Hello!

I've just bought an Linotype Saphire Ultra Scanner, which supports
SCSI-II.
On my notebook I'm running Win XP.

What I now need is a pcmcia-adapter to run my scanner.

On the adaptec website I found out that there is a APA-1460B
scsi-adapter which costs about EUR 80,- and which is 16bit.
But there's another adapter there: the APA-1480 with costs about EUR
50,- more than the 1460 and supports 32bit.

Are there any disadvantages in speed if I'd use the APA-1460B? Will
there be any probs concerning compatibility (between WinXP and
16bit-APA-1460B)? What would you recommand me to do?

Thanks,
Sebastian

Sebastian Scholz wrote:
The 1480 is a "Cardbus" Adapter. This is the more recent PCI-like
interface for PC-Cards.

Yes, the 1460 is much slower and generates higher CPU Load.

Whether the 1480 will be a real advantage for your application depends
on the controller of the scanner (the avarage transferrate of the
scanner, not the maximum theroretically speed like 10MByte/s for a SCSI2
"fast narrow" interface).

Adaptec specify WinXP as supported for the newest versions of both
adapters (1460D and 1480B):
http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/scsi_port/
http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support...CIA/APA-1460D/
http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support...bus/APA-1480B/

As I can see, for the older versions of both adapters WinXP is not
listed as supported OS. Maybe the driver will nevertheless work for them
too.

This depends on the capabilities of your scanner. "SCSI2" is not enough
information. If the scanner can transfer more than approx. 2MByte/s than
you should use the 1480B.
Do you have a manual that specify the SCSI transfermode or better the
avarage data transferrate of the scanner?


Micha

Michael Baeuerle wrote:

Unfortunately I don't have such a document. I've been googling the
internet, too. No hits, sorry.

The scanner was built in 1989. Do these old devices really produce such
large amount of data (in such a short time period)? What I want to do is
scanning middleformat-film (6 to 6 cm) in a 600x1200 dpi resolution.

Best regards,
Sebastian

If you are talking about a "Linotype-Hell Saphir Ultra II", it is a rebadged
"Umax PowerLook III". There is a manual for it on Umax's site.

Sebastian Scholz wrote:
Maybe. The older cheap SCSI scanners are very slow but your Scanner
seems to be not one of the "cheap" ones.

1i = 2.54cm
600x1200dpi = 236x472dpcm
=> Approx. 4M Pixels in the scanning area

With 16Bit colour:
4M x 16Bit = 64MBit or 8MByte

Even the 1460 should be able to transfer this amount of data in less
than 5s.


Micha
--
http:/micha.freeshell.org

I doubt it is 1989. That would be SCSI-1, 2-3MB/s.
Nobody had enough RAM on their desktop to handle 2M pixel film scans either.

If it is 1999 and the scan time is a few secs, go for the Cardbus adapter.
Another option is a USB2 to SCSI-2 adapter.

"Sebastian Scholz" <scholz-news (AT) gmx (DOT) de> wrote