JPH077610A - Information recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an information recording device which can obtain maximum througput only by preparing a picture memory equivalent to one page. CONSTITUTION:At the time of printing picture data developed in the picture memory, picture data are once accumulated in hard disks 223 and 224 from the picture memory, and picture data are read from the hard disks 223 and 224. The red processing is executed at high speed by sectors (a picture-only sector group 1 and a pictureonly sector group 2) secured only for picture data at high speed. Picture data transferred to line buffers 1 and 2 in hard disk interfaces 221 and 222 at shortest time are selected, and it is outputted from an output buffer register 216 to a printer engine so as to execute printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording device, and more particularly to an electrophotographic information recording device for generating information to be recorded based on code data sent from an external device and accumulating and recording the information. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, page printers represented by laser beam printers have rapidly developed. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of a conventional laser beam printer. As shown in FIG. 5, a laser beam printer 200 includes a printer engine 201 that actually prints on a photosensitive drum based on dot data by a well-known electrophotographic process, and an external device such as a host computer connected to the printer engine 201. Code data sent from 203 (ESC
A printer controller 20 that receives code, PostScript, etc.), generates page information composed of dot data (bitmap data) based on the code data, and sequentially transmits the dot data to the printer engine 201.
It consists of two.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are views showing an engine section 201 of the laser beam printer. In FIG. 6, 101 is a sheet as a recording medium, and 102 is a sheet 101.
Is a paper cassette that holds the. A reference numeral 103 separates only the uppermost one of the papers 101 placed on the paper cassette 102, and the leading end of the separated paper is conveyed to the position of the paper feed rollers 104, 104 'by a driving means (not shown). The cam intermittently rotates each time the paper is fed, and one sheet is fed corresponding to one rotation.

Reference numeral 118 is a reflection type photo sensor, which detects the paper out by detecting the reflected light of the paper 101 through a hole 119 arranged at the bottom of the paper cassette 102. The paper feed rollers 104 and 104 ′ have a paper feed cam 1
When it is conveyed to the roller section by 03, the paper 10
1 is lightly pressed and rotated, and the paper 101 is conveyed.
The sheet 101 is stopped from being conveyed by the registration shutter 105, and the sheet feeding rollers 104 and 104 ′ continue to rotate while generating a conveying torque while slipping on the sheet 101. After that, by driving the registration solenoid 106, the registration shutter 105 is released in the upward direction, and the sheet 101 is sent to the transport rollers 107 and 107 '. The registration shutter 105 is driven by the laser beam 1
The transmission timing of the image formed by forming the image of 02 on the photosensitive drum 111 is synchronized. 1
Reference numeral 21 denotes a photo sensor that detects whether or not the sheet 101 is present at the registration shutter 105.

In FIG. 7, reference numeral 152 denotes a rotary polygon mirror, which is driven by the motor 153 shown in FIG. The laser driver 150 drives the semiconductor laser 151 according to dot data sent from a character generator (not shown) for generating bit data. The laser beam 120 from the semiconductor laser 151 driven by the laser driver 150 is scanned in the main scanning direction by the rotary polygon mirror 152, and is reflected via the f-θ lens 156 arranged between the rotary polygon mirror 152 and the reflection mirror 154. Mirror 1
It is guided onto the photosensitive drum 111 via 54, forms an image on the photosensitive drum 111, and scans in the main scanning direction to form a latent image on the main scanning line 157.

The beam detector 155 arranged at the scanning start position of the laser beam 102 is provided with a laser beam 120.
Is detected to detect a BD signal as a synchronization signal for determining the main scanning image writing timing. After that, the paper 101 is fed by the paper feed rollers 104, 1 of FIG.
Instead of 04 ', the conveyance rollers 107, 107' obtain the conveyance torque and send the conveyance torque to the photosensitive drum 111. The photosensitive drum 111 is rotationally driven by a main motor (not shown) via a gear unit (not shown). A latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 111 charged by the charger 113 by exposure to the laser beam 120. The latent image of the portion exposed by the laser beam is visualized as a toner image by the developing device 114, and then the toner image is transferred onto the paper surface of the paper 101 by the transfer charger 115. 1
A cleaner 12 cleans the drum surface after the transfer onto the paper 101.

The sheet 101 having the toner image transferred thereon is then fixed with the toner image by the fixing rollers 108 and 108 ', and is ejected by the ejection rollers 109 and 109'.
The paper is ejected on top of 10. Further, 116 is a paper feed table,
In addition to paper feeding from the paper cassette 102, the paper feeding table 11
It is possible to manually feed the sheets one by one from six. The paper that is manually fed to the manual feed roller 117 on the paper feed tray 116 is the manual feed roller 11
The paper feed rollers 104, 10 are lightly pressed by 7
Similar to 4 ', the leading edge of the sheet is conveyed until it reaches the registration shutter 105, and slips there. The subsequent transportation sequence is exactly the same as in the case of cassette feeding.

