Digital BW, The Print

In trying to decide on upgrades for the digital darkroom, I have 
been looking at scanners. After talking to Epson regarding the 4870, 
I am more confused than ever. I was interested in the version of 
digital ice included with their scanner. They had never heard of 
Digital Ice 4. On contacting Applied Science Fiction (Kodak) they 
advised that Digital ICE 4 is only on the Nikon 9000 scanner! I have 
an extremely large volume of Kodachrome slides to process, thus the 
interest. The programs included in the suite, ROC, SHO and GEM seem 
to be very capable. It would appear that Epson is attempting to 
foist a weak version of this software on photographers. Does anyone 
have any thoughts on this issue.I have concluded that the best setup 
at this time is a digital darkroom, processing traditional negatives.
While digital cameras are on the train, they are a long way from the 
station!
Bob