In 1978, Hitachi began shipments of their H-8192/8196-20 printers, which used an independently developed printer mechanism and had a printing speed of 7000line/min. In the following year, 1979, Hitachi shipped their H-8192/8196-30 printers which had a printing speed of 15200line/min, the highest in the world at that time.
In 1981, kanji (Chinese character) processing could only be done with large systems, and there was a growing need to realize such processing on small and mid-size systems. In that year, Hitachi began shipments of the H-8172 printer, with a printing speed of 2730line/min. This printer had a software interface compatible with high-end models, and improved cost performance.
| H-8192/8196-20 | H-8192/8196-30 | H-8172 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printing system | Laser-based xerography | ||
| Printing speed (at 8LPI) | 7000line/min | 15200line/min | 2730line/min |
| Character size | 7,9,12 and 14 point, and the corresponding half-size characters | ||
| Paper width | 6.5–16inch | ||
| Paper length | 3.5–14inch | ||
| Resolution | 240dpi | ||
| Shipment date | May 1978 | July 1979 | January 1981 |
