Chapter 194: It can only be seen on the monitor, not counting (3k)
The two were delighted when they heard this. Gao Zhendong’s words had an obvious meaning. I don’t do this myself, the computing institute does it.
The first achievement must be Gao Zhendong's, but what Gao Zhendong calls "new things" must be something that has never been done before, so it's no different.
I didn’t see that JP-59 and XS-59 were not called new things.
Although these two peripherals are new concepts, because one was modified by Gao Zhendong using a television and the other was modified by Gao Zhendong using a typewriter, Gao Zhendong directly called it "renovation". .
Although the people at the computing center thought it was too wasteful, the inventors themselves didn't care, and they were really embarrassed to propose it as a new thing.
Now, there is one thing that Gao Zhendong calls "new", so it must be the same, let's do it.
The two of them didn’t ask what it was, and Director Li said: “Qian, tell me how to do it specifically!”
This is very real.
Gao Zhendong smiled and said: "Let's get a printer. We already have an editing environment. It can't be justified without a printer, haha."
"Printer?" Li and Chi had a concept of this thing but were not very clear about it. The concept of printers has been around for a long time, but it was relatively late to become practical on a large scale, especially in China.
“Yes, it is a machine that prints the files we edited on paper. Because it is a bit similar to a typewriter, I call it a printer. After all, the files we edited can only be viewed on the monitor. Yeah, it’s not very convenient, and it’s not widely used.”
After saying this, the two of them understood and immediately became interested.
Director Li smiled and said: "Hey, this thing is interesting. You can print out the documents we compiled immediately, so that the Chinese editing environment will be more useful."
Chi The chief engineer also smiled and said: "Director Gao really wants to be ahead. We always feel that the Chinese editing environment seems to be missing something. With this, we feel that it is a complete editing environment. Editing documents, printing documents, etc. are missing. Not even one. ”
After saying that, the two said to Gao Zhendong: "Director Gao, let's go to the conference room. We'll call a few key people. You can explain your ideas to us and lead us to a big project, haha."
Gao Zhendong thought to himself, what kind of big project is this? The conditions are not mature yet. When the conditions mature, I will take you to make a real big project.
The three of them chatted and laughed and hurried to the conference room of the computing office. On the way, Director Li called the people in the office to quickly move over to several relevant key personnel.
The three of them sat down in the conference room. Not long after, several key people who had received the notice also rushed over.
Although Gao Zhendong basically knew each other, Director Li still explained: "Director Gao, these are the comrades who worked with you on keyboards in our institute not long ago. Didn't you say this thing is similar to a typewriter? , they are more experienced.”
Gao Zhendong smiled and said: "Okay, the computing department is still strong. By the way, Director Li, please call over the comrades who make the monitor. In terms of driving, this thing is actually more similar to a monitor."
Manager Chi suddenly realized that this is an output device, not an input device. If it is similar to a typewriter in terms of "typing", then in terms of its relationship with a computer, this thing is actually more like a monitor.
He turned his head and asked the comrade who had just come over to do the keyboard to call someone immediately.
Not long after, the comrades who made the display arrived.
Seeing that everyone was here, Gao Zhendong gave a general introduction to his ideas about the printer.
After listening to Gao Zhendong's introduction, everyone felt that this device was indeed a good helper for the Chinese editing environment. Otherwise, they would always feel that the compiled files were of no use, and they could not be used just to show the contents of the files to people who do not have computers. Carry the DJS-59 everywhere.
Seeing that everyone understood what he meant, Gao Zhendong began to explain the main components of the printer one by one.
Although I was not a printer in my previous life, I still know the basic components of a printer. Maybe the terminology of each component is different from the previous life, but the meaning is the same.
I invented it and I have the final say on what to call it.
What Gao Zhendong wants to do is a dot matrix printer. Other common technologies such as inkjet, laser, sublimation, and thermal all have shortcomings of one kind or another.
Inkjet is easy to block, and it is also difficult to process the nozzle under the current conditions.
The first laser has not yet been born, it is still a few months away.
Let’s not talk about thermal technology for now. Just the characteristic of disappearing at any time is destined to be impossible for the first printer. The scope of application is too narrow.
Let’s not talk about anything else about sublimation, just two words: cost.
And another advantage of the dot matrix printer is that it can print copy paper, which is very useful for the office habits of this era. Even in the future, one of the main reasons why the pin type has not been eliminated is that it is used for bill printing. In fact, the receipt it prints is still carbon paper, but it uses technology such as microcapsulation to make the carbon paper sandwiched in the middle onto the paper.
