JPH1078856A - Interruption by priority printing method and system therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain the efficiency up of a printing processing quickly responding to an actual situation by setting the priority order of the printing processing between plural host computers. SOLUTION: A printer device 1 with which plural host computers 20 and 21 are connected is constituted of a receiving buffer 2 for writing received print data, interrupting buffer 3 for writing received interrupting print data, page buffer 4 for writing print data to be printed, and printing executing part 5 and the like. An interface 10 outputs a signal running from each host computer 20 and 21 by using unused connector pins 6a and 7a as an interface signal indicating printing processing priority. When the interruption of a printing processing from the following host computer 21 is present during the execution of the printing processing of the preceding host computer 20, the printer device 1 confirms the priority based on the interface signal, and executes interrupting printing when the priority of the following host computer 21 is higher.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device, and more particularly, to a data processing device (hereinafter simply referred to as "host") which is a plurality of different or similar host computers such as a word processor and a personal computer.
And a printing method and system for performing priority-based interrupt printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a system in which a plurality of hosts are connected to one printer so that print data can be sent from each host has been frequently used. In this case, while the printer device is executing the printing process for the preceding host, the subsequent host waits until the printing process of the preceding host is completed. By the way, during a large-scale processing such as several hundred sheets of the preceding host that is currently executing the processing, when the printing processing of the succeeding host is only one sheet and it is urgent, the processing of the preceding host is temporarily stopped and the printing of the succeeding host is temporarily stopped. There are times when you want to give priority to processing.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-112070 discloses such an interrupt printing process. In other words, the apparatus has a print interruption permitting unit, and when print data is input from another host during print processing of one host, the print processing being executed is interrupted according to the print designation condition. The interrupt print execution means interrupts print processing of another host. When the interruption processing is completed, the print processing of the preceding host is restarted by the print restart means.

[0004]

However, in the case of the printer disclosed in this publication, interrupt processing is only executed or not executed according to the amount of print data. That is, it is not possible to cope with a flexible print process according to the actual situation that a specific host is given a priority to permit an interrupt process, and a low-priority host is not allowed to perform an interrupt process.

For example, in the case of a portable host such as a notebook computer, taking advantage of its simplicity,
It is often the case that a plurality of hosts are connected to one printing apparatus in a flexible manner to prioritize output of print data. However, in the conventional system including the printer described in the gazette, there is a problem that a stagnation or the like in a business is inevitable in order to continue printing processing of the host without urgency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a priority-based interrupt printing method and system which can improve the efficiency of print processing in accordance with the actual situation by setting the priority of print processing among a plurality of host computers. To provide.

[0007]

The priority-based interrupt printing system according to the present invention has a printer device to which a plurality of hosts can be connected. The printer device includes a reception buffer for writing and storing received print data, an interrupt buffer for writing and storing received interrupt print data, a page buffer for writing and storing print data to be printed from now on, and a printing process. It is composed of an execution unit and the like. Further, an interface for processing an interface signal indicating the priority of the printing process is provided between the printer device and the plurality of hosts. The printer device can determine whether the priority of the printing process is high or low by checking the interface signal.

According to the above-described configuration of the system, in the priority-based interrupt printing method of the present invention, the interface outputs, for example, an interface signal indicating a priority consisting of “priority” and “general”. In the printer device, during execution of print processing of the preceding host, a signal requesting print processing is input from another subsequent host via the interface. Upon receiving the interface signal from the subsequent host, the printer checks the print processing priority to indicate whether it indicates priority or general. If the priority of the interrupted interface signal from the subsequent host is higher than the priority of the currently executing preceding host, interrupt processing is executed. If the priority of the succeeding host is equal to or lower than that of the preceding host, interrupt processing is not permitted. In this way, only a specific host can execute the interrupt processing for the printer device.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a priority-based interrupt printing method and system according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a printer 1 according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of connected hosts 20, 21 for example.
A reception buffer 2 as a storage device for writing and storing print data received from
1 has an interrupt buffer 3 as a storage device for writing and storing the interrupt print data received from any one of them. Further, it has a page buffer 4 of a storage device that writes and stores print data to be printed based on print data from one of the reception buffer 2 and the interrupt buffer 3. Further, a print processing execution unit 5 and the like for printing out according to the print command signal from each of the above buffers are provided.

A printer 1 and a plurality of hosts 2
An interface 10 for processing an interface signal indicating the priority of the printing process of each of the hosts 20 and 21 is provided between the host 20 and the printer 21 for example. It also has a pair of connector pins 6, 7 and 8, 9 for connecting the printer device 1 and each of the hosts 20, 21.
Unused connector pins 6a, 7 between connector pins 8, 9
a is used. When a print request signal is sent from the host 20, 21, a signal sent through the unused connector pins 6a, 7a is indicated as an interface signal indicating the priority of the printing process.

