Why is HP cutting on memory?

[TonyTheJavaTiger]

Two years ago, I bought an HP 1012. It came with 8 MB RAM. The new models now
come with 2 MB RAM. Why is that? Certainly the memory prices have not gome up
in the last 2 years. Or is it because 2 MB is so little that many users will
have to buy more and HP is planning on making its money with this upgrade?

HP LaserJet 16MB SDRAM DIMM
Price: $150.99*

<http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...s&category=laserjet&subcat1=memory&catLevel=1>

This momory doesn't seem to fit the 1020, which is claimed to replace the
1012... with 2 MB RAM. I haven't found any memory for the 1020, but $150 for
16 MB of memory nowadays looks to me like proprietary theft!

 

[Tony]

Two years ago, I bought an HP 1012. It came with 8 MB RAM. The new models now
come with 2 MB RAM. Why is that? Certainly the memory prices have not gome up
in the last 2 years. Or is it because 2 MB is so little that many users will
have to buy more and HP is planning on making its money with this upgrade?

HP LaserJet 16MB SDRAM DIMM
Price: $150.99*

<http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...s&category=laserjet&subcat1=memory&catLevel=1>

This momory doesn't seem to fit the 1020, which is claimed to replace the
1012... with 2 MB RAM. I haven't found any memory for the 1020, but $150 for
16 MB of memory nowadays looks to me like proprietary theft!

I hadn't noticed that the 1020 comes with only 2MB, however I have many
customers who use this printer and none have reported any issues that are
memory related.
The 1020 uses a host based printing system/driver which reduces the amount of
memory necessary in the printer. This involves very effective rasterizing.
This is not a plan by HP to force people to buy more memory since the 1020 can
only have 2MB of RAM, there is no upgrade possibility as far as I can see.

Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Rick Blaine]

The 1020 uses a host based printing system/driver which reduces the amount of
memory necessary in the printer. This involves very effective rasterizing.

Gak. Shades of the old 'WinPrinters' and 'WinModems'...

 

[TonyTheJavaTiger]

I hadn't noticed that the 1020 comes with only 2MB, however I have many
customers who use this printer and none have reported any issues that are
memory related.
The 1020 uses a host based printing system/driver which reduces the amount of
memory necessary in the printer.

What about the 1012? I checked the Samsung ML 2010 manual yesterday. It also
has 8 MB RAM. It says if a page comes out half printed it might be because the
layout is too complex for the RAM available and it should be simplified. Do
you believe that's because Samsung is not bright enough to use the computer's
memory?

I would rather think some complex pages with graphics require more than 2 MB
of RAM. If you've got one of those HP printers, it's just tough luck!

 

[Tony]

What about the 1012? I checked the Samsung ML 2010 manual yesterday. It also
has 8 MB RAM. It says if a page comes out half printed it might be because the
layout is too complex for the RAM available and it should be simplified. Do
you believe that's because Samsung is not bright enough to use the computer's
memory?

I would rather think some complex pages with graphics require more than 2 MB
of RAM. If you've got one of those HP printers, it's just tough luck!

I don't recall defending this printer or HP, although I surely would if I
believed they needed it. Comparing the Samsung printer to the 1022 is not
likely to be of any value, the formatter and therefore the memory subsystem
will not be the same as HP's. Why would I believe that Samsung aren't bright
enough to use the computer's memory? That was a very long bow to draw. The fact
is that HP have sold goodness knows how many of these and I have yet to hear of
a problem with them of this nature, is it possible that HP knows what they are
doing? All laser printers will balk at images that are too big for their data
storage whether it is RAM or Disc, until I hear of an actual case of this
printer having a problem I will continue to recommend it for appropriate
environments. The 1012 was, as far as I remember, not host based therefore
once more the comparison is invalid. Meanwhile it's a shame to blag a product
without any evidence.

Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

There could be a number of reasons for the decrease. I was looking at an
LJ1020 last night and noticed that it appears to be a "dumb" printer with no
(or very little) onboard intelligence. That's probably why it has less RAM.
I also noticed that it had no buttons for "stop" or "continue" (and
therefore no ability to print a test/statistics page).

The LJ1012 and 1015 are both equipped with control programs and a
microprocessor onboard--they're "smart" printers that can work with
conventional PCL output if you have a program that doesn't come with a
driver for them. I've heard that the LJ1010 (probably the closest relation
to the 1020) must have its firmware downloaded by the print driver before it
can work. After that you can treat it like the 1012 and 1015.

I've also noticed that my LJ1012 reports using about 3MB of its RAM whenever
I print off a test page. It also has a plastic cover where the parallel port
found on the 1015 would go...I wonder if that could be populated?

William

 

[TonyTheJavaTiger]

Hi!

There could be a number of reasons for the decrease. I was looking at an
LJ1020 last night and noticed that it appears to be a "dumb" printer with no
(or very little) onboard intelligence.

About 1020:

• Smoothly process documents containing text, images, and graphics with the
234MHz processor and 2MB of memory

The LJ1012 and 1015 are both equipped with control programs and a
microprocessor onboard--they're "smart" printers that can work with
conventional PCL output if you have a program that doesn't come with a
driver for them. I've heard that the LJ1010 (probably the closest relation
to the 1020) must have its firmware downloaded by the print driver before it
can work. After that you can treat it like the 1012 and 1015.

I'm not too sure about this. For Linux, it now apparently works with
GhostScript's "pxlmono" driver, but the default driver is HPIJS, an inkjet driver.

Too bad there's nobody fron HP here who could tell us more about their
formidable new line of printers.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Smoothly process documents containing text, images, and graphics
with the 234MHz processor and 2MB of memory

I couldn't be absolutely sure then. As I had mentioned, I've never seen my
own LJ1012 report using more than 3MB of its installed 8MB RAM. But I can't
be sure how much those results would reflect actual usage. They're only
available from a test page.

Or the processor could be used in a fashion similar to what Samsung is doing
with many of their low-end lasers where the print process happens partially
in GDI.

I'm not too sure about this. For Linux, it now apparently works with
GhostScript's "pxlmono" driver, but the default driver is HPIJS, an inkjet

driver.

Hmm...looks like I remembered things incorrectly. Per LinuxPrinting.org, the
LaserJet 1000/1005/1020 (!!) need to have their firmware uploaded after each
cold start.

Too bad there's nobody fron HP here who could tell us more about their
formidable new line of printers.

It would be nice to hear from someone at HP with technical information on
their printers. I did once see an article on their web site that discussed
which inkjet printers were "dumb", "partially dumb" or "smart". I won't hold
my breath, though. HP still has no comment on the B25.38 J6077a "embedded
JetDirect" firmware and why it will *ruin* the built in network interface on
an HP DeskJet 5850! (So DON'T try this!!!)

William

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Gak. Shades of the old 'WinPrinters' and 'WinModems'...

WinPrinters and WinModems are probably responsible for something over 3/4 (by
quantity) of all printers & modems sold these days. For the average user,
they work fine and save money.