>Could people recommend a (cheapish) printer to hang off an SGI
>computer that would only be running GSAS?
>
>I would like to go for either a "black and white" HP LaserJet 4M
>600DPI or colour HP1200C (these are normally PCL5 printers
>but have Postscript options).
You should choose a postscript printer, or use SGI's 'Impressario'
postscript interpreter, which is faster than any (?) printer's interpreter.
(Yes, I know you can also mess around with the free ghostscript interpreter,
and even straight PCL5 if you really like that kind of thing...).
The HP 4ML is a 'Low cost' (1k$) postscript printer of good quality (300 dpi)
and can be connected to the SGI parallel port (it also has appletalk). The 4L
is even cheaper, but you would need SGI's postscript driver 'Impressario'.
The 4MP (1.5k$) has 600 dpi and also a serial port (which you will need if you
have something else eg a 1200C, on the SGI's parallel port). Finally the 4Mplus
is 'heavier duty' (~2+k$).
However, you should seriously consider getting the HP 1200C (2k$) and driving
it with SGI Impressario (~800$). This is a robust high quality colour ink-jet
printer with seperate cartridges for the 4 colours R,G,B and Black, and is very
fast with Impressario. You might buy the postscript version 1200C/PS, but the
extra cost would pay for Impressario. I prefer the 1200C to the cheaper (1k$)
560C, which is still an excellent printer that can be driven with
Impressario, but
is designed for lower throughput, and has a single multi-colour ink cartridge.
We have 'standardized' on the 4MP, 4Mplus and 1200C. These printers are all
automatically networked between different SGI machines on ethernet.
(With a little extra effort/cost you can also network them to Macintoshes and
other types of machine - you don't need 'stand-alone' networked printers).
You can make very nice colour transparencies on these cheap ink-jet printers,
which are perfect complements to the cheap SGI 4600PC.
But why do you only run GSAS on the SGI ;-) ? Bit of a waste ;-) Load the
optional 'Inventor' 3D examples from the SGI system CDROM and have a look at
the PDB crystal structure example. I have lots more free examples, especially
inorganics with polyhedrae. This is why you will want a colour printer.
Alan Hewat, ILL Grenoble, FRANCE (hewat@ill.fr) Fax (France=33).76.48.39.06