CN100440129C

CN100440129C - Information processing device, hub, network information processing system having hub, information processing program, and recording medium

Info

Publication number: CN100440129C
Application number: CNB200480017728XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 梅景笃; 植田末弘; 高谷宏
Original assignee: Sharp Corp
Current assignee: Sharp Corp
Priority date: 2003-06-23
Filing date: 2004-06-22
Publication date: 2008-12-03
Anticipated expiration: 2024-06-22
Also published as: JP3679099B2; CN1813239A; JP2005018170A

Abstract

A coordination unit (34) is provided which switches the state between an active state in which data sent to a specific address is registered and the data is processed, and an inactive state other than the active state. When it is determined that unprocessed data stored in a data storage unit (31) cannot be processed within a predetermined time, the coordination unit (34) instructs another MFP to make a transition to the active state. At the same time, the coordination unit (34) make a transition to the inactive state to allow a data processing unit (32) to process unprocessed data. This configuration coordinates a job (data) without using a server.

Description

Signal conditioning package and image processing system with this signal conditioning package

Technical field

The image processing system that the present invention relates to a kind of signal conditioning package and have this signal conditioning package.

Background technology

In the last few years, along with the raising and cheapization of computing power, constructed the network system of in network, particularly LAN (Local Area Network), sharing peripherals and carrying out the information processing of computing machine transmission.

As above-mentioned shared peripherals, for example comprise duplicating machine, scanner, MFP image processing systems such as (MultiFunction Printer).By a plurality of image processing systems are connected with LAN to construct network system, can come the print out task of object computer transmission by a plurality of image processing systems.

In this network system, each print out task of output is specified the device of exporting usually when sending output command, and sends to this device.

But in this network system, the output request of task concentrates on the specific image processing system, though might taking place, certain device can carry out task output, the situation of the output of having to wait in other device tasks, so the service efficiency of image processing system is not high.

Therefore, following motion is for example arranged in patent documentation 1: detect a plurality of printers printing conditions separately by server unit, select best printer to print according to each print request.

Patent documentation 1: " spy opens 2003-67157 communique (open day: on March 7th, 2003 ") to Japanese publication communique

And, share in the print system of a plurality of image processing systems a plurality of users, when handling the print data that sends from the outside, send print data to the image processing system of carrying out print out task, according to the printing conditions of image processing system, during by other printer processes (with reference to patent documentation 2), the data quantitative change of print out task is big, when handling, need transmit print data once more by a plurality of image processing systems.

Patent documentation 2: Japanese publication communique " spy opens 2001-066950 communique (open day March 16 calendar year 2001) "

In order to address this is that following motion appears: a kind of image output system, between a plurality of image processing systems on the network, carry out the adjustment (negotiation) of task, improve the service efficiency of image processing system, and do not increase the load of network and can between these a plurality of image processing systems, carry out the adjustment of task.

Patent documentation 3: Japanese publication communique " spy opens 2000-003259 communique (open day on January 7th, 2000) "

Patent documentation 4: Japanese publication communique " spy opens flat 9-319533 communique (open day on Dec 12nd, 1997) "

Patent documentation 5: Japanese publication communique " spy opens flat 11-331453 communique (open day on November 30th, 1999) "

For example, a kind of image formation system as follows being disclosed: by making the printer unitisation with common denominator, output data is divided in the printer with user's required function automatically in the patent documentation 3.In this image formation system, will have the printer unitisation of identical function, and the managing printing machine.Therefore, when handling, need not single specific printer, by according to handling required function designated groups, output data can be assigned to a plurality of printers in this group, and carry out processing.

And, according to patent documentation 5, provide image output system as follows: a plurality of printers that will connect to usefulness USB (Universal Serial Bus) from server-assignment by the server that is connected with LAN from the task of last each main frame of LAN.

But in above-mentioned existing image output system, has following problem points.

In above-mentioned patent documentation 1, need to prepare server, so cost rises.And, produce the traffic for the situation that detects a plurality of printers.

In patent documentation 3 disclosed printer systems, the printer that will have an identical function is unitisation in advance, and all printers in group send print out task, therefore can't carry out corresponding flexibly according to the variation of disposition, the distribution of task can't be dynamically printed, treatment effeciency can be reduced on the contrary.

And in above-mentioned patent documentation 3 disclosed methods, the group of a station server decision transmission task when therefore for example above-mentioned server breaks down, just can't send task.

And in patent documentation 3, when the print out task in will handling in certain image processing system sent to other image processing systems, this task sent to other image processing systems from the image processing system of handling print out task.Therefore, in the image processing system in print out task is handled, in case after receiving should handling of task, this task is passed on (transmission) to other devices.Therefore, send, reduced the processing power of image processing system owing to produce the reception of useless task.And, under above-mentioned patent documentation 3 disclosed structures,, therefore when server breaks down, can't send print out task owing to whether install the transmission task to other by the server decision.

And, under above-mentioned patent documentation 5 disclosed structures, need the other server of preparing print out task is assigned to a plurality of printers, so cost rises.And, under above-mentioned patent documentation 4 disclosed structures,, therefore for example when server breaks down, can't send print out task because server decision sends the group of print out task.

The object of the present invention is to provide a kind of do not use server, can carry out signal conditioning package that task (data) adjusts and image processing system with this signal conditioning package.

Summary of the invention

Signal conditioning package of the present invention has to achieve these goals: storage part; Acceptance division can receive the data that are sent to predetermined specific take over party address; Location registration process portion, the data supplementing that this acceptance division is received is registered to above-mentioned storage part; And data processing division, handle the data of storing in the above-mentioned storage part, it is characterized in that, has the Status Change handling part, control above-mentioned location registration process portion and data processing division, and switch the unactivated state beyond state of activation and the state of activation, above-mentioned state of activation is the processing of appending registration and these data that can be sent to the data of above-mentioned specific take over party address, above-mentioned Status Change handling part, when the untreated data of registering in above-mentioned storage part surpass predetermined threshold value, indication comprises the inscape identical with above-mentioned signal conditioning package and is transformed into state of activation for the other signal conditioning package outside the above-mentioned signal conditioning package, and make and self be converted to unactivated state, make data processing division handle untreated data.

According to said structure, when the untreated data that the Status Change handling part is registered in above-mentioned storage part surpass predetermined threshold value, indicate above-mentioned other signal conditioning package to be transformed into state of activation, and make and self be converted to unactivated state, handle the untreated data of accumulation.Therefore, can make at least one station information treating apparatus always be in the state that can receive data.So, can need not server and the data centralization that prevents to handle to a station information treating apparatus, therefore can carry out the processing of data efficiently on the whole.And, compare with the existing structure of server-assignment data of utilizing, can prevent that all from answering concentrating of deal with data, therefore can need not server and make the data dispersion treatment.

