What does a Scalable RIP distribution look like?

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; and to Harlequin Core but not Harlequin MultiRIP

Scalable RIP functionality is delivered as part of HHR (from v12.1r0). No installer changes are required.
Scalable RIP requires a special license for the controlling RIP and licenses for each farm RIP are needed. No distinction is being made between single machine capability and multiple machine capability.
When installing HHR you are in effect installing Scalable RIP capability. For a multiple machine install of the Scalable RIP, you will typically install HHR on each machine; however, you could centralize your install, but that is up to you to configure). This means there are no installer differences between the central blade controller and satellite blades. It also means all machines have everything installed to be either the central blade controller or a satellite blade. Configuration of the Scalable RIP will be done manually, basically editing a small number of configuration files.
An integration library libripfarm provides a dynamic link library and header files. This library is designed for you to be able to integrate the Harlequin Scalable RIP into your own applications. It provides functions to configure, start and stop the Harlequin RIP, send jobs to the Scalable RIP and manage them, manage raster output, and event-driven callbacks to provide information about processes happening within the Scalable RIP.
A command-driven test tool is provided for you to enable experimentation and evaluation of the Scalable RIP; it also provides a simple example of how to integrate the Scalable RIP into a process using the libripfarm library. The Scalable RIP test tool is provided as a pre-built binary object and also as source code. See Installation and file structure for details of the bin.ripfarmtesttool and lib/ripfarm directories in the SDK.
A new API for raster output backends communicates raster metadata to the Scalable RIP. The SDK's TIFF raster backends have been extended to show how to test for and use this API. You should use this API in your own raster output backend if you want to use the Scalable RIP's Raster Manager to collate raster metadata from the multiple farm RIP processes. The Raster Manager provides a collated queue for requesting metadata delivery and indicating final handling of rasters by your digital backend code.

• A pre-built binary for the Scalable RIP diagnostics tool logs and prints messages between your component using libripfarm and the Scalable RIP, and also internal messages between Scalable RIP components.
NOTE: This tool is intended for debugging; it is not a performance monitor or an output capture tool.

A pre-built binary for the Scalable RIP raster test tool simulates a digital backend component by: Sending and receiving the messages required to interface with the Scalable RIP's Raster Manager, and Providing textual output of the rasters available, along with their metadata delivery to the raster test tool, and their handling by the raster test tool.