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Ask your Star LaserPrinter 4111dealer about resources like these. Desktop
publishing with laser printers is fast-changing territory, and some Star
Micronics staff people have found electronic bulletin boards and computer
user groups quite helpful inkeeping up with the changing pace. If you invest
a little time this way it may repay you well.
.1.1.3How your laser printer communicates
Your computer communicates with the Star LaserPrinter 4111through either
a parallel cable or one of two kinds of serial cable. The printer’s inter-ace,
thelinkorboundaryitshareswithyourcomputer, defines whethertheprinter
will acceptcharacters and commandsfrom yourcomputeronebyteoronebit
at a time.
A bit is the smallest unit of computer or printer memory. It has either a low
or high electric charge, which we represent with the digits Oand 1.Usually
eight adjacent bits are grouped to form a byte. Since a byte normally
represents one character, this string of bits— 01000001 — might represent
the letter A.
The serial interface accepts just one bit at a time from your computer. A
parallel interface can handle a whole byte at once, by moving data bits side-
by-side along separate wires. You choose which interface method you want
to use by selecting it on the operator panel, as explained in your Sfar
LaserPrinter 4111Operations Manual.
1.1.4 The Star LaserPrinter 4111is a computer
The Star LaserPrinter 4111firstmaps the characters to be printed intoitsown
random access memory (RAM). That is, the printer builds.a “picture” in its
memory corresponding to the page you want to print. When that’s done the
printer can reproduce the page onto paper on itsown, letting your computer
get on with other work.
Your Star LaserPrinter 4111comes with one megabyte of RAM — the
equivalent of about one million characters. A Star LaserPrinter 4111option
lets you add a second megabyte of RAM if, say, you need to map full-page
graphics or store more fonts. Accompanying all that RAM is another 2
megabytes of read only memory (ROM), containing a library of internal
fonts and the programs that let the Star LaserPrinter 4111emulate other
printers.
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