Further, arrive under the structure of each signal conditioning package in the existing data allocations that server should be handled, each signal conditioning package just can't have been handled these data when server produces fault, but in signal conditioning package based on said structure, need not to use server, can carry out the distribution of data according to the setting of each signal conditioning package.

To achieve these goals, the image processing system that the present invention relates to also can have above-mentioned signal conditioning package, reach the data of handling by above-mentioned signal conditioning package are carried out the image forming part that image forms.

According to said structure, can make at least one image processing apparatus always can receive the data that are sent to specific take over party address, therefore can need server as prior art, and the data centralization that can prevent to handle is in a station information treating apparatus.

Other purposes of the present invention, feature and advantage can be further clear and definite by following record.And advantage of the present invention by with reference to the following explanation of accompanying drawing become clear and definite.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the block diagram of the summary structure of the MFP that relates to of expression present embodiment.

Fig. 2 is the block diagram of summary structure of the network printer of expression present embodiment.

Fig. 3 is the block diagram of the summary structure of expression network IF shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 4 is the key diagram of the conversion sequence of each state among the MFP that relates to of expression present embodiment.

Fig. 5 is the method for each MFP state is changed in expression according to the threshold value in the present embodiment a key diagram, (a) be that expression MFP1 is the figure of state of activation, (b) be that expression MFP1 is converted to the figure that busy condition, MFP2 are converted to state of activation, (c) be the figure that the expression task is sent to the MFP2 of state of activation, (d) being the figure that the expression task is further sent to the MFP2 of state of activation, (e) is the figure that expression MFP1 is transformed into the OFF state.

Fig. 6 is illustrated among the MFP of state of activation, the key diagram of the state exchange of MFP when the paper of printing print out task is used up, (a) be the figure that expression MFP1 is in state of activation, (b) be the figure that paper is used up, MFP1 is converted to busy condition among the expression MFP1, (c) be the figure that the expression task is sent to the MFP2 of state of activation, (d) being the figure that the expression task is further sent to the MFP2 of state of activation, (e) is the figure that expression MFP1 is transformed into the OFF state.

Fig. 7 is the process flow diagram to the flow process that receives a series of actions till the data among the MFP of expression after the energized.

Fig. 8 is the processing of print out task among the MFP of expression state of activation and the process flow diagram of state exchange flow process.

Fig. 9 is illustrated among certain MFP, according to the process flow diagram of a series of flow processs of handling from the Status Change of the Status Change order of other MFP change oneself state.

Figure 10 is the process flow diagram of a series of flow processs of expression threshold setting.

Figure 11 is the state of an expression MFP process flow diagram when being classified as any one of state of activation, holding state, busy condition and OFF state, the processing when each state sends data down.

Figure 12 is the key diagram that is used to illustrate the conversion sequence of each state of MFP (being MFP2 at this) when receiving print out task that is in holding state fully in making a mistake, (a) be expression sends figure from task to the MFP2 of the MFP1 of state of activation and holding state, (b) be to be illustrated in the figure that task processed among the MFP1 goes out of use in MFP2, (c) be to be illustrated among the MFP1 to make a mistake, MFP1 is converted to the figure of busy condition, (d) be expression to the figure that the MFP3 of the MPF2 of state of activation and holding state sends task, (e) be the figure that expression MFP1 is converted to the OFF state.

Figure 13 is the block diagram of the summary structure of the conversion equipment (line concentrator) that relates to of expression the present invention other embodiments.

Figure 14 is the block diagram of the summary structure of the network printer system (network information processing system) that relates to of expression the present invention other embodiments.

Figure 15 is the block diagram of structure of the major part of expression network printer system shown in Figure 14.

Figure 16 is the block diagram of the summary structure of expression MFP shown in Figure 15.

Figure 17 is the key diagram that expression is recorded in the information of address table shown in Figure 13.

Figure 18 is the key diagram that expression is recorded in the information of state table shown in Figure 13.

Figure 19 is the process flow diagram of a series of processing of expression conversion equipment shown in Figure 13 when receiving frame.

Figure 20 is the key diagram that expression is recorded in the information of linking objective table shown in Figure 13.

Figure 21 is used for illustrating that printer shown in Figure 19 selects to handle the process flow diagram of a series of processing of (MFP selects processing).

Figure 22 is the process flow diagram that is used for illustrating that the deletion of the group that timer deletion linking objective table shown in Figure 13 is registered is handled.

Figure 23 when to be expression according to the preferred value that is connected with each port of MFP select best MFP, to process flow diagram from the processing of the notice of MFP.

Figure 24 is the process flow diagram that is used to illustrate the processing of the initial setting when MFP is connected to conversion equipment.

Figure 25 is the key diagram of the information that further writes down in the state table in other embodiments of expression the present invention.

Figure 26 is the process flow diagram of a series of processing in being used for illustrating the present invention further the MFP of other embodiments selecting to handle.

Figure 27 when to be expression according to the state (status) that is connected with each port of MFP select best MFP, to process flow diagram from the processing of the notice of MFP.

Figure 28 is the key diagram of the information that further writes down in the linking objective table in other embodiments of expression the present invention.

Figure 29 is the key diagram of the processing of the initial setting of explanation when MFP is connected to conversion equipment.

Figure 30 is that expression gathers address table and state table is the key diagram of a table.

Embodiment

(embodiment 1)

Referring to figs. 1 through Figure 12 an embodiment of the invention are carried out following explanation.

The structure of the signal conditioning package that present embodiment relates to is, though server is not set, but still can carry out sending the adjustment of task (data) to the particular address of the common setting of signal conditioning package.

And, in the following description, describe as example to use MFP as signal conditioning package as one of image processing system.

And above-mentioned particular address (hereinafter referred to as virtual address) is meant the address of sharing by all of communication unit connection or a part of image processing system.On the other hand, inherent address is meant the address separately that each image processing system has, particularly, be meant give each image processing system and the different address of each image processing system.That is, for the data that send to inherent address, the image processing system that only has this inherent address can carry out the processing of data.On the other hand, for the data that send to virtual address, all images with this virtual address forms device and can carry out the processing of data.

