(1) (Minolta-QMS, Inc., Mobile, AL) A manufacturer of laser printers founded in 1977 by Jim Busby. Initially involved with controllers for printing barcodes and labels, it entered the laser printer business in the mid-1980s and set numerous records. QMS pioneered PostScript along with Apple and introduced the first auto switching printer and the first Kanji color laser printer. It was also the first to sell a laser printer for under $2,000 in 1985 and a color laser printer for under $1,300 in 1998.
In 1998, QMS was acquired by Minolta and changed its name to Minolta-QMS. In 2003, the Minolta Company merged with Konica Corporation, suppressing the QMS moniker in the resulting entity that became known as Konica Minolta Printing Solutions U.S.A., Inc.
(2) (
Queue
Management
Services) Also called "Q-server." A printing protocol from Novell that provides print services and runs as an NLM on NetWare file servers. The client part runs under Windows, OS/2 and the Mac, and it uses the NetWare bindery or NDS to find the queues. QMS code has been embedded in millions of print servers in order to provide printer connectivity to NetWare file servers. QMS has been superseded by NDPS. See
NDPS.
(3) (
Quality
Management
System) A system that ensures that a manufacturing process or service is performed at a quality level. See
TQM and
ISO 9000.