Printers
EARS
The EARS printer was developed in 19721 by the combined efforts of Gary Starkweather, Butler Lampson and Ronald Rider. Gary Starkweather had developed his own working laser printer in 1971, that was called SLOT (Scanned Laser Output Terminal). One year later, Butler Lampson and Ronald Rider developed the digital control system and character generator for the printer. The result of their work was the EARS printer. EARS stands for "Ethernet, Alto, Research character generator, Scanned laser output terminal." Their EARS printer was build to work with the Alto computer system network. Eventually their efforts turned into the Xerox 9700. Which was introduced in 1977.2
IBM 3800
The IBM 3800 was commercially available in 1976, one year before the Xerox 9700. Therefore it was the first continuous forms laser printer and the first laser printer manufactured by IBM. Originally it was capable of a print resolution of 144 pixels per inch vertically and 180 pixels per inch horizontally. Furthermore it could print at 10'020 to 20'040 lines per minute depending on line density.3