Fig. 2 is the block diagram of the structure of the network printer that relates to of expression present embodiment.As shown in Figure 2, in the network printer, PC (Personal Computer) 5, PC6 and MFP (image processing system; Signal conditioning package) 1, MFP2, MFP3, MFP4 connect by wired lan (Local Area Network) (communication unit) 7.

And in the following description, except the situation of special qualification, for ease of explanation, PC is example with PC5, and MFP is that example describes with MFP1.

PC5 is used for sending print out task to MFP1.And the concrete structure of PC5 is known, therefore omits its detailed description.

Above-mentioned wired lan 7 can be bus-type, star-like any one.Example as the LAN of bus-type comprises 10base2/10base5 (IEEE802.3 CSMA/CD) etc.And as the example of star-like LAN, can consider following structure: with hub (not being switching hub) is transponder, and each PC and MFP are connected by 10base-T/100BASE-TX.

Fig. 1 is the block diagram of the summary structure of the MFP1 that relates to of expression present embodiment.MFP1 has: engine (image forming part) 11, control part 12, network IF (interface) (receiving sending part, receiving element) 13.And, the concrete structure of control part 12 is being discussed after a while.

Above-mentioned engine is meant the image forming part among the MFP1, is used for carrying out image according to data and forms.And,, therefore omit its detailed description because the detailed structure of image forming part is known.

Above-mentioned network IF13 for example carries out the parts that Data Receiving sends by external units such as wired lan 7 and PC5.Particularly, network IF13 receives and is sent to the inherent address of self and the data of virtual address.Further, network IF13 can send data or following Status Change order (Status Change command) to the inherent address of other MFP, PC.Detailed structure to above-mentioned network IF13 is carried out following explanation.

Fig. 3 is the block diagram of the summary structure of expression network IF13.Network IF13 has: network service portion 20, frame analysis unit 21, data transfering department 22, frame generating unit 23.

Network service portion 20 is connected with wired lan 7, carries out the reception to the data (frame) of coming automatic network, and sends data (frame) to network.Particularly, network service portion 20 carries out the transmitting-receiving of data by limited LAN to PC (PC5,6), other MFP (MFP2,3,4).

Frame analysis unit 21 is accepted the data (frame) that network service portion 20 receives, and resolves this data.Whether whether particularly, frame analysis unit 21 resolves whether the data that receive are the data that send to MFP1, promptly be the data that send to the inherent address of MFP1, and be the data that send to virtual address.When carrying out this parsing, with reference to the Status Flag that is stored in the status information storage part 41 (with reference to Fig. 1) of following control part 12.And, after frame analysis unit 21 is finished data parsing, the data that send to the data of inherent address and send to virtual address are sent to data transfering department 22.

Data transfering department 22 sends data to the control part 12 of MFP1.And when MFP1 sent to wired lan 7 (network) with data, data were transferred to data transfering department 22 from control part 12.And data transfering department 22 sends to frame generating unit 23 with data.That is, data transfering department 22 carries out the reception transmission of data between control part 12 and frame analysis unit 21 and frame generating unit 23.

Frame generating unit 23 forms inherent address and sends data (frame) as transmission source address, make the transmission data to the additional transmission source address of data that is sent by control part 12, and send to network service portion 20.And network service portion 20 should send data and send to network.

The structure of control part 12 is described according to Fig. 1 at this.Control part 12 is used for Control Engine 11 and network IF13.

Control part 12 has: data judging part (location registration process portion, registering unit) 30, data store (storage part, storage unit) 31, data processing division (data processing unit) 32, threshold decision portion 33, adjustment part (Status Change handling part, Status Change unit) 34, administration of energy conservation portion 35.And, above-mentioned each parts be not shown CPU (central processing unit) carry out program stored in the not shown memory storage, by controlling the functional block that not shown peripheral circuit such as imput output circuit are realized.

Data judging part 30 is resolved the data that sent by network IF13, according to the transmission target of analysis result determination data.Particularly, when the data that data judging part 30 sends to this data judging part 30 in judgement are the Status Change order, this Status Change order is sent to adjustment part 34 (particularly being Status Change portion 40).And, when the data that data judging part 30 sends to data judging part 30 in judgement are the data (hereinafter referred to as print out task) that should handle, store this print out task into data store 31.

And when data judging part 30 was print out task in the data that judge to send, according to self state of (MFP), whether decision sent to data store 31 with this print out task.Self state according to setting in adjustment part 34 judges whether print out task is sent to data store 31.And, above-mentioned state is being discussed after a while.

Particularly, data judging part 30 print data that will send to the inherent address of self all sends to data store 31.And the print out task that sends to virtual address only when being following state of activation and holding state, is sent to data store 31 at oneself state (state of setting) in adjustment part 34.That is, the print out task that sends to virtual address is stored according to the state of self.

And data judging part 30 sends to status information storage part 41 with this status information when the status information of the state of the data that send these other MFP that to be expressions send from other MFP.

Further, data judging part 30 sends to self inherent address the PC in transmission source when receiving the print out task that sends to virtual address.This is because it be unclear that to handle the print out task that sends to virtual address in which MFP.Therefore, when receiving the print out task that sends to virtual address, data judging part 30 sends to the PC in transmission source by the inherent address with self, notifies which MFP to accept print out task to the PC in the source of transmission.

Data store 31 is used to store the print out task that is sent by data judging part 30.

Data processing division 32 is according to the state of setting in adjustment part 34, and the print out task of storage in the data store 31 is handled corresponding to the setting of engine 11 etc.Particularly, 32 pairs of print out task that send to inherent address of data processing division are handled successively.And the print out task for sending to virtual address is set at: handle successively when the state of self is state of activation and busy condition, when being in holding state and OFF state, do not handle.

Whether data volume or data number that threshold decision portion 33 is used for the print out task of judgment data storage part 31 storages surpass certain threshold value.In addition, the data volume of print out task is meant the data volume of the print object of a print out task, and the data number of print out task is meant the number of print out task.And above-mentioned threshold value can be set arbitrarily, but for example sets according to the boundary value of the processing power of data processing division 32.Below the concrete structure of above-mentioned threshold decision portion 33 is described.

Threshold decision portion 33 has: threshold value storage part 36, processing time calculating part (computing portion, computing unit) 37, threshold value comparing section (comparison process portion, comparing unit) 38.