In this embodiment, a signal sent from one host 20 through unused connector pins 6a is set in advance as an interface signal indicating print processing priority "general", and an unused connector from the other host 21 is used as an interface signal. The signal sent through the pin 7a is set as an interface signal indicating the print processing priority "priority".
Of course, the number of hosts is not limited to two, 20 and 21, and even in the case of more than that, the priority for determining the order of print processing can be set in advance.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the following drawings.

First, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, in step S1 (hereinafter simply referred to as S1), the host 20 requests the printer device 1 to execute a printing process. The host 20 checks whether its priority is “general” or “priority”. In this case, the priority of the host 20 is general, and a “general” interface signal indicating the priority of the host 20 is transmitted to the unused connector pin 6.
Then, a signal for requesting output of print data is sent to the printer device 1 (S4).

The operation flow shifts to FIG. 4, and when the printing apparatus 1 receives a print request signal from the host 20, (S1)
1) First, it checks its own status as to whether printing is currently being performed (S12). If the printing process has not been executed for any of the hosts (No), the designated buffer is set to the receiving buffer 2 (S13), and the process A shown in the operation flow of FIG. 5 and the operation flow shown in FIG. The process B is started (S14).

In the process A, it is detected whether or not the reception buffer 2 which is the designated buffer has a free space (S1).
8). Since the printer device 1 is not executing the printing process, the receiving buffer 2 which is the designated buffer has an empty space (Yes). Therefore, the printer 1 is connected to the host 20
, Input is permitted and print data is requested (S19).
The host 20 executes the printing apparatus 1 according to the operation flow of FIG.
(S) by receiving a request signal for print data from
7) The print data is transmitted to the printing apparatus 1 (S).
8).

Processing A shown in FIG. 5 is continued. When the printer 1 receives the print data through the connector pin 6 (S20), it writes the received print data from the host 20 into the reception buffer 2 which is the designated buffer (S20). S
21). As described above, the printer device 1 repeats the process A, and when the data write amount in the reception buffer 2 becomes full, the printer device 1 does not request the host 20 for print data until the reception buffer 2 has a free space (S22).

Next, in the process B shown in the operation flow of FIG. 6, the print data is asynchronously fetched from the designated buffer (currently the receive buffer 2) (S23), and the fetched print data is the page break code or the next. It is determined which of the print page codes (S24, S2
5). If it is neither the new page code nor the next print page code, the extracted print data is transferred from the receive buffer 2 which is the current designated buffer to the page buffer 4 (S26). If the print data extracted in S24 or S25 corresponds to either the page break code or the next print page code (Yes), the page buffer 4
Is output (S27). Subsequently, the page buffer 4 is cleared (S28). At this time, it is determined whether or not there is an interrupt process (S29), and if there is no interrupt process, the process B is repeated as it is. The flow of print data so far is shown in FIG. 2 as a data flow diagram in a normal state.

On the other hand, while the printing apparatus 1 is executing the printing process of the host 20, when another host 21 requests interrupt printing, the following process is executed.

In the operation flow of FIG. 3, the interrupt priority of the host 21 is "priority", and the host 21 sends an interface signal to that effect via the unused connector pins 7a (S1, S2). Moving to the operation flow of FIG.
The printer device 1 receives a print request signal from the host 21 (S11). Since the printer 1 is executing the printing process of the host 20, the host priority is compared here (S
12, S15). In the printer device 1, the host 21 receives the interface signal from the interface 10 indicating the priority input through the unused connector pin 7 a.
Priority is the priority of general host 2 currently being processed
0, which is higher than that of S1, and recognizes and determines that the interrupted host 21 should give priority to print processing (S1).
5, S16).

If the interrupt priority of the host 21 is lower than that of the host 20, the printer 1
Notifies the host 21 that printing is not possible (S1).
7). The host 21 receives the notification that printing is not possible from the printer device 1 (S5), and stops the printing process (S1).
0).

Returning again to step S16, when the printer 1 determines an interrupt process from the host 21,
In the currently activated process B shown in the operation flow of FIG. 7, it is determined whether or not there is an interrupt process at the page break of the print data from the host 20 (S29). If there is an interrupt, the current receive buffer 2 which is the designated buffer is changed to the interrupt buffer 3 (S30). Then, in the process A of FIG. 5 which is operating asynchronously with the process B, the designated buffer is switched from the reception buffer 2 to the interrupt buffer 3, so that the host 21 requests print data (S
19). The host 21 receives the print data request signal (S7) and sends the print data to the printer device 1. Upon receiving the print data (S21), the printer device 1 writes the received print data into the interrupt buffer 3, which is the currently designated buffer. FIG. 2 shows a data flow diagram when the above-described data flow is being executed during the interruption process.

When all the print data has been transmitted to the printing apparatus 1, the host 21 sends a printing completion notification to the printing apparatus 1 (S6, S10).

