PRINTER GROUPING - TERMS USED TO CATEGORIZE AFP PRINTERS There are many different acronyms and terms used to describe AFP Printers - CCU, Group 3, AFCCU, coax, twinax, CCU4, and so on. Many of the terms are somewhat dated and are no longer used. They were often 'coined' as a normal result of the development process - which means some of the terms have relatively technical, but not necessarily useful, definitions. Regardless of the various terms used, the key characteristics that differentiate AFP printers are how they are attached to the print driving software system and what resolution they print at. These two factors determine how the printers must be configured from the software side in order for them to be properly supported. There are two exceptions: 3800 (which is in a class by itself) and 3820 (which also has its own class, and generally can include any printers attached via SDLC). The other classifications are channel-attached, SNA-attached (either via coax, twinax, or token-ring LAN), and TCP/IP-attached (via token-ring or ethernet LAN). A breakdown of terms used to classify printers follows: 1) 3800: Used exclusively for 3800-3, 3800-6, and 3800-8. These printers ---- were the first AFP devices and the ONLY ones to use CCWs to control printing and 'unbounded box' fonts. They are defined to the I/O subsystem as UNIT=3800. 2) 3820: Used primarily by the 3820 printer, and characterized by ---- SDLC attachment (although the 3820 also had an available channel-attachment feature - but with this, it was defined to the I/O subsystem as UNIT=3791L). When attached via SDLC, no I/O GEN or IOCP GEN is necessary - just proper definitions to VTAM and possibly NCP. 3) Channel-attached: Include Group 3 (CCU) and some AFCCU, as ---------------- given below: * Group 3: Printer class as defined to host PSFs (MVS, VM, and VSE). ------- Used for channel-attached high-end printers, such as the 3825, 3835-1, 3835-2, 3900-1, 3827, 3828, and 3829. Group 3 printers are also referred to as CCU printers, as the hardware control unit was based on a common design (Common Control Unit). Group 3 printers are defined to the I/O subsystem as UNIT=AFP1. Note that even newer channel-attached printers based on the AFCCU (such as the 3900-0W1, 3160, and 3900-Duplex systems) can be defined as AFP1 devices, hence a subtle correlation between Group 3 and some AFCCU - but the key is CHANNEL-ATTACHED (either parallel or ESCON). 4) SNA-attached: Includes Group 4, and also RPM, PSF/2 (DPF and Direct), ------------ and PSF/6000 (via PSF Direct) * Group 4: Printer class as defined to host PSFs (MVS, VM, and VSE). ------- Used for SNA-attached printers via coax or twinax, comms-attached via 37xx or 3x7x controllers, and most recently, communications-attached via SNA token ring LAN. Printers include 311x, 391x, 4028, 381x, 3930, 3130, and 3935. Like SDLC, SNA-attached printers are defined to the system via VTAM and (for remote attachments) NCP. NOTE: For PSF/2, this would include coax printers attached to the PSA card. 5) TCP/IP-attached: Includes all printers attached via 7913 or --------------- directly to either token-ring or ethernet LAN via TCP/IP. These are primarily Group 4 printers via 7913 and AFCCU printers via direct LAN attachment. 6) Other terms: ----------- * AFCCU (Advanced Function Common Control Unit) is used to describe all printers with controllers based on RS/6000 and Power PC technology. As these printers can handle many different attachment types, they could be considered as any of the above groups (except 3800), depending on the attachment used. 7) Device resolution: Printers are also categorized by their resolution. ----------------- IBM AFP printers today support 240, 300, and 600 pel, as follows: 240 pel: 381x, 3800, 3820, Group 3, 3160, AFCCU-based 3900 family, 3930 300 pel: 311x, 391x, 4028, 3935, PPDS and PCL5 printers (such as 40x9) 240 or 300 pel (configurable): 3130 600 pel: 3900-DR1/DR2 Last update: 1/31/96 Comments and corrections to the above are welcome and can be sent to: Gene Roose Printing Systems Technical Support VM: ROOSEG AT BLDVMB Internet: groose_jr@vnet.ibm.com