Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!perry
From: perry@madnix.UUCP (Perry Kivolowitz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: need driver for Epson ES 300C scanner
Summary: Questions About Relative Speed SCSI/Parallel
Message-ID: <1862@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jun 91 17:07:26 GMT
References: <1991May20.224005.4938@smsc.sony.com> <48350001@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com>
Reply-To: perry@madnix.UUCP (Perry Kivolowitz)
Organization: ASDG Incorporated
Lines: 52

In article <48350001@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com> brians@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com (Brian Sullivan) writes:
>One question about the ES-300C interface.  Are you planning on
>providing a SCSI interface in the future.  One advantage that the
>Epson color scanners have is the ability to transfer data using
>the SCSI port.  I haven't used the Epson scanner yet but I belive
>that the transfer time using the parallel port is substantial.
>With SCSI one should be able to do a full color scan at 300 dpi
>much faster than is currebtly possible.  

We evaluated the SCSI controller available for the EPSON scanner. We found
that all it adds to the party is an additional $500 in list price. The scanner
is the limiting factor when it comes to speed, not the interface to the 
computer. Therefore, our parallel implementation runs as fast as a SCSI
implementation would, costs less both in terms of the SCSI controller for
the scanner and also one for your computer, and can be used on all Amigas
even without any expansion cards (ie: all Amigas have parallel ports).

> 8 1/2 by 11 inches times 300 dpi times 300 dpi using 24 bits
>per pixel is 23 MegaBytes per full page.

That's true. It is very *very* rare that anyone doing personal computer
based publishing will want or need this much resolution, however.

>Hopefully your software will be able to handle such large images
>in the future.  Right now I believe that an image must entirely
>fit into RAM before one can perform any image-processing operations
>on the data.  Is this correct?

This is correct. Currently. This is subject to future change, however.

Note that our second generation of scanner controllers come with two
scanner controllers on each disk. The first is an ADPro scanner controller
which allows the scanner to be run from directly within ADPro (even by
ARexx). 

The second program included is a stand-alone scanner controller which 
provides exactly the same user interface (as the ADPro module) but does
not require ADPro. This program scans directly to disk and therefore is
DISK limited - NOT memory limited.

This can be an invaluable tool for those who do require the large
scans (and can use them because their DTP software might do separations
from disk, not memory) or for those people who might be running two
dozen other applications when they happen to want to scan and don't
have enough other memory left over to run ADPro.

pk

-- 
Perry Kivolowitz, ASDG Inc. ``We look for things. Things that make us go.''
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