Digital Brook Technologies, LLC

Zoran All-In-One Printer Reference Design

Zoran sells system-on-chips (SoCs) for low-cost all-in-one ink-jet systems providing print, scan, copy, fax, as well as high-quality photo printing capabilities.  A reference design was developed to allow customers to integrate Zoran's chips into their products faster with less effort.  The reference design was used as the base platform for several major printing products from HP, Epson, Lexmark, and Samsung.

Several new features were introduced into the system, including:  printing from all major memory card formats, including photos and video; PictBridge support, high speed scanning and copying; TCP/IP network support; graphical front panel interface.  PCBs and BSPs were designed and developed for each new SoC and its unique capabilities.  Testing software was also developed for post-silicon verification.

GCC ColorTone Photo-Realistic Dye-Sublimation Printer

The GCC ColorTone printer was one of the first PostScript-based photo-realistic dye-sublimation printers available on the market in 1992.

This project involved architecting the entire product from conception to maintenance.  This was the first project of its type developed at GCC Technologies, so everything had to start from scratch:  selecting the processor; selecting the development tools; selecting the PostScript interpreter; creating the RTOS (no off-the-shelf solutions at that time); developing embedded software for AppleTalk, EtherTalk, TCP/IP, RS-232, SCSI, and Centronics Parallel; print engine control, page management, and error handling; color management training and software; front panel interface; AMD 29050-based PCB with burst-mode DRAM; BSP software; plastic cover and mechanical design.

The technology developed for the ColorTone printer became the base platform for all GCC printers introduced over the next 10 years, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

GCC Elite XL Family of Laser Printers

The GCC Elite XL printer line provided edge-to-edge 11x17 printing capability in resolutions ranging from 400dpi to 1200dpi, from 8 to 16 pages per minute, using AMD 29030 and 29035 RISC processors.

Based on the technology developed during the GCC ColorTone project, the Elite XL was the first printer to feature an integrated web server for printer management (1994).  An optimized set of PCBs were developed to provide both low-cost and high-performance solutions at a variety of clock frequencies and embedded software was created to handle high-speed, multi-page management and error recovery.