Re: Parallel driver for umax under linux

Jonathan Buzzard (jab@hex.prestel.co.uk)
Fri, 23 Jan 1998 17:20:16 +0000

Oliver.Rauch@Wolfsburg.DE said:
> Sorry, we don't have any informations about the parallel-scanners of
> umax. Try to get the docs, if you have them I will write a driver!

An interesting bit of info I have just got from Umax below. Frankly it makes
me laugh that Umax think they have something special in their parallel
scanner interface. Even a modest amount of proding around in the driver
(like loading udepp16.dll into a binary editor), clearly shows that they
are doing parallel-to-SCSI. They may have cut some of the fluff from the
SCSI protocol, and introduced compression, but this is definatly not
rocket science stuff or worth protecting with NDA's.

: However, as in the early days of SCSI scanners, UMAX have developed a
: number of technologies unique to the parallel interface that increase
: the data throughput, address compatibility issues etc - these are
: being licensed to other scanner and printer manufacturers.
: Documentation that discloses these details is stricly controlled,
: however later versions may be released under NDA or freely to the
: public domain, but omit confidential information. Irrespective of the
: SDK used, in principal we have no problem with the source code being
: available (as is the case for many thid party drivers for our SCSI
: scanners).

I'am going to have a go at getting Windows 3.1 running under DOSEMU, and
see if I can get enough info that way to start.

JAB.

-- 
Jonathan A. Buzzard                 Email: jab@hex.prestel.co.uk
Northumberland, United Kingdom.       Tel: +44(0)1661-832195

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