Farallon Communications QMS 4525 - Manual (Page 41)

Crown
Multitasking
2-25 About the Printer
Using its Crown multitasking capability, the QMS 4525 performs these
activities simultaneously rather than sequentially. This is accom-
plished using advanced memory management techniques such as
simultaneous interfacing, input buffering, job spooling, compile-ahead
technology, compressed data formats, error recovery, user-config-
urable memory clients, context switching, and spooling overflow.
Multitasking and advanced memory management increase the pro-
ductive use of resources by minimizing idle time. More time is spent
processing jobs rather than waiting for jobs to print.
Compile-Ahead Technology
Pioneered by QMS, compile-ahead technology significantly reduces
processing time by increasing controller throughput, more fully utilizes
the resources of the printer, offloads print processing tasks from the
host CPU, and speeds up the network by quickly transferring jobs
from the host into input buffers for processing at the earliest possible
time. This technology also provides the capability for advanced paper
handling features, such as multipage job collation, automatic error
recovery, and input/output bin selection on a page-by-page basis.
QMS compile-ahead technology is a considerable improvement over
the traditional rasterization process used by most other printers. The
traditional rasterization process involves the transformation of text
and graphics into a bitmap image that is then printed. Rasterization is
necessary because applications use page description languages
such as PostScript to describe the text and graphics that make up
each page. The printer translates these instructions into a format it
can understand before printing a page. This is usually a very time-
consuming process.
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