The fixing rollers 108 and 108 'house a fixing heater 124, and based on the temperature detection by a thermistor 123 which makes a slip contact with the surface of the fixing roller,
By controlling the surface temperature of the fixing roller to a predetermined temperature, the toner image on the paper 101 is thermally fixed. A photosensor 122 detects whether or not there is a sheet at the positions of the fixing rollers 108 and 108 '.

The printer engine is connected to a printer controller by an interface means (not shown), and receives a print command and an image signal from the controller to perform a print sequence. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer controller 202. In the figure, reference numeral 214 denotes an image memory, which stores image data for two pages. Reference numeral 216 is an output buffer register for converting the image data read from the image memory 214 into an image signal VDO, which is synchronized with the BD (horizontal synchronization) signal from the printer engine 201 to output the VDO signal in raster (scanning) units. To generate. Reference numeral 212 denotes a CPU that controls the entire printer controller 202.
A printer interface 215 is a signal input / output unit with the printer engine 201, and a host interface 210 is a signal input / output unit with an external device 203 such as a personal computer. An image data generation unit 211 generates bit map data for actual printing based on the code data sent from the external device 203. An operation panel 220 allows the operator to select various functions and modes of the printer by operating the operation panel. Furthermore, 213 is CP
ROM for storing the control code of U212, 218 is C
It is a RAM for temporary storage used by the PU 212. 217 is a DMA control unit.

An operation example of a conventional laser beam printer will be described below. When the CPU 212 detects that the host interface 210 has received code data from the external device 203, the CPU 212 sequentially sends the code data to the image data generation unit 211, generates bitmap data according to the code data, and stores the bitmap data in the image memory 214. Unfold. When the expansion for one page is completed, the CPU 212 instructs the DMA control unit 217 to output the output buffer register 21.
Request transfer to No. 6 and start image development for the second page. On the other hand, the image data of the first page transferred to the output buffer register is sent to the printer engine 201 as a VDO signal via the engine interface 215.

As described above, by preparing the image memory for two pages, the operation of expanding the code data from the external device 203 such as the host into the image data and the operation of transferring the image to the printer engine 201 are performed in parallel. This makes it possible to increase the total printing speed (throughput) of the laser beam printer 200.

[0012]

However, in the conventional laser beam printer, the printer controller 202 needs an image memory for two pages in order to obtain the maximum printing speed. A large number of expensive memory ICs are used to increase the image data capacity, resulting in high cost. Therefore, recently, a technique of reducing the memory by storing code data, image data, and the like in a secondary storage device such as a hard disk has been proposed. However, when the image data itself is stored in the hard disk, Due to a read error or the like, it is difficult to directly convert the video signal to be transferred to the printer engine from the hard disk in real time.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. Only one page of image memory is prepared,
An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording device that can obtain the maximum throughput.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above object, the information recording apparatus of the present invention has the following constitution. In an information recording apparatus that generates information to be recorded based on code data sent from an external device, accumulates the information, converts it into a signal, and transfers the information, at least two accumulating means for accumulating the information and each accumulating means. It has storage means for corresponding temporary storage, transfer means for transferring information from each storage means to the corresponding storage means, and detection means for detecting the storage means which has completed the transfer by the transfer means in the shortest time. The transferred information is converted into a signal according to the detection result of the detection means.

[0015]

In this structure, information is stored in at least two storage means, each storage means transfers the information to the corresponding storage means for temporary storage, and the transferred information is converted into a signal in the shortest time. Operate.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of a laser beam printer to which the present invention is applied. Since the printer engine 201 has the same configuration and operation as the conventional example, the description thereof is omitted here.

First, the configuration of the printer controller 202 will be described. The parts having the same functions as those of the conventional example are designated by the same reference numerals. In FIG. 1, an image memory 227 stores bitmap data (image data) for one page. Reference numerals 221 and 222 denote hard disk I / Fs that characterize this embodiment, each having a buffer memory for one image line inside, and a CPU
It is assumed that one line of a desired image is transferred from the hard disk to the buffer according to an instruction from 212. 223
Reference numerals 224 and 224 are known hard disk units. Hard disk unit 22 used in this embodiment
Reference numerals 3 and 224 each include a well-known control controller to automatically detect a defect sector and set the number of retries when a read error occurs in the hard disk I / F.
221 and 222. Reference numeral 226 denotes a DMA control unit, which stores the image memory 227 to the hard disk 22.
Data transfer to the output buffer register 216 from the line buffers in the hard disk interfaces 221 and 222 can be performed.

Output buffer register 216, CPU 21
2, printer interface 215, host interface 210, image data generation unit 211, operation panel 22
0, the ROM 213, and the RAM 214 are the same as those in the conventional example, and thus the description thereof will be omitted. The address / data bus line 219 is a serial line for controlling the printer controller 202 and the printer engine 201, and a vertical synchronization signal VS.
It includes YNC and print request signal PRNT.

FIG. 2 schematically shows the storage area use configuration of the hard disks 223 and 224 and the flow of image data in this embodiment. As shown in the figure, in this embodiment,
In order to maximize the read speed of the image data from the hard disks 223 and 224, a sector dedicated to image data is secured for one page (image dedicated sector group 1 and image dedicated sector group 2) and managed by a known file system. It is managed separately from the area.