Threshold value storage part 36 is used for storage threshold.This threshold value can be set arbitrarily, and also can be for example sets according to the boundary value of the processing power of data processing division 32.And, when setting above-mentioned threshold value according to the boundary value of the processing power of data processing division 32, the boundary value of the processing power of threshold decision portion 33 inquiry data processing divisions 33.Particularly, threshold decision portion 33 is according to the processing power judgment processing time of MFP (data processing division 32), with admissible maximum latency as threshold value.And the boundary value of above-mentioned processing power is meant, during print out task more than having sent it, judges that its processing time is the value of stipulated time when above.And above-mentioned threshold value can be the intrinsic value of device, also can be set arbitrarily by operator (keeper).

Processing time calculating part 37 is according to the data volume or the data number of print out task of storage in the data store 31, calculates the expection processing time that the processing of the print out task of storage finishes.

The expection processing time that threshold value comparing section 38 is relatively calculated by processing time calculating part 37, the threshold value that reaches storage in the threshold value storage part 36.And, judge whether the expection processing time is bigger than threshold value.

So, in threshold decision portion 33, whether the data of storage surpass the processing power in the data processing division 32 in the judgment data storage part 31.

On the other hand, adjustment part 34 is: the comparative result that sends according to the Status Change order that sends from data judging part 30, from threshold decision portion 33 (particularly from threshold value comparing section 38) or finish report from the data processing that data processing division 32 sends, change the state of self, and is connected with MFP1 by wired lan 7, and changes to other MFP transmit statuss that can receive virtual address and to order as self.

Above-mentioned adjustment part 34 has Status Change portion 40 and status information storage part (status information storage unit) 41 and change order and makes portion 42.

The Status Change order that Status Change portion 40 sends according to the comparative result that sends from threshold decision portion 33, from data judging part 30 or finish the status information that report, status information storage part 41 are stored from the data processing that data processing division 32 sends judges whether to change the state of self.And above-mentioned Status Change portion 40 is when having changed oneself state, and indication change order makes portion 42 and makes the Status Change order.This is elaborated.

Status Change portion 40 finishes the state of report change self by above-mentioned Status Change order, comparative result or data processing.Particularly, when from the time,, change this self state according to the comparative result of threshold value comparing section 38 as state of activation.And,, change this self state according to the Status Change order when from the time as holding state or OFF state.Further, when from the time, finish the state of report change this self according to data processing as busy condition.That is,, be used to change the triggering difference of this oneself state according to the difference of oneself state.

The inherent address of the state of status information storage part 41 storages self and the inherent address of other MFP and status information, PC etc.That is, status information storage part 41 storage: the inherent address of the PC that connects by wired lan 7, and with inherent address and the relevant information of state of other MFP that can receive the data that send to virtual address, these data also send to MFP1 self.

The comprising from the status information of all interior MFP of storage in the status information storage part 41, rewritten according to the status information that sends from Status Change portion 40 to the Status Change order of self or other MFP of sending from data judging part 30.

The change order makes portion 42 and is used to do the Status Change order that paired other MFP make the Status Change of these other MFP.This change order makes portion 42 and makes the Status Change order by the indication of Status Change portion 40.

Administration of energy conservation portion 35 carries out the control of engine 11 according to self status information of storage in the status information storage part 41.Particularly, when the state of self was the OFF state, administration of energy conservation portion 35 was OFF with the power settings of engine 11.And, when self state when the OFF Status Change is holding state, save management department 35 with the power connection of above-mentioned engine 11 and be set at the state that makes this engine standby.

Be elaborated at this each state to image processing system.

All MFP that connect, can receive the data that are sent to virtual address by wired lan 7 are set to state of activation or unactivated state.Particularly, above-mentioned unactivated state further is classified as holding state, busy condition and three kinds of states of OFF state.That is all MFP that receive the data that are sent to virtual address that, present embodiment relates to are set to any one in above-mentioned state of activation, holding state, busy condition and this one of four states of OFF state.And concrete setting state method will discussed after a while.

Above-mentioned state of activation is meant, can be sent to virtual address print out task append registration and this appends the state of handling successively of the print out task of registration.That is, the image processing system of this state of activation can receive the print out task that is sent to virtual address, and can handle the print out task of this reception.

Above-mentioned unactivated state is meant the state beyond the state of activation, particularly, is can't append print out task that registration is sent to virtual address, and appended at least one state in the handling successively of print out task of registration.More detailed saying, unactivated state is classified as following three kinds of states: (1) becomes the holding state of state of activation afterwards, (2) can't be sent to virtual address print out task append registration, but can append the busy condition of handling successively of the print out task of registration, (3) can't be sent to the appending registration, reach the OFF state of handling both successively of the print out task that has appended registration of print out task of virtual address.

And above-mentioned holding state becomes state of activation after being set to, and particularly, according to the difference of the kind of signal conditioning package, it sets also different.Particularly, when information processing apparatus is changed to MFP or network facsimile machine, holding state can be set at: can be sent to virtual address print out task append registration, but can not append the state of processing of the print out task of registration, and also can be set at: can't be sent to virtual address print out task append registration, and can't append the processing of the print out task of registration, but make engine be set at operating condition.Particularly,, compare, be used to realize that the running that image forms the engine of function more expends time in data processing when signal conditioning package has image when forming function as MFP, network facsimile machine etc.Therefore, when above-mentioned information processing apparatus is changed to MFP, network facsimile machine etc., preferably will after become state of activation holding state be set at the state that engine can turn round at once.And, in the above-mentioned signal conditioning package, when data processing or data expend time in, preferably holding state is set at following state: can be sent to virtual address print out task append registration, but can not append the state of processing of the print out task of registration.

And under above-mentioned any one state, MFP all can handle the print out task that is sent to inherent address.In other words, under above-mentioned any one state, receive the print out task that is sent to inherent address.That is,, neither cut off fully by power supply, but can receive the state of the print out task of transmission even for example under above-mentioned OFF state.

Fig. 4 is the key diagram of the conversion sequence of each state of expression.When the state of information processing is divided into above-mentioned four kinds of states, as shown in Figure 4, change according to each state of certain conditions.

Particularly, state of activation is converted to busy condition, and busy condition is converted to the OFF state, and the OFF state exchange is a holding state, and holding state is converted to state of activation.

In the conversion from the state of activation to the busy condition, with the comparative result of threshold value comparing section 38 as triggering.That is, state of activation, passing threshold comparing section 38 judging can't deal with data storage part 31 in moment of data of storage, change.Particularly, Status Change portion 40 after threshold value comparing section 38 receives the deal with data storage part 31 the big comparative result of the threshold value of storage in the time ratio threshold value storage part 36 of data of storage, self state of storage in the change status information storage part 41.

