[LargeFormat] Microtek scanners.

[Michael Briggs]

On 20-Jan-02 Les Newcomer wrote:
> With the new computer I've lost the inate ability to use scsi. My impression
> is that USB while faster than the old serial port isn't anywhere near as
> fast as scsi, firewire on the other hand is the replacement for scsi. Or at
> least fighting it out swith scsi fast, scsi wide, etc.

USB 1.1, which is what most existing computers have, is slow compared to SCSI
or firewire.   USB 2.0 is almost as fast as firewire.   For most existing
computers you will have to buy a USB 2.0 or fireware card to have the hardware
connection, then load the software driver.  The big companies are fighting
about which technology will dominate.  My impression is that firewire is 
somewhat better.  The compananies that make scanners are dropping SCSI because
they know that many of their potential customers will not open their computer
to install a SCSI card.  I can't say I blame the customers after the great
difficulties I had with PnP in Windows 95. It will be a while before USB 2 or
firewire helps the scanner companies, because most customers will have
to add a card to have one of those connections.  I think that some scanners
designed for USB 2 will fallback to USB 1.1--this might be an option if you
don't want to spend for a card and don't mind the slow transfer.

--Michael