3 and 4 show the CPU in this embodiment.
It is a flow chart which shows control of 218. In addition, CPU
The control code for controlling the 218 is configured by an OS, which is called a task by time division control in a load module unit by a system clock (not shown), and a plurality of load modules (tasks) operating in a functional unit. . FIG. 3 shows the control of the print control task that characterizes this embodiment, and FIG. 4 shows the control of the video transfer task.

With reference to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the operation of the printer controller 202 will be described below centering on the movement of the CPU 212. As described above, the CPU 212 operates under the control of the control code stored in the ROM 213. Further, the operations of the tasks described below are obviously the same as the operations of the CPU 212.

As shown in FIG. 3, the print control task detects that the host interface 210 receives code data from an external device via the address / data bus 219, and when the image memory is empty. If there is (step S1), a one-page expansion task (not shown) is awakened (step S2). This one-page development task receives predetermined code data from the host interface 210 when it wakes up, analyzes it, and if it is a character code, requests the image data generation unit 211 to create a mode bitmap data, and so on. While the image memory 2
Image data of one page (bitmap if binary) is developed in 27, and the above-mentioned OS is notified of the completion of the development.

In the print control task, when the OS is inquired and it is not under development and it is detected via the bus 219 that the image memory is not empty, that is, when the image development is completed (step S3), it is determined that the image development is not completed. The illustrated hard disk transfer task is woken up (step S4). The hard disk transfer task sends the image memory 2 to the DMA controller 226.
27 image data to the hard disk interface 22
Requested to transfer to the image exclusive area of the hard disks 223, 224 via 1, 222, and D at the time of completion
The above OS is notified of the completion of the transfer in the interrupt processing by the interrupt signal (not shown) from the MA control unit 226.

In the print control task, when the OS is queried and data is not being transferred to the hard disk, and there is data in the image exclusive area of the hard disk, that is, the hard disk 2
If the images have been transferred to 23 and 224 (step S5), the video transfer task is awakened (step S).
6). As a result, when the video transfer task shown in FIG. 4 wakes up, first, the retry count of the read error is designated to 0 for the controller (not shown) in the hard disk units 223 and 224 (step S11). Further, the hard disk interfaces 221 and 222 are requested simultaneously to transfer one line of data from the image exclusive area of the hard disk 223 to the line buffer 1 and one line of data transfer from the image exclusive area of the hard disk 224 to the line buffer 2 ( Step S12). Furthermore R
"0" is written in the line counter area secured in the AM 225 (step S13). The hard disk interfaces 221 and 222 are connected to the CPU 21 when the transfer is completed.
An interrupt signal is sent to 2 and the transfer for which the video transfer task has not ended in this interrupt process is also ended (steps S15, S16, S17, S18). Then, the output buffer register 216 is output from the buffer 1 or 2 that has caused the interrupt to the DAM control unit 226.
To transfer to (steps S19, S20).

Upon completion of this transfer, the above line counter is incremented (step S21), the second line is similarly performed, and the operation is repeated until the end of one page (step S14), and the above OS is notified of the end of VDO signal transmission. Yes (step S22). In the print control task, it is possible to expand the image data of the next page at the same time while transferring the image data from the hard disk to the printer engine 201 by loop-controlling the above determination process.

With the above configuration, the read speed from the hard disk, which is a feature of this embodiment, can be improved, and a speed that is in time for the transfer speed of the VDO signal to the printer engine 201 can be secured. <Modification> In the embodiments of the present invention, the image data is treated as bitmap data, but in the information recording apparatus having gradation according to the present invention, it may be considered as a bit map or the like.

Further, the configuration of the embodiment is an example, and it goes without saying that the secondary storage device is not limited to the hard disk device, and can be constructed using a storage device such as a MOD (magneto-optical disk) or a flash memory. However, if an error occurs during data reading, it is particularly effective in a storage device that requires retry. Further, the configuration of the present embodiment is applicable not only to the video signal of the laser beam printer but also to all data transfer requiring severe speed and reliability.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The maximum throughput can be obtained by only preparing one page of the image memory.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer controller in this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a flow of image data and a usage configuration of a storage area of a RAM and a hard disk in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing of a print control task in this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing of a video transfer task in this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional laser beam printer.

6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer engine shown in FIG.

7 is a diagram showing a scanning system of the printer engine shown in FIG.

8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer controller shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 200 Laser Beam Printer 201 Printer Engine 202 Printer Controller 212 CPU 223 Hard Disk 224 Hard Disk

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information recording device for generating information to be recorded based on code data sent from an external device, accumulating the information, converting it into a signal, and transferring the information, at least two accumulating means for accumulating the information, Storage means for temporary storage corresponding to each storage means, transfer means for transferring information from each storage means to the corresponding storage means, and detection for detecting storage means for which transfer by the transfer means is completed in the shortest time Means for converting the transferred information into a signal according to the detection result of the detection means. 2. The information recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an electrophotographic recording means for recording the information transferred by the transfer means. 3. The information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each storage means is two hard disk devices.