The conversion from busy condition to the OFF state, will finish report as triggering from the data processing of data processing division 32.That is, busy condition in the moment that data processing division 32 is finished the data processing of storage in the data store 31, is changed.Particularly, after Status Change portion 40 receives and finishes report from the data processing of data processing division 32, self state of storage in the change status information storage part 41.

In the conversion from the holding state to the state of activation, the MFP of state of activation is converted to busy condition as triggering.That is, state of activation, along be the Status Change of the MFP of state of activation to the MFP of busy condition conversion, before promptly, this MFP changes to other MFP transmit statuss of holding state and orders.And, after other MFP of holding state receive the Status Change order, the state of this other MFP is converted to state of activation from holding state.

The conversion from the OFF state to holding state, the MFP of state of activation is converted to busy condition as triggering.That is, holding state, along be the Status Change of the MFP of state of activation to the MFP of busy condition conversion, before promptly, this MFP changes to other MFP transmit statuss of OFF state and orders.And, after other MFP of holding state receive the Status Change order, be holding state from the OFF state exchange with the state of this other MFP.

And, to the conversion of holding state, also the MFP that newly becomes state of activation can be ordered as triggering to other MFP transmit status changes of OFF state from above-mentioned OFF state.

In the present embodiment, at least one MFP that can receive among the MFP of the print out task that is sent to virtual address is set to state of activation.And, by change the state of other MFP from the Status Change order of the MFP of this state of activation.Followingly the situation that for example MFP1, MFP2, MFP3, MFP4 are respectively state of activation, holding state, OFF state, OFF state is described with reference to Fig. 5.And Fig. 5 is the state of each MFP is changed in expression according to the threshold value in the present embodiment the key diagram of method.And shown among the figure in execution and added in the print out task of oblique line, be i.e. the state of in data processing division 32, handling.And, for example in the MFP1 of Fig. 5 (a), store task a, task b, task c from top to bottom successively as print out task.And for convenience of explanation, the threshold value of MFP1 is that the print out task number of standby is 4 o'clock the moment.

And each MFP handles print out task in accordance with the order from top to bottom successively.Further, print out task is handled according to the sequencing of storage (passing on) in the data store 31.Therefore, in the drawings, being documented in following print out task is than the print out task of the print out task on being documented in by the back storage.

Shown in Fig. 5 (a), (task a, b c) are received by MFP1, and the data storage of this reception is in the data store 31 of MFP1 to send to the print out task of virtual address.So send to of the MFP1 reception of the print out task of virtual address by state of activation.And, accumulated print out task in the data store 31 of the MFP of state of activation (is MFP1 at this).And, adjustment part 34 is by receiving new print out task (task d), when the amount that receives the print out task of storage the data store 31 from threshold decision portion 33 surpasses the processing power of data processing division 32 or surpasses the comparative result of pre-set threshold, with self Status Change of (MFP1) is busy condition, and send indication to data processing division 32, make it continue to handle the print out task of accumulation.And adjustment part 34 is to the MFP2 of holding state transmit status change order.The MFP2 that receives the Status Change order changes to state of activation with the state of this MFP2 from holding state.And at this moment, the adjustment part of (being in state of activation till perhaps) MFP1 of state of activation is to the MFP3 of OFF state transmit status change order.The MFP3 that receives the Status Change order is holding state (with reference to Fig. 5 (b)) with the state of this MFP3 from the OFF Status Change.

And, send to of the MFP2 reception of the print out task (task e) of virtual address afterwards by state of activation.At this moment, MFP1 can't receive the print out task that is sent to virtual address, but handles print out task (task a, b, c, d) (with reference to Fig. 5 (c)) that has accumulated successively.And (g) MFP2 by state of activation receives (with reference to Fig. 5 (d)) for task e, f further, newly to send to the print out task of virtual address.

And all processed when intact when the print out task of accumulating among the MFP1 of busy condition, data processing division 32 sends data processing to adjustment part 34 and finishes report.Adjustment part 34 receives after data processing finishes report, is OFF state (with reference to figure (e)) with self Status Change of (MFP1).

So, send to and comprise in the MFP that is sent to the state of activation that always has at least in the print out task of interior virtual address and processed.And, when the MFP of state of activation judges the processing power that surpasses self, send indication to other MFP, require it to become state of activation.So, for example can avoiding, a MFP handles the too concentrated generation of handling the state of affairs that becomes slow that makes.

And at this moment, there are two in the MFP of OFF state, but in the above description, MFP3 changes to holding state.When from the MFP of a plurality of OFF states, only a MFP being changed to holding state, apply priority to each MFP in advance and get final product.So, can determine the MFP of next change state.Particularly, as the method for changing to holding state from the OFF state, for example comprise following mode: (1) is as round-robin method (round robin), be predetermined the order that becomes holding state by the MFP in the group, order according to this decision is changed to holding state from the OFF state, (2) in the MFP of state of activation the moment to the busy condition conversion, to the MFP of all OFF states transmit status change order, make it become holding state, exchange has the state of equipment of itself between the MFP of OFF state, the data of information such as ability, the MFP that ability is higher is made as next holding state.

And, in the above description, only the print out task that sends to virtual address is described.At this print out task that sends to inherent address is described.The print out task that sends to the MFP of state of activation with inherent address is accumulated in the data store 31 of the MFP of this state of activation according to the order that sends.That is, under the MFP of state of activation, print out task that sends with virtual address and the print out task that sends to inherent address according to the sequential storage that sends in data store 31.Secondly, among the MFP of busy condition, the print out task that sends with inherent address is accumulated in print out task last of accumulation.

And, in the MFP of holding state and OFF state, handled at once with the print out task that inherent address sends.And the MFP of OFF state handles when sending to the print out task of inherent address, makes data processing division 32 and engine 11 actions under the state that keeps OFF.That is, keep at the state that makes virtual address making engine running under the state of OFF, handle the print processing that sends to inherent address.And when the finishing dealing with of the print out task that sends to above-mentioned inherent address, the power supply of engine disconnects.

So, according to the difference of MFP state, send to the processing difference of the print out task of virtual address.Therefore need not always to make the power connection of all MFP.Therefore that is, be in state of activation by always making at least one MFP, the MFP of this state of activation can handle the print out task that sends to virtual address, can be set at the state that the consumption electric power than above-mentioned state of activation lacks to other MFP.Therefore, compare, can realize energy-conservation with existing network printer system.

And the MFP of state of activation can grasp the state of self, and can indicate other MFP, makes it be converted to state of activation, therefore need not as prior art the server that preparation is special-purpose.Therefore, compare with the structure that for example private server is distributed to a plurality of MFP with print out task, owing to be not that print out task is carried out centralized management by server, so the situation that can avoid the task that when server damages, can't print under the prior art to handle.

