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New IBM Ultra Fast Printer
avxo writes "CNN/Money is reporting on a new IBM printer, that can print Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in less than a minute, by delegating pagination to a separate unit." Fully loaded it runs a million bucks. Plus the 330 pages it can print in a single minute is probably triple the pages I printed so far in 2005. I'm probably not the target audience *grin*
And great news for rainforests, too.
They don't use rainforrests for making paper. The biggest problem the rainforrests face is burning to make farms and grazing land.
http://Lenny.com
RTFA.
IBM last year was the market leader with a 49.6 percent share, followed by Oce (Research), based in the Netherlands., with 43.8 percent, according to InfoTrends.
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
http://www.printers.ibm.com/internet/wwsites.nsf/v wwebpublished/4100home_ww
http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/
"Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner."
but from the article... "Print at up to 330 linear feet (100.6 m) per minute (1,440 2-up duplex letter impressions or 1,354 2-up A4 duplex impressions)"
so it actually prints at 330 feet per minute... which works out at about 1440 pages per minute. which is a bit better.
I work at a junkmail factory (as an in-house enterprise solution developer). We produce, personalize, and mail between 6 and 9 million pieces of mail every day of the year. We're already using "outdated" multi-color inkjet technology that prints over 1000ft per minute at over 3ft wide and it works great. We have like 6 of these machines and they cost only like $100,000 each.
I didn't RTFA, but this seems almost as silly as Goodyear anncouncing they've developed a new "fossil fuel internal combustion powerwed 4-wheeled personnel carrier" for $90,000 when there's already been cars on the market for years at ~$15,000.
Nothing to see here. I'm serious.
Move all sig!
According to IBM that's feet, not pages, and it prints duplex: "Print at up to 330 linear feet (100.6 m) per minute (1,440 2-up duplex letter impressions or 1,354 2-up A4 duplex impressions)."
Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
To add to that. They actually grow tree farms for the purpose of making paper. Because of paper we have more trees.
Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh Naranek
It sounds like there aren't a lot of /.ers that have worked in big iron shops. The replies to this article seems to have more inaccuracies than most.
The 4100 seems to be part of the evolution for "big iron" laser printers starting with the 3800. These printers started out being centralized printers to reduce cost per page for large organizations AND for billing organizations.
After the 1980s, I don't think a lot were sold to IT ("IS" at the time) organizations because having a single printer and distributing its output to different locations throughout a building is slow, expensive and time consuming - all the things using them was supposed to eliminate.
Where the printers really made their niche was generating bills for various organizations. The advantage of a laser printer over traditional printers was that traditional printers used pre-printed forms which were more expensive and had to be precisely lined up for the billing information to show up in the appropriate locations. The advantage of a laser printer in this application is that it can print all the background information, logos, terms and conditions, etc. just as quickly as a traditional printer just put in the differing information but at a much lower cost.
The 3800 and subsequent printers were/are the industry standard for these applications - very little of their output actually comes into the office except in the form of invoices from other companies.
When IBM spun off its printer division (known as "LexMark"), they did not sell of the big iron printers. They make a ton of money for IBM and also drive other purchases for IBM hardware.
It's probably more difficult now to see these monsters in action, but if you get the chance you should take a look - they are amazing. The old 3800s could print an entire 10" high box of 8.5 by 11 fanfold paper in just a few minutes and while cutting the paper appropriately. The "high end" models mentioned probably have letter stuffing hardware so the final output is a nice neat stack of bills all ready for shipment to the post office.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Hey everyone, the printer's not 330 pages per minute; its 330 feet per minute. Please see http://www.printers.ibm.com/internet/wwsites.nsf/v wwebpublished/4100home_ww.
;-)
Quoting IBM: Print at up to 330 linear feet (100.6 m) per minute (1,440 2-up duplex letter impressions or 1,354 2-up A4 duplex impressions).
I had a discussion with a friend that works in that division on Friday when this machine was announced. Apparently, 330 pages per minute was done about 30 years ago according to him (I have no idea what model, when it was, or anything else). Whoever wrote the initial story assumed whoever wrote the press release goofed and wrote feet when they obviously meant pages.
This model of printer is designed to print on a roll of paper which is approximately 19.5" wide. The roll is then cut and collated by other machines.
~ Mike
Michael C. Hollinger