Blueridge Announces World's First Cross-Platform Scanner Interface Board

FLINT HILL, Va. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - August 7, 1996 - Blueridge Technologies, "The Internet Document Management Company ," announced the availability of the OPTIX PCI Board, the world's first cross-platform scanner interface board. The board is compatible with all PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based PCs, including Windows-based PCs, Macintoshes and Power Macs. Its cross-platform capabilities build on Blueridge's position as a leading supplier of cross-platform document management systems.

The OPTIX PCI board enables users of the OPTIX Document Management System to take full advantage of the faster data throughput and higher bandwidth afforded by the new PCI bus architecture. The board is hardware compliant with the Fujitsu RS232/Video scanner interface specification.

Like its predecessor, the OSI (TM) board, OPTIX PCI is capable of asynchronous scanning operations. Craig Landrum, Chief Technologist at Blueridge, explained, "Asynchronous scanning enables the CPU to compress and store scanned documents at the same time that the scanner is processing documents. This feature results in extremely fast document processing, a major benefit to companies that routinely process large numbers of paper, microfiche, or microfilm documents."

The PCI board supports a wide variety of ultra high-speed, industrial-strength scanners including the Photomatrix Vision Series 5000 and the Fujitsu 3099 Series. The board also supports microfiche and microfilm scanners from Mekel Engineering Inc., including the 400, 500, and 460 model scanners.

According to George Suffern, Director, Scanner Systems at Mekel Engineering, "The Mekel Microfilm and Microfiche Scanners are capable of scanning in excess of 100 pages per minute, but most interface boards can't handle the required data rate. OPTIX PCI takes full advantage of the high-performance capabilities of our scanners."

The Photomatrix Vision Series 5000 family of scanners is capable of double-sided scanning at speeds of 100 and 120 pages per minute when set to a resolution of 200dpi. "The ability of interface boards to process data is key to the future of high speed document scanners like our Vision Series 5000," said Dell Glover, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Photomatrix Corporation. "We believe the combination of Blueridge's OPTIX PCI interface and Photomatrix's document scanners is unsurpassed when it comes to price/performance and we believe the market will agree."

The PCI Board, retailing for $1,095, is available now from Blueridge Technologies, and resellers of the OPTIX Document Management System.

Founded in 1988, Blueridge Technologies is one of the industry's oldest and most respected providers of electronic document management systems (EDMS). Long the leading industrial-strength document imaging and workflow system for Apple Macintosh computers, in 1994 OPTIX became the first electronic document management system to offer workflow, document imaging, document control, COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk), and natural language text retrieval for both Windows and Macintosh workstations. Via the new OPTIX WEB interface, OPTIX also supports popular Web browsers, including Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer from Microsoft, Mosaic, and all the client platforms these products support, including Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX workstations. An online demo of OPTIX WEB is available at http://www.optixweb.com. Blueridge Technologies is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Metters Industries.

OPTIX systems begin in the range of $40,000 and include server software, client software for both Macintosh and Windows, installation, training, and support.