Fig. 6 is among the MFP of expression state of activation, the key diagram of the conversion of each the MFP state when for example being used for printing print out task and using up as the paper of the data of print object.With reference to Fig. 6, the state exchange of each MFP in the time of temporarily can not using the MFP of state of activation describes.And for convenience of explanation, suppose that print out task (task) all sends to virtual address.And, for example, store task a, task b from top to bottom successively as print out task for the MFP1 shown in Fig. 6 (a).And as the state of each initial MFP, establishing MFP1 is state of activation, and MFP2 is a holding state, and MFP3, MFP4 are the OFF state.

At first, shown in Fig. 6 (a), (task a b) is stored among the MFP1 of state of activation to send to the print out task of virtual address.And, shown in Fig. 6 (b), in the MFP1 of state of activation, at print out task (in task processing a), when being used for printing (processing) this print out task and using up as the paper of the data of print object, MFP1 judges and can't handle print out task, and self state is changed to busy condition from state of activation.Particularly, the Status Change portion 40 of MFP1 is altered to busy condition with self status information of storage in the status information storage part 41 from state of activation when receiving the failure message that is sent by engine 11 image formation units such as grade (image forming part).And, send the Status Change order of change state to other MFP (MFP2,3).Particularly, Status Change portion 40 makes the change order make portion's 42 actions, will change order and send to other MFP.The MFP2 that receives the Status Change order is converted to state of activation with the state of self from holding state.And the MFP3 that receives the Status Change order is holding state with the state of self from the OFF state exchange.

And the MFP2 that is converted to state of activation receives the print out task (task c) (with reference to Fig. 6 c) that is sent to virtual address.And when the MFP1 that print paper is used up replenished paper, MFP1 began to carry out remaining print out task (a, processing b) under busy state.And, in MFP2, receive when being sent to the print out task of virtual address, handle the print out task (with reference to Fig. 6 (d)) of accumulation successively.

The MFP1 of busy condition is transformed into OFF state (with reference to Fig. 6 (e)) with self state from busy condition after the finishing dealing with of print out task of accumulation.

So, when the MFP that present embodiment relates to received from the failure message of image formation unit, Status Change portion 40 was converted to busy condition with the state of self from state of activation, and sent the Status Change order of change state to other MFP.So, can prevent that the MFP that is in malfunction from becoming state of activation.That is, when certain MFP breaks down, do not send print out task, and send print out task, thereby can suppress the processing delay of the print out task that causes because of this fault to other MFP to the MFP that is in malfunction.

And, in the above description, only the data that send to virtual address are described.But no matter all MFP under oneself state is in which state in the above-mentioned one of four states, all can handle the print out task that is sent to inherent address.

And for example when the MFP of holding state processing sent to the print out task of inherent address, when this MFP broke down, this MFP was to the MFP of OFF state transmit status change order.

Then the action under the state of having connected power supply among the above-mentioned MFP is described.

Fig. 7 is used to illustrate from energized begin to receive the process flow diagram of the flow process of a series of actions till the data to MFP.With reference to Fig. 7, the action of certain specific MFP is described.And, in following explanation, be that the situation of state of activation or OFF state (unactivated state) describes to the setting state of MFP based on process flow diagram.

At first, when connecting the power supply of MFP by the operator, the Status Change portion 40 of this MFP makes the change order make portion's 42 actions, carries out the setting state (step 10 is hereinafter referred to as S10) of self.Particularly, for example Status Change portion 40 makes the change order make portion 42 and network IF13 action, the response of request virtual address.That is, Status Change portion 40 sends suitable data to virtual address.And when not responding within a certain period of time, that is, when judging that other MFP do not receive the data of transmission, Status Change portion 40 makes 41 actions of status information storage part, and oneself state is set at state of activation.On the other hand, when the response returned for the data that send to virtual address from other MFP, be the OFF state with self setting state.At this moment, the Status Change order is sent to the inherent address of other MFP.So, decision state of activation and OFF state.For the MFP of OFF state, till the Status Change order that the MFP to reception from state of activation sends, keep the OFF state.And, the Status Change portion 40 of the MFP of state of activation when remaining MFP is the OFF state, with the state storage of these MFP at status information storage part 41.

Then, data judging part 30 judges whether to have sent data (S11) by network IF13.The packets of information that in LAN7, has various take over partys address, but only with set among the network IF13, be that the data of take over party address send to data judging part 30 with the inherent address of this MFP and the virtual address that contains the MFP group of this MFP, be that the data of take over party address go out of use in network IF13 with the address beyond it.

In S11, when having sent data, judgement (is "Yes" among the S11), data judging part 30 is resolved these data, judges whether the take over party address of these data is inherent address (S12).That is, data judging part 30 judges whether the data that receive are the data that are sent to inherent address.

In S12, when being inherent address, the take over party address of the data that judge to send (is "Yes" among the S12), data judging part 30 is resolved the content of these data, and handles (S13).Particularly, when above-mentioned data are the Status Change order, these data are sent to information-change portion 40.And, when above-mentioned data are print out task, these data are sent to data store 31.And when the processing of data finished, the processing of data judging part 30 turned back to S11.

On the other hand, in S12, when being not inherent address, the transmission destination address of judging the data that receive (is not "No" among the S12), data judging part 30 judges that the data that receive are virtual address, with reference to status information storage part 41, judge whether the state of self is state of activation (S14) simultaneously.

In S14, when being state of activation, the state of judging self (is "Yes" among the S14), data judging part 30 carries out the processing (S13) of the data of above-mentioned reception.And when the processing of data finished, the processing of data judging part 30 turned back to S11.

On the other hand, in S14, when being not state of activation, the state of judging self (is not "No" among the S14), the data judging part 30 discarded data (S15) that receive.And the processing in the data judging part 30 turns back to S11.

So, in the data that send to inherent address and virtual address, for the data that send to inherent address, the state ground that does not relate to self is handled, thereby can use with existing using method the samely.And, as the MFP of the uncertain processing of hope and when efficiently handling,, can handle comparatively efficiently by data being sent to virtual address.

And in the above description, in S14, when data judging part 30 judges that the data that send are not inherent address, judge that it is a virtual address, this is because network IF13 only sends to data judging part 30 with the data of virtual address and inherent address.

