, transparent access from VMS systems, and GKS  graphics
support for the IMAGEN.

Details are available from Bill Johnston  (johnston at lbl-csam), or
Dennis Hall (hall at lbl-adv2).  However, Hall will be  on  vacation
until January.