Customer Gallery - Printers and Scanners

Designed Into Printers and Scanners

Tensilica's Xtensa processors have been designed into printers and scanners from major manufacturers, including HP and Epson. This recent flurry of design-in activity is indicative of a major shift going on in the printer market. Image processing has shifted from the PC to the printer as host-less printing, direct from camera, has become a popular option. Multiple Xtensa processors are used, often throughout the entire processing chain.

Often multiple customized Xtensa processors are used throughout the printer architecture.

Xtensa processors let printer companies have a programmable platform used in dozens of printer models. Xtensa processors have been designed into:

• HP Laserjet color and b&w printers by Tensilica licensee Marvell
• HP Multifunction printers
• HP Scanjet 8200c scanners by Tensilica licensee Avision
• Epson inkjet printers
• Alps dye sublimation photo printers

HP Laserjet Printers

HP Laserjet color and b&w printers by Tensilica licensee Marvell - originally Agilent in 2002, then Avago, now Marvel. These are some of the printers that use Xtensa processors:

HP Laserjet 1018	HP Laserjet 1020
HP 1022 & HP 1022N	HP Color Laserjet 2600n
HP Laserjet P1005	HP Laserjet P1006

 

HP Multifunction Printers

Xtensa processors are inside HP's LaserJet M1005 MFP, a 14-ppm b&w printer that also scans and copies.

HP Scanners

HP Scanjet 8200c scanners by Tensilica licensee Avision. “We picked Tensilica’s Xtensa processor because we liked the speed, low power and off-the-shelf development tools,�? stated Charlie Chou, Vice President of Avision Inc. “Rather than implement the entire image processing algorithm set in traditional hardwired RTL datapath, we extended the processor with additional instructions that gave us excellent performance and required much less design time and fewer engineers. Xtensa helped us achieve rapid success in the development of the critical image processing chip.�?

HP8200c	HP8250c

 

Epson Ink Jet Printers

 

Multiple Xtensa LX processors are used in Epson's latest photo-capable inkjet printers and multifunction printers (MFPs), including the newly announced Colorio PM series MFPs. Epson's engineers added TIE instructions to customize different Xtensa LX processors, each for a unique step in the inkjet image processing chain. By utilizing unique features of the Xtensa LX processor, which allow direct high-speed data communication between the processors and thereby avoid the time delays of bus-based data traffic, Epson's engineers were able to reduce the time required to print a single page to less than a third of that required by previous generation inkjet printers. These new printers can print borderless 4x6 photos as fast as the highest printing speed for black and white text. See press release.

Here are the models with the new-generation REALOID chip:

 

PM-T990 (Japan only)	PM-A970 (Japan only)
PM-D870 (In Japan) Epson Stylus Photo R380 (In US)	PM-A920 (Japan only)

Alps Dye Sublimation Photo Printers

 

 

Alps uses the Xtensa processor in a number of dye sublimation photo printers that are OEM'd to leading US and Japanese camera makers