Therefore, for example when network IF13 sent to data judging part 30 with all data, in S14, data judging part 30 judged also whether the data of sending are the data that are sent to virtual address except above-mentioned judgement.And only the state to self is that the data of virtual address are handled in S13 for the address of activating and send.

Fig. 8 is the processing of print out task among the MFP of expression state of activation and the process flow diagram of state exchange.With reference to Fig. 8 the processing of the print out task among the MFP of state of activation and the conversion of state are described.And in the following description, for convenience of explanation, expression sends to the processing of the print out task of virtual address.

At first, data judging part 30 is resolved and is sent to the data of virtual address and judge whether print out task.That is, judge that judging part 30 judges whether to receive print out task (S30).And, when the state of MFP is OFF state, busy condition, do not receive the print out task that sends to virtual address.And, as described below, under the situation that is set at the MFP storage print task that makes holding state, only carry out S30 and following S32.

Then, in S30, when receiving print out task, data judging part 30 is resolved this print out task, determines the PC in the transmission source of this print out task.And data judging part 30 makes network IF13 action, with self inherent address (having received the inherent address of the MFP of print out task) and receive the PC (S31) of the advisory (transmission) of print out task to the transmission source.This is because the unclear print out task that sends to virtual address by which MFP is handled.And, for example when the state that unusual (comprise and exceed threshold value) MFP takes place is not state of activation, can't the print tracking task in virtual address.

And data judging part 30 is stored in (S32) in the data store 31 with the print out task that receives.

Then, be stored in data store 31 by print out task in S32, threshold decision portion 33 judges whether the print out task that is stored in the data store 31 surpasses certain threshold value (S33).Particularly, processing time calculating part 37 calculates the expection processing time according to the total amount (data volume or data number) of the print out task of storage in the data store 31.And, the threshold value of storage in expection processing time that threshold value comparing section 38 relatively calculates in processing time calculating part 37 and the threshold value storage part 36.And, when the expection processing time is bigger than threshold value, be judged as above threshold value.And this judged result sends to adjustment part 34.

In S33, when the print out task of storage surpasses certain threshold value in the threshold decision portion 33 judgment data storage parts 31 (being "Yes" among the S33), adjustment part 34 makes the state of self be converted to busy condition (S34) from state of activation.Particularly, Status Change portion 40 is to status information storage part 41 transmit statuss change order.The status information storage part 41 that receives the Status Change order is rewritten as busy condition with the information relevant with oneself state from state of activation according to this Status Change order.

And adjustment part 34 sends the Status Change order (S35) of the state of these other MFP of change to other MFP.Particularly, Status Change portion 40 determines the MFP of change state according to the state of other MFP of storage in the status information storage part 41.And Status Change portion 40 makes the change order make portion's 42 actions, and makes the Status Change order, to the MFP transmit status change order of change state.

And, in the present embodiment, the MFP of above-mentioned adjustment part 34 transmit statuss change order be made as the MFP of holding state, and the MFP of OFF state in a MFP.That is, above-mentioned adjustment part 34 is from the MFP of a plurality of OFF states, and the decision transmit status changes the MFP of order.As the method that from the MFP of these a plurality of OFF states, determines a MFP, can select following method: be predetermined the method for order, the method for the MFP that processing power is the highest among the MFP of selection OFF state.

Then, whether data processing division 32 when state of activation changes to busy condition, has accumulated the print out task that should handle at the state that detects self in the judgment data storage part 31.Particularly, the oneself state that can store from status information storage part 41 of data processing division 32 is known the situation of Status Change.And data processing division 32 and above-mentioned judgement are irrespectively according to the print out task of storing in the order of storing deal with data storage part 31 successively.

In S36, when data processing division 32 is judged the print out task that has accumulation (being "Yes" among the S36), handle the print out task (S37) of accumulation successively.

On the other hand, in S36, (be "No" among the S36) when data processing division 32 is judged the print out task that does not have accumulation, send data processing to adjustment part 34 and finish report.And, in adjustment part 34, make oneself state be transformed into OFF state (S38) from busy condition.Particularly, Status Change portion 40 receives data processing from data processing division 32 and finishes when report, rewrites the information relevant with the oneself state that is stored in status information storage part 41.And, finish a series of processing.

And though omitted explanation in above-mentioned process flow diagram, the MFP that state is changed sends the status information of expression oneself state change in the moment that oneself state is changed to other MFP.

So, the MFP of state of activation changes the state of self according to the print out task of storage in the data store 31.

Then, the Status Change of the MFP that carries out according to the Status Change order that sends in S35 is handled carried out following explanation.

Fig. 9 is the process flow diagram of expression according to a series of flow processs of the Status Change processing of changing oneself state from the Status Change order of other MFP.

At first, data judging part 30 judges whether the Status Change order from other MFP is sent out (S40).And, above-mentioned Status Change order be the MFP that sends to holding state, and the MFP of a plurality of OFF states in the order of a MFP.To being illustrated more than this.

When having sent the Status Change order, data judging part 30 sends to adjustment part 34 (particularly being Status Change portion 40) with this Status Change order.And, in adjustment part 34, judge whether the state of self is holding state (S41).Particularly, Status Change portion 40 is judged according to the oneself state of storage in the status information storage part 41.

And adjustment part 34 judges that whether self is holding state (being "Yes" among the S41), makes oneself state change (S42) from holding state to state of activation.Particularly, Status Change portion 40 is rewritten as state of activation with the oneself state of storage in the status information storage part 41 from holding state.

Then, adjustment part 34 will represent that the status information that oneself state is changed sends to other MFP (S43).In other MFP, rewrite (renewal) status information storage part according to above-mentioned status information, above-mentioned status information storage portion stores has sent the state of the MFP of status information.

And adjustment part 34 makes 33 actions of threshold decision portion and carries out threshold setting (S44).And, finish a series of processing.This threshold setting is being discussed after a while.

On the other hand, data judging part 30 (is not "No") among the S41 when judgement self is not holding state in S41, judge whether the state of self is OFF state (S45).

When judging that according to data judging part 30 adjustment part 34 is holding state (S46) with oneself state from the OFF state exchange from as the OFF state time (being "Yes" among the S45).And adjustment part 34 will represent that the status information that oneself state is changed sends to other MFP (S47).And finish a series of processing.

And, in S45, when 30 judgements self are not the OFF state according to the data judging part (being "No" among the S45), end process.

The setting of above-mentioned threshold value is described with reference to Figure 10 at this.And Figure 10 is the process flow diagram that is used to illustrate a series of flow processs of threshold setting.

