SCSI scanner, sym/ncr driver, pt(4)

[Matthias Andree]

Oliver Fromme <olli at lurza.secnetix.de> writes:

> Matthias Andree <matthias.andree at gmx.de> wrote:
>  > Oliver Fromme <olli at lurza.secnetix.de> writes:
>  > > First I noticed that the NCR810 host adapter seems to be
>  > > supported both by ncr(4) and sym(4).  I was unable to find
>  > > any documentation about the advantages of each.
>  > 
>  > Try reading the man pages carefully.
>  > 
>  > The differences have melted down somewhat in the past.
>  > 
>  > There was a time when sym(4) didn't support the more efficient
>  > LOAD/STORE uncapable 810, 815, 825 chips (the A variants, where they
>  > exist, support LOAD/STORE). sym(4) has learned to use MEMMOVE on these,
>  > however.
>  > 
>  > ncr(4) has never used LOAD/STORE, and lacks support for the 897 chip and
>  > the 1010 family.
>
> I've read about that LOAD/STORE and MEMMOVE stuff in the
> manpage, but I'm not a SCSI expert, so that's really only
> gibberish to me, I'm afraid.

The driver downloads a program to the SCSI chip that handles the
protocol, and the commands that these programs ("SCRIPTS") can use
depend on the chip.

> Hell, I do not even know if my "810" card is an "early NCR 810" which
> sym(4) keeps talking about.

Why bother as long as it works :-)

> If you're just a user, the manpages fail to tell whether
> the sym(4) or ncr(4) driver is preferred for an 810 host
> adapter.

Personally, I'd prefer sym(4).

> I certainly agree with that.  But pt(4) is not a scanner
> driver, but a generic SCSI processing target driver, right?

Never used it or even looked at the docs.

> However, gimp and the xscanimage plugin use the full SANE
> scanner device string for identifying it and storing their
> configuration.

AFAIR you can use xscan as GIMP plugin, too.

-- 
Matthias Andree