If you are printing on paper media and do not have high requirements for image printing, there is no doubt that dot matrix printers are the most suitable in this era.
Gao Zhendong introduced several parts of the printer to everyone.
The printing system includes a series of mechanisms such as print heads and color-developing materials.
Positioning control, including positioning control of the print head and paper.
The paper feeding system can at least achieve automatic paper feeding for single-sided printing.
The control circuit is responsible for communication with the computer and control of each subsystem. In fact, part of this is included in the above systems.
Everyone wrote it down one by one. Gao Zhendong did not directly give the design, but guided everyone to discuss the core function at the beginning: the printing system.
Obviously, everyone has practical experience with typewriters and keyboards. Some comrades directly expressed confusion: "Director Gao, you said that you are going to use a principle similar to that of a typewriter and use ribbons to develop colors, but English letters Adding punctuation marks, just a few dozen fonts can solve the problem, but there are thousands of commonly used Chinese characters. Should we put all these fonts into the printer? "
This is the principle of a typewriter? , each key is connected to the font through a connecting rod. Whichever key is pressed, which letter will be typed. There is basically a mechanical connection between the keys and the fonts, corresponding one to one.
This also leads to an interesting anecdote. Some people can judge which of several acquaintances typed the letter by the strength of the typewriter font hitting the paper.
This method is obviously inappropriate when applied to Chinese. There is a Chinese character typewriter with this principle. However, the structure and use of that thing are a bit difficult to describe. At the same time, many characters are not available, and the font size Fixed and cannot be changed.
Think about how frustrating it is for a typist to search for the required words in about 2,500 typefaces. To be honest, that thing is better called a movable type printing machine than a typewriter.
Hearing his question, another comrade said: "That's unlikely. I've seen that thing before. It's barely usable, but it's far from universal. Could it be using Chinese Pinyin?"
Everyone knows that Gao Zhendong likes to make universal things.
Director Li smiled and said: "If that's the case, Director Gao probably wouldn't have brought it up, it's meaningless."
Chief Engineer Chi thought more deeply: "Director Gao, are you using strokes? ”
Chinese strokes are limited, and some people have indeed thought of this method.
But it was not successful. The reason is that the same stroke of a Chinese character looks completely different in different characters. The angle, position, inclination, bending angle, etc. are all different. After forcibly piecing it together, the final typed words were simply unreadable.
Gao Zhendong shook his head and said with a smile: "No, what I am talking about is the principle of using a typewriter. What I mean more is that color development is based on the principle of a typewriter. By tapping the ribbon in a certain way, the color is printed on the paper. But for the printing part, there is only one print head, and its principle is actually more similar to something else.”
Manager Chi remembered what Gao Zhendong said just now, the printer driver is more similar to a monitor!
He suddenly realized: "I understand, Director Gao, you want to use a dot matrix to print Chinese characters! No wonder you just said that the printer driver is more similar to a monitor!"
Now everyone understands Come here, such a simple truth, why didn’t you think of it just now!
As soon as the window paper was pierced, everyone couldn't help but admire Director Gao's brilliant mind, which solved the problem of ever-changing Chinese character shapes.
You come from multiple ways, and I go all the way. No matter how many fonts you have, a 16*16 dot matrix print head can solve the problem.
Despite the excitement, some comrades still felt that something was not right.
"Director Gao, even if you use a 16*16 dot matrix, there is still a problem. There are 256 needles in total. Such a print head should be very difficult to manufacture and control. The technical risk is very high. "
Gao Zhendong smiled: "This is a good question. You have thought deeply about it. However, you don't need as many needles as 16*16. For example, only one column of 16*1 is enough, and the horizontal shift is 16. Just print them separately. If you think the number of traverses is too much, just increase the number of columns to achieve a balance."
As soon as this was said, the comrade who asked the question patted his head: "Hey, yes. I thought too much, but not enough.”
Chief Engineer Chi, who had thought of this question just now, secretly wiped a cold sweat in his heart. It was so dangerous that he almost asked it.
However, he still raised his own question: "Then the requirements for the positioning accuracy of the paper and the print head are relatively high."
Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, but at the appropriate sacrifice of printing accuracy, lowering the Under the premise of the dot density per unit size, the current domestic motor accuracy, and the fact that we mainly focus on character printing, it is basically enough.”
The comrades present thought for a while. It seems to be the case. Although there is no clear parameter support yet, according to Director Gao's plan, it only requires sub-millimeter level control accuracy, which is not difficult at present.
(End of this chapter)