Model MP150 Wide Carriage Printer

The all new Model MP150 printer from MicroPeripherals, Inc. is the latest addition to their matrix printer line. It is the first of a series of wide carriage units designed specifically for mini and micro business systems.

The heavy duty printhead is rated for continuous duty and has an expected lifetime of over 100,000,000 characters. It forms characters bidirectionally in a logic seeking mode to optimize system thruput. Nine ballistically driven print wires form crisp, clear characters with true descenders and underlining capability. It can print a full 136 character line at 10 characters per inch or, by selecting either the 12 or 16.7 character per inch density, up to 226 columns may be printed. This allows full 136 column printouts to be condensed to fit on standard 8.5 inch wide paper. Double wide characters can be software selected in any of the character densities to give a total of six different CPI densities.

A 7×9 matrix font is used for high speed data printing while an 11×9 serif style matrix font is used for applications requiring a high quality correspondence printout. A standard 96 character USASCII set with four strap selectable foreign fonts are standard in each unit. Special fonts may be either down-line loaded into RAM memory, or permanently located in ROM memory.

High resolution dot addressable graphics capability is included for those applications requiring plotting, printing of screen graphics, drawing of illustrations, and producing special characters or identification marks. Alphanumerics may be overprinted into the graphics area for labeling of graphs and illustrations.

Forms handling is implemented with a stepper motor drive tractor paper feed system which can be adjusted to accept forms ranging from 3 inches to 15 inches in width. Eight selectable forms lengths and a Skip-Over-Perforation feature provide for the precise paper handling required for business applications.

All printing and interface functions are placed under the direct control of a microprocessor array. The standard 1K buffer can be expanded to 8K for applications requiring additional character buffering. A Centronics type interface can accept parallel TTL level data at a transfer rate in excess of 1000 characters per second using either a Strobe/Ack or a Strobe/Busy handshake. An optional RS232C serial interface can be added and will accept data at any one of seven strapable baud rates up to 9600. Both X-ON/X-OFF and ETX/STX protocols are supported by the optional serial interface. The MP150 can also be interfaced to devices with an IEEE 488 Bus output through an optional IEEE-to-Centronics interface adapter card.

A long life mobius loop cartridge ribbon provides a minimum life of eight million characters.

An optional front console panel can be added to give greater flexibility in changing the print format parameters. It includes a non-volatile memory to store the format parameters for over three months without power.

The printer measures 23 inches wide by 16 inches deep by 7.5 inches high and allows for front, bottom or rear paper entry. It is designed to allow easy access to the electronic and mechanical components for simplicity of servicing.

The MP150 Printer, complete with graphics capability lists for $1095 with substantial discounts available for OEM quantities.

For additional information, contact:

Frank W. Irvin
Vice President, Marketing MPI
4426 South Century Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84107
(801)263-3081