Side view of multi-layer continuous paper printer.
I have been involved with the development of a number of high speed multi-layer inkjet printers. In May 2000, a 200 feet/minute 34cm-wide 200 dpi industrial printer was demonstrated at the drupa print media messe in Duesseldorf, Germany. The inkjet printers have used MIT print heads manufactured by XAAR and a variety of digital signal processing and RISC processors. The Drupa printer was using a TMX320C6211 DSP and the image delivery system in this particular printer was operating at a bit less than 50% capacity as the print heads available in 2000/2001 only fire at 8kHz.
Later, back in Australia, the people involved in electrical engineering for the project celebrated with a dinner at the Vue de Monde restaurant in Carlton, Melbourne. In fact, the dinner itself was the first time that the engineering team had been together (image size = 480K).
My work with the development of ultra-high speed printers has this approximate timeline. I am the registered inventor for Patent Number WO011244. The cast of electrical engineering characters, some with inappropriate digital haircuts that can be such a hazard when someone else cleans up and morphs your passport-sized photograph, is now described.
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Phillip Musumeci designed the general system architecture and chose the DSP (Texas Instruments) and programmable hardware technologies (XILINX). He was a member of the core design team but had a final veto and was required to worry (often). He was responsible for much computer and electronics design (with the core team members), and finalised all PCB designs from Mark (with help from Evan). He developed the power supply electronics and associated firmware (with Simon), real-time control code for the book-on-demand system on an AVR processor (with Nathan), programmable gate array configuration for all system variants (with Evan and James), designed and developed TMS320C6x11 DSP image generation and delivery systems, designed and implemented UNIX communications server and various image generation tools on a FreeBSD platform, developed network based DSP boot loader (with Peter), and wrote or at least is blamed for various subsystem interconnection standards. Phillip enjoyed many exploratory discussions with Evan concerning font and job servers, and even internal aspects of the page design editor. He developed an almost personal relationship with the TI support engineers in Taiwan as unexpected characteristics of early TMS320C6211 DSP silicon were discovered. Phillip studied engineering at James Cook University and the Australian National University. |
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Simon Farrugia was responsible for power supply electronics and firmware (with Phillip), and was the in-house VHDL expert responsible for many experimental designs including some that we never did use but which positively affected the way we viewed system design issues. He spent two fun-filled months as a member of the core design team, often converting into VHDL the pixel processing designs created around the dining room table. Simon has a double degree in Computer Science and Engineering (honours) from RMIT University, but appears to be having too much fun in Canada with Agilent Technologies to want to study for a PhD (yet). |
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Evan Greensmith was responsible for the UNIX server tasks that generated and served fonts, managed and served printer jobs, received and logged system status and maintenance messages, and maybe other servers that he never told us about. He developed initial VHDL designs that looked after print heads (with Simon and Phillip) and contributed much advice, some unsolicited, on topics concerning JAVA applet design and server/applet communication. He was irresponsible in the area of basketball as demonstrated by the breaking of a leg, but later earnt our respect by completing a UML design of the page design editor while his leg (and its cast) was curing. He certainly wrote the most interesting Makefiles of the project, and was responsible for Musumeci household Burmese productivity unit #1, known as FATcat. When discussing technical issues with Phillip, his most common sentence construct was "On the other hand...". Evan has a double degree in Computer Science and Engineering (honours) from RMIT University, and is now studying for a PhD from the Australian National University. Some of his PhD time has overlapped with work for Biowulf, a San Francisco based Biotech startup (who appear to be with us no longer). |
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David Burn was responsible for the page design editor which took an incredible amount of engineering effort in (early) JAVA. He was always happy to argue about VHDL designs and often affected the design of system server tasks! He worked on the experimental DSP platform's boot loader using a range of technologies from AVR C to JAVA JNI code to serial flash memory. He handled enough prototype electronics tasks that we lost count, and was responsible for Musumeci household Burmese productivity unit #2, known as thinCAT. David has a double degree in Computer Science and Engineering (honours) from RMIT University but is trying to avoid Phillip's encouragement to study for a PhD while employed by Ford Australia (Ford even fund scholarships to ANU). |
