Ok, got the Perq tapes

[Tony Duell]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 3:54 AM Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> Eliminating one of the LEAST important:
>
> Picture 267 is a Corona Data Systems (later Cordata) laser printer.  It's
> an ordinary Canon CX engine (Same as HP LaserJet and LaserJet-Plus (which
> had a large rasterizing board in them), with same toner cartridges,
> trays, etc.).  It connects via DC37 to an ISA board in the host computer.
> Watch for a DC37 cable connected or near it, and a board at the other end of the cable.

Almost certainly a PERQ laser printer. There was an optional board for
the PERQ often called 'ether-can' which added a second ethernet port
and a Canon CX direct engine interface. It would not surprise me if
Bob had that board.

> OTOH, if he had managed to interface the Cordata printer to one of his
> PERQ's, . . .     (check with ARD whether that is possible)

See above. It was a standard-ish option.

A bit of background. The standard PERQ board set is 3 boards :

CPU (either 4K WCS in the PERQ 1 or 16K WCS in the PERQ 1a and all late models)
Memory (also included the video circuitry
I/O (PERQ 1/1a machines have a board called CIO, PERQ 2s have eithe
EIO (Ethernet + Input/Output) or NIO (No Ethernet + Input/Output)

There were 2 option slots in the cardcage too. One for 'CPU option'
that AFAIK was never used. One for 'Optional I/O' which is where the
above board goes.

There was essentially one standard Optional IO (OIO) board which could
be populated in various ways. There were 3 setions on the board :

PERQ-link. A 16 bit parallel interface, roughly the same as a DEC
DR11-C. As far as I know this was always fitted (it as just a few
cheap TTL chips). Note that a PERQ can boot from PERQlink and will try
to do so before reading the disks.

Ethernet. This was the only ethernet interface of a PERQ 1, but it
added a second ethernet interface to a PERQ2 (with an EIO board)

Canon CX Laserprinter. This used the PERQ raster operations hardware
to produce the bitmap for the printer and talked directly to the Canon
printer engine. The printer contains no formatter board.

As an aside, I converted an HP Laserjet 1 to the engine-only model to
use with my PERQ. I also wire-wrapped the prototype QIC02 controller
onto the prototyping area of an OIO board so I have ethernet,
laserprinter and tape in the machine.

I am told there was an official PERQ laser printer, just a rebadged
Canon CX-VDO. I've never seen one,

-tony