Microplex M204, Руководство по установке и настройке

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8 GETTING TO KNOW THE M204: Overview of Print Server Architecture
Overview of Print Server Architecture
This section will provide an overview of how the M204 works. To better understand
how the Print Server works, it is important to understand I/O ports, destinations and
models.
I/O Ports
The M204 has four I/O ports; two parallel and two serial ports. Printers can be
attached to any or all of the four I/O ports. Each I/O port has an internal queuing
mechanism that automatically queues print jobs on a first-come, first-serve basis even
if the print jobs come from different network environments (e.g. Novell and TCP/IP).
Destinations
When you send a print job to the Print Server, the print job doesn’t go directly to an
I/O port but first goes to a destination. A destination can be thought of as logical place
on the Print Server to send print jobs. Each destination has an I/O port and a model
(see below) associated with it. The purpose of our destinations is to allow you the
ability to configure a number of different print setups on the Print Server.
There are eight pre-defined destinations on the Print Server and each of them, by
default, is associated to one of the four I/O ports on the unit (two destinations per I/O
port). By default, the destinations have names such as d1prn1, d2prn2, d3com1, etc. If
you like, any of these destination names can be changed to be something more mean-
ingful.
Models
Each destination on the unit also has a model associated with it. The eight models (one
per destination) can be thought of as a series of mini-filter that can do special process-
ing to the print job data. For example, a model can be set up to do such things as
ASCII to PostScript conversion (a2ps) or carriage return insertion (onlcr).
By default, all eight models on the Print Server are initially set up to be raw. When
raw, they simply pass data through to the I/O port untouched. By default, the models
are named m1 through to m8 but can be changed to be something more meaningful.
Models only need to be reconfigured when you want to do special processing to all the
print jobs that are sent to a particular destination.