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Nathan Monk worked on the real-time control code (C) for the book-on-demand system (with Phillip), and designed and implemented the first generation browser based operator GUI for this system (CGI/C and HTML). He shared the update of the page design editor (with Jason R) and also assisted in server task updates, UNIX scripting, and a range of electronic "glue circuits" to access plant sensors. Following a trip to South America, he joined Price Waterhouse Coopers as an engineering and IT consultant. He has endured PWC business training and travel in Florida and is now based in Melbourne. Nathan has a double degree in Computer Science and Engineering (honours) from RMIT University. |
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Jason Roberts did the major design and implementation of the programs controlling the image pixel dump used in the book-on-demand system, and integrated this with Nathan's GUI. He was a major force in the update of the page design editor to use Swing classes (with Nathan). He also performed some initial TINI tests (with Nathan). He works for Price Waterhouse Coopers as an engineering and IT consultant, and has completed the same gun-awareness training (and business) courses in Florida that Nathan undertook. Jason has a double degree in Computer Science and Engineering (honours) from RMIT University. |
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James Webb provided a problem shooter facility and was crucial to the completion of gate array configuration designs (especially just after Evan's leg failure forced an early retirement from the field). He was able to identify problems with our XILINX VHDL tools and then implemented the CPU-free image data buffering and print head control firmware (with Evan and Phillip, and without VHDL). He generously listened to technical and business issues, and filled a niche of glue-person as he was a general all-round good-guy liked by all members of the team! "Having access to a smart and flexible engineer, untainted by the normal day to day design issues, who can be flown in at short notice to help break bottlenecks with new ideas, is a real lifesaver" - Phillip. James has an honours degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Canberra, and was until recently studying for a PhD at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra (obviously, there is some lobbying to be done here ... again). |
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Quang Sy Dinh used his windoze expertise to reverse engineer some undocumented functions of the link between the TI DSP units and the windoze driver so that the FreeBSD based DSP loader using a parallel port link could be developed (with Duy). He also worked on a DSP loader that used a serial port, and later developed the Disk-On-Chip DSP driver for the C6211 (with Duy). He has now returned to Vietnam and is working in the telecommunications sector. Quang has an honours degree in Computer Systems Engineering from RMIT University. |
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Do Khuong Duy designed and implemented the initial parallel port DSP boot loader, which was later extended to operate over an RS422 serial link and handle multiple memory system technologies (with Quang). He worked on the Disk-On-Chip DSP driver for the bulk image storage system (with Quang). He is now in Melbourne working for BandSpeed, a telecommunications startup, using all manner of DSP and programmable hardware. Do has an honours degree in Computer Systems Engineering from RMIT University. |
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Jason Hecker assisted the team in the critical period just prior to the DRUPA trade show, focussing primarily on real-time printer image data compression and decompression code (server side and DSP). He also wrote the flash memory driver for the C6211 DSP. He has now moved to Melbourne and works for Redflex, a company that has alot to do with applying laser technology to catch us when we speed. Jason has an honours degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Canberra. |
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Peter Eccles designed and developed the second generation operator interface using Forte for JAVA. In the hardware area, he organised the testing of a revised DSP adaptor board which accommodated the changing TINI mechanical specifications, and he also debugged the new low profile shaft encoder (with Phillip)(although the circuitry to fix the shaft encoder waveforms should never have been necessary). In the UNIX networking area, he worked on the new network based DSP loader (with Phillip) and developed new network communications for the printers. He also streamlined the software installation process and supervised the first remote printer access with an encrypted SSH link to an older generation printer located in the U.K. Peter has a diploma in electronics and a degree in Software Systems Engineering from RMIT University. He is now working for Trio Communications in Melbourne, focussing on client-server systems and a GUI to handle configuration and diagnosis tasks. |
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Mark Makies did all of the 4-layer printed circuit board designs, and generally corrected any design error on the fly as he mentor-ed our circuits. He is currently a senior engineer in the School of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering at RMIT University. |
