Patent ID: 7798609

Claim:
A printer comprising: a printhead cartridge having a printhead and an ink supply for supplying ink to the printhead, the printhead including a series of ink ejection integrated circuits (ICs) that are complementarily engaged together, each IC including spaced apart groups of nozzles configured to eject respective types of ink, the nozzles in each group being arranged to form staggered rows; a cradle unit which complementarily engages with the printhead cartridge and has a media transport mechanism for transporting print media past the printhead; and a media supply cartridge configured to supply the media to the cradle unit, wherein the printhead cartridge includes a quality assurance (QA) IC which defines technical compatibility between the printhead cartridge and the cradle unit, the QA IC being configured to track usage of the nozzles, the number of prints that have been performed by the printhead cartridge and the amount of ink remaining in the ink supply so that the printhead cartridge can be used by a predetermined usage model to limit the use-lifetime of the printhead cartridge.