High-Speed Line Printer (LP1000)

As computer systems improved in performance and capacity, line printers became key devices for producing hard copies of large amounts of data. Thus, a pressing need to reduce printer prices and increase printing speed arose. In 1974, the Electrical Communication Laboratories (ECL) of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (now NTT) achieved a high-speed line printer capable of 1,000 lines/min (with 126 character types) as part of its DIPS-1 project. This work was based on the results of basic research on impact printing technology, which started around 1968.