Next, in FIG. 7, when the printer 1 receives a print end notification from the host 21 (S3).
1) It is determined whether or not the printing process currently being executed is interrupt printing (S32), and the process is an interrupt process (Yes).
Therefore, the process waits until the interrupt data is processed and disappears (S33), and when the interrupt data disappears, the current interrupt buffer 3, which is the designated buffer, is switched to the reception buffer 2 (S34). Subsequently, in the process A during startup shown in FIG. 5, the host 20 is requested for print data (S1).
9). The host 20 receives the print request signal from the printer device 1 (S7 in FIG. 3) and transfers the print data to the printer device 1.
(S8). Since the designated buffer has been switched from the interrupt buffer 3 to the receiving buffer 2, the printer 1
Writes the received print data into the reception buffer 2 (S21). In the process B, the data extracted from the current reception buffer 2 which is the designated buffer is stored in the page buffer 4.
(S26), and if the print data extracted from the reception buffer 2 is in the page break code or the next print page (S24, S25), the print data in the page buffer 4 is printed (S27).

Next, when all the print data has been sent to the printing apparatus 1, the host 20 notifies the printing apparatus 1 of the end of printing (S6, S10). When the printer device 1 receives the notification of the printing end (S31), the printing process currently being executed is not the interrupt printing, so the printer device 1 waits until there is no print data in the receiving buffer 2 and the page buffer 4 (S32, S35). When there is no more print data in the reception buffer 2 and the page buffer 4, the processing A and the processing B are terminated (S36), and all the printing processing for the host 20 and the host 21 is terminated.

In the above embodiment, when a notebook-type personal computer is assumed as the host 21 whose priority is “priority”, for example, the printers 1 arranged in various places such as offices and the like are used. Than any other host connected to the printer device 1 at any location
Carry a notebook computer that is the host 21,
Printout can be given priority.

[0027]

The priority-based printing system according to the present invention provides:
In a printer in which a plurality of host computers are connected to one printer, the priority of the printing process is set between the hosts, so that the printer only checks the interface signal indicating the priority of the printing process, and performs printing. Distinguish hosts that should be prioritized from other hosts,
Interrupt printing can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a priority-based interrupt printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a flow of print data during normal printing and a flow of print data during interrupt printing.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing operation on the host computer side according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation when print request information is received on the printer device side according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a reception buffer writing process on the printer device side.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a page buffer transfer process on the printer device side.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process at the time of receiving a print end notification on the printer device side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer device 2 Receive buffer 3 Interrupt buffer 4 Page buffer 5 Print execution part 6 Connector pin 7 Connector pin 8 Connector pin 9 Connector pin 6a Unused connector pin 7a Unused connector pin 10 Interface 20 Host computer 21 Host computer

Claims (6)

[Claims] A plurality of host computers are connected to one printer so as to be capable of outputting print data, and interrupt printing by priority for interrupting print processing of a subsequent host computer while executing print processing of a preceding host computer. In the method, priority is set in advance to determine the priority of the printing process for the plurality of host computers, when the printing process of the subsequent host computer interrupts the printing process of the preceding host computer during execution of the printing process, Check the interface signal indicating the priority of both host computers, and if the interface signal from the preceding host computer indicates a lower priority than the interface signal of the subsequent host computer, Interrupt the printing process of the host computer And executing an interrupt printing process of the subsequent host computer. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the interface signal indicating the priority is transmitted by using an unused connector pin among connector pins for connecting the printer device and the host computer. Interruption printing method by priority. 3. A plurality of host computers are connected to one printer so as to be capable of outputting print data, and interrupt printing by priority for interrupting print processing of a subsequent host computer while executing print processing of a preceding host computer. An interrupt printing system for each priority, wherein an interface for processing an interface signal indicating a priority of a printing process set in advance for the plurality of host computers is provided in the system. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein an interface signal indicating a priority of the printing process is transmitted through an unused connector pin among connector pins for connecting the printer device and the host computer. Interrupt printing system by priority. 5. A receiving buffer for receiving and writing a print data signal output from a preceding device of the host computer, and receiving and writing a print data signal output from a subsequent device of the host computer. An interrupt buffer, a page buffer in which print data of a selected one of the receive buffer and the interrupt buffer is written, a print execution unit that executes print processing by an output signal from the page buffer, the receive buffer and the interrupt A buffer switching unit that switches between the buffer and the buffer according to a switching instruction signal; and when the print data signal from the subsequent host computer interrupts during the print processing of the preceding host computer, via the unused connector pin. Print processing sent According to the interface signal indicating the priority, the print processing priority of the preceding host computer and the subsequent host computer is checked to determine the presence or absence of interrupt processing, and a switching instruction is given to the buffer switching means based on the determination. 5. The priority-based interrupt printing system according to claim 4, further comprising: host computer priority determining means for sending a control signal to the preceding host computer and the subsequent host computer. 6. The priority-based interrupt printing system according to claim 3, wherein said subsequent host computer is a portable notebook personal computer.