San Jose-based Chips & Technologies Inc has come out with a universal input-output controller with a parallel port to accelerate printing under Microsoft Corp Windows and other graphic user interfaces: called the 82C735, the controller looks after the printing with Printgine, an enhanced bi-directional parallel port interface that can transfer data at a rate claimed to be 100 times faster than existing systems, sending up to 2M-bytes per second of data to printers, scanners, local area networks, tape back-up systems and other peripherals connected to a parallel port. It does this by implementing protocol commands in hardware and significantly reducing the number of CPU instructions needed to send one byte to the printer. AT, EISA and Micro Channel bus-compatible, it integrates Printgine parallel port, floppy disk interface, Intelligent Disk Interface control logic, two industry-standard universal asynchronous receiver-transmitters and a PS/2 mouse port. With Fast Centronics, it runs at 200K-bytes per second, and the full speed is achieved with Microsoft Enhanced Capabilities Protocol and Enhanced Parallel Port. Samples will be available in April with volumes set for summer, it is under $11 in OEM quantities.
