IBM 3800  The IBM 3800 is a discontinued continuous forms laser printer designed and manufactured by IBM. It is significant as a product because it was both the first laser printer manufactured by IBM, and the first commercially available continuous forms laser printer. The IBM 3800 was developed and manufactured in San Jose, California. Production was transferred to Tucson, Arizona in 1980. It was also manufactured in Järfälla, Sweden. The 3800 was initially positioned as a line printer replacement with additional features. Besides the much greater speed, enhancements over the line printer included:  Later the 3800 family supported Advanced Function Presentation (AFP), a page description language with features similar to Xerox Corporation's Interpress or Adobe Systems' Postscript. The 3800 attached to a mainframe system via a parallel (Bus and Tag) channel. Support for two channels was available as an option. It was replaced by the IBM 3900, announced in 1990, and discontinued in 1999. Development began in 1969 using a project code name of Jubilee. Later, the code name was changed to Argonaut. IBM did not, however, have a xerographic printer to base the Jubilee on (all printers up to this point were chain printers). This meant prototyping used an IBM Copier I which was not capable of anywhere near the product goal of 1 million pages per month. Therefore, dramatic developments were required in areas such as: paper path handling, lasers and optics, toner fusion and control electronics. There is some dispute whether the IBM 3800 was the first commercially available laser printer or whether this distinction should be held by the Xerox 9700. The IBM 3800 first shipped in 1976 while the Xerox 9700 shipped in 1977. Another distinction between the two products is that the Xerox 9700 was a cut-sheet laser printer, while the IBM 3800 used continuous forms. There were several models of the IBM 3800 Laser Printer. The model 001 was announced on April 15, 1975, and first shipped July 1976. It had a print resolution of 144 pels per inch (or dots per inch, pels are print elements) vertically and 180 pels per inch horizontally. It could print at 10,020 to 20,040 lines per minute depending on line density (which could range from 6 to 12 lines per inch). The model 002 was announced in 1979. It was a model 001 printer that had been modified to allow it to print kanji characters. The model 003 was announced November 1, 1982, and, at a speed of 215 impressions per minute, it was the fastest printer of its time.