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PostScript Cartridge for HP LaserJet

2022-12-24 by Michael Steil

We have recently dissected and dumped the Level 2 "Plus" version of
HP's PostScript cartridge series. This time, we will look at the
earlier Level 1 "PostScript Cartridge".

[postscript_cartridge_case]

Article Series

There are two cartridges for the HP LaserJet series that add Adobe
PostScript support. They differ in the PostScript Level:

Year                   Name                       Description
1991 HP LaserJet PostScript Cartridge          PostScript Level 1
1991 HP LaserJet III PostScript Cartridge Plus PostScript Level 2

Note that the article on the Level 2 "Plus" cartridge is the main
one. This article only describes the differences of the Level 1
cartridge to the Level 2 cartridge.

Cartridge

The cartridge is about 9x14 cm in size.

[postscript_cartridge_case_front][postscript_cartridge_case_back]

The front says

    HEWLETT PACKARD

    PostScript* Cartridge

    ITC Avant Garde Gothic
    ITC Bookman
    Courier
    Helvetica
    Helvetica-Narrow
    New Century Schoolbook
    Palatino
    Times
    ITC Zapf Chancery
    TIC Zapf Dingbats*
    Symbol
    33439Q (c)Hewlett-Packard 1989, 1990, 1991

    HP
    LASERJET
    POSTSCRIPT(r)

The back says

    Adobe and PostScript are registered trademark of Adobe Systems
    Incorporated in the U.S, and other countries. Helvetica, Palatino
    and
    Times Roman are registered trademarks of Linotype AG and/
    or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. IT Avant
    Garde
    Gothic, ITC Bookman, ITC Zapf Chancery and ITC Zapf Dingbats are
    registered trademarks of International Typeface Corporation in
    the
    U.S. and other countries.

Board

This is the very same board as used by the later "Plus" cartridge,
except that it is fitted with only three instead of four ROM chips:

[postscript_cartridge_board_front]

The ROM chips are:

  * two 512 KB Toshiba TC534200P mask ROM chips
  * one 512 KB Toshiba TC574200D-150 EPROM

Both types conform to the 27C400 pinout. The mask ROMs are marked
with

    (c) 1989-90 HP BOISE
    (c) 1984-90 ADOBE
    (c) 1981 LINOTYPE

and the EPROM is marked with

    (c) 1986-91 HP BOISE
    (c) 1984-91 Adobe
    (c) 1981 Linotype AG

ROM

These are the verbatim dumps (adjacent bytes are swapped):

  * 1818-4788, MD5 e2d740f3b15bfdf837b9385490e8dafd
  * 1818-4789, MD5 1fe13fabb47f0719b9a840df8e5844e6
  * 33439-60115, MD5 520d4f2e0ccf7f143fcdbe62f31792a2

This is the combined (byte-swapped) 1.5 MB ROM image:

HP PostScript Cartridge 33439Q ROM, MD5
929ba4050a8a48c3ed4761c3f9267837

The ROM image starts with a signature of "SYST" and the following
messages at 0x30:

    C V6.20 PSCRIPT
    06.20
    Copyright (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 1991. All rights reserved.

(This part comes from the EEPROM.)

Just like the "Plus" cartridge, the ROM contains Adobe's PostScript
rasterizer (level 1 in this case) compiled for the 68000 CPU, the
PostScript base fonts as well as some LaserJet-specific software
(messages, errors and settings texts for the 15 char display in
several languages).

PostScript Files

Like in the "Plus" cartridge, there is some PostScript source code in
the ROMs:

  * fontpage.ps
  * test_page.ps
  * startup_page.ps

(The missing %! file header has been added to the downloads.)

FONTPAGE

"FONTPAGE" is identical to the file in the "Plus" cartridge, see
there.

TEST PAGE

"TEST PAGE" prints various internal printer settings which are
unsupported by computer-based PostScript rasterizers, so the file has
been patched to work with the the macOS 12.6 PSNormalizer.framework
rasterizer (based on Adobe Acrobat Distiller 5.0):

  * test_page_apple.ps
  * test_page_apple.pdf

[test_page_apple]

STARTUP PAGE

  * startup_page.ps
  * startup_page.pdf

[startup_page]

Manuals and Extras

[postscript_cartridge_users_g] [postscript_cartridge_applica]
[postscript_cartridge_licens] [postscript_cartridge_smar]
[postscript_ca]

Future Work

Are there versions of this cartridge with different EPROM contents?

Categories Archeology, PostScript Post navigation
Scanntronik Manuals

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