10 Facts About Apple LaserWriter

In combination with WYSIWYG publishing software like PageMaker, that operated on top of the graphical user interface of Macintosh computers, the Apple LaserWriter was a key component at the beginning of the desktop publishing revolution.

Steve Jobs of Apple LaserWriter Computer had seen the LPB-CX while negotiating for supplies of 3.

However, the LaserWriter featured AppleTalk support that allowed the printer to be shared among as many as sixteen Macs, meaning that its per-user price could fall to under $450, far less expensive than HP's less-advanced model.

At the time, Apple planned to release a suite of AppleTalk products as part of the Macintosh Office, with the LaserWriter being only the first component.

For implementation purposes, the Apple LaserWriter employed a small number of medium-scale-integration Monolithic Memories PALs, and no custom LSI, whereas the LaserJet employed a large number of small-scale-integration Texas Instruments 74-Series gates, and one custom LSI.

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The Apple LaserWriter was, thereby, in the same form factor, able to provide much greater function, and, indeed, much greater performance, all within the very same LBP-CX form factor, although the external packaging was, for marketing purposes, somewhat different.

Since the cost of a Apple LaserWriter was several times that of a dot-matrix impact printer, some means to share the printer with several Macs was desired.

The Apple LaserWriter offered a generally faithful proofing tool for preparing documents for quantity publication, and could print smaller quantities directly.

Apple LaserWriter's RIP was of its own design, and was implemented using few ICs, including PALs for most combinatorial logic; with the subsystem timing DRAM refreshing, and rasterization functions being implemented in very few medium-scale-integration PALs.

In 1988, to address the need for both an affordable printer and a professional printer, the Apple LaserWriter II was designed to allow for complete replacement of the computer circuit board that operates the printer.