> The *right* answer is to address the printing issue.  This is
> something
> HP heard quite loud and clear at the recent meetings.  From
> HP's reaction I
> would anticipate that they will be doing something in this
> area to help
> customers resolve this problem.  And I too believe that this
> is the right
> direction.  It is certainly better to address the printer
> issues and move
> forward to the new bus architecture than carry along an
> outdated technology
> and continue to stay behind the other industry leaders.  And
> yes, it can
> easily be a painful decision for many.

This is the key point. The issue isn't really the "HPIBness" of the 256x
printers; the SYSDIAG module is called "CIPERLPD", not "HPIBLPD". The
problem is that their support for the CIPER protocol appears to be
associated/stored with their HPIB interface. Bypass/remove the HPIB
interface to convert the printer to serial and the CIPER smarts disappears.
I don't know of any technical reason why CIPER support couldn't be done over
a serial link, though I suspect it might be a bit more difficult than just
relocating a ROM; HPIB has a number of handshaking lines that aren't going
to be available on an ATP port, so both ends would require significant
changes to the way they currently operate.


Steve Dirickson   WestWin Consulting
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