Hottest item in IBM’s Tuesday announcement turned out to be the successor to the venerable 3800 laser printer – the giant beast that prints most people’s bank statements in the UK. Billed as the highest-speed printer IBM has ever announced, the 3900 non-impact continuous-forms printer that provides all-points addressable printing at speeds up to 229 impressions per minute and up to 5.6m standard 8.5 forms per month. The 3900 is planned for limited availability in the second quarter of 1991 and general availability in the third for $289,500. It is accompanied by new functions for Advanced Function Printing including a new version of Print Services Facility for MVS, VM and VSE: the program that accepts application program data and prints it (optionally merged with image, graphics, or overlays) on IBM printers that span speeds from three to 229 impressions per minute.