At first, the threshold value of storage is unconfined (S50) in the 34 supposition threshold value storage parts 36 of adjustment part.And (S51) confirmed to have passed through the stipulated time in adjustment part 34, judges whether the MFP that is converted to holding state in S46 has sent status information (S52).And, when confirming to have sent status information, (being "Yes" among the S52), adjustment part 34 is predetermined value (S53) with the threshold setting in the threshold value storage part 36.And end process.And, in S52, when judging not send state information, (be "No" among the S52), handle turning back to S51.

So, by carrying out the setting of threshold value, can't select at the MFP that does not have the OFF state holding state during, can remove the restriction of threshold value, state of activation can not changed.

And in the above description, the treatment scheme when being state of activation, two kinds of states of OFF state (unactivated state) to the setting state of MFP is illustrated.But the state of MFP is not defined as above-mentioned two kinds of states, can comprise busy condition and holding state yet.

The process flow diagram that processing during Figure 11 data that have been the transmissions when being set in state of activation, holding state, busy condition and the OFF state any one, under each state of the state to MFP describes.And, for being marked with same step number, and omit its detailed description with processing that above-mentioned explanation has an identical step.In the following description, holding state being set to the structure of carrying out data storage describes.

At first, when the operator makes the power connection of MFP, carry out the processing of S10-14.And, in S14, when judging that the state of self is not state of activation, data judging part 30 (is "No" among the S14), whether carry out oneself state is the judgement (S20) of holding state.

In S20, when judging that the state of self is not holding state, data judging part 30 (is "No" among the S20), the state of judging self is OFF state or busy condition, the discarded data (S15) that receive.And the processing in the data judging part 30 turns back to S11.

On the other hand, in S20, when data judging part 30 judges that oneself state is holding state, (be "Yes" among the S20), resolve the data that receive, and judge whether these data are stored in (S21) in the data store 31.Particularly, data judging part 30 judges whether the data that receive are print out task.

In S21, when data judging part 30 judgment data are stored in the data store 31, (are "Yes" among the S21) when promptly judging that the data that receive are print out task, the data (print out task) that receive are sent to data store 31, and storage data (S22).And the data of storing among the MFP of holding state are till oneself state is converted to when activating, and are not processed.And when the MFP that is in state of activation handled the data of storing among the MFP of holding state, the data of storing among the MFP of holding state also went out of use.At this moment, the MFP from state of activation sends the report that the data processing relevant with specific data finished to the MFP of holding state.And, in the MFP of holding state, finish report according to above-mentioned data processing and carried out in the MFP of state of activation, finishing the discarded of the data handled.And the processing in the data judging part 30 turns back to S11.

So, by print out task being stored in advance among the MFP of holding state, for example when the MFP of state of activation takes place deliberately can't handle the data of storage, can handling, and need not to send the data that to handle once more from the PC that sends the source as data.And, by storing data in advance, when becoming state of activation suddenly, can utilize the data of storage to carry out the processing of data as early as possible because of the fault of the MFP of state of activation.With reference to Figure 12, the example that the MFP of state of activation and two kinds of states of holding state is received print out task and improves availability describes.

Figure 12 is the key diagram that is used to illustrate the conversion sequence of each state of MFP (being MFP2 at this) when receiving print out task that is in holding state fully in making a mistake.In addition, for convenience of explanation, establish print out task (task) and all send to virtual address.And, for example, store task a, task b from top to bottom successively as print out task to the MFP1 shown in Figure 12 (a).And,, also store task b, task b successively from top to bottom as print out task for MFP2.And as the state of each initial MFP, MFP1 is a state of activation, and MFP2 is a holding state, and MFP3, MFP4 are the OFF state.

At first, shown in Figure 12 (a), (task a b) stores among the MFP1 of state of activation to send to the print out task of virtual address.At this moment, in the MFP2 of holding state, the print out task of storing among the MFP1 of storage state of activation.And the MFP2 of holding state does not handle the print out task of this storage.And the print out task of finishing processing in the MFP1 of state of activation is deleted, at this moment, in the MFP2 of holding state, also discards the print out task of finishing processing in above-mentioned MFP1.Particularly, shown in Figure 12 (b), (task a) also goes out of use in MFP2 to finish the print out task of processing in MFP1.

And, in the MFP1 of state of activation, when mistakes such as holding paper for example take place, (task b is in the time of c) can't to handle the print out task of storage in MFP1, it is busy condition that MFP1 makes the state exchange of self, simultaneously to the MFP2 of holding state transmit status change order (with reference to Figure 12 (c)).And MFP1 sends the failure message that expression self is broken down to MFP2 simultaneously.And this moment, MFP1 was to also transmit status change order of the MFP3 of OFF state.

So, the MFP2 of holding state is converted to state of activation, and the MFP3 of OFF state is converted to holding state.And the MFP2 of state of activation resolves the failure message that sends from MFP1, begins untreated print out task (task b, processing c).

And the print out task (task d) that is sent to virtual address after the completion status conversion is stored among the MFP2 of state of activation.And print out task (task d) also is stored among the MFP3 of holding state (with reference to Figure 12 (d)).And in the MFP1 that breaks down, (b in the time of c), continues to keep busy condition to the print out task of discarded storage.And this processing is only being carried out when state of activation is transformed into busy condition because of making a mistake.That is, because of surpassing threshold value when busy condition is changed, the print out task of storage in the deleted data storage part 31 not.

And further, (task e f) is stored among the MFP3 of the MFP2 of state of activation and holding state to send to the print out task of virtual address.And the print out task of storing among the MFP2 of state of activation is processed successively.And, in the MFP1 of busy condition, after confirming that mistake is disengaged, make oneself state be converted to OFF state (with reference to Figure 12 (e)).

So, in the MFP of holding state,, for example break down to handle the print out task of storage the time, can utilize the print out task of storing in the holding state to handle at the MFP of state of activation by the print out task that MFP stored of storage state of activation.

And in the above description, when the MFP1 of state of activation is transformed into busy condition, to MFP2 transmit status change order.But, for example under the situation such as above-mentioned holding paper, though can be from MFP1 to MFP2 transmit status change order, for example Status Change portion 40 breaks down etc. under the situation, sometimes can't transmit status change order.Therefore, also can be as follows, the state of change MFP2.

For example can be set at: at a certain time interval from the MFP2 of holding state to the MFP1 of state of activation transmit status confirmation signal.And, in MFP1,, the state of MFP1 is sent to MFP2 according to the state confirmation signal that sends.At this moment, MFP2 when judgement does not have from the response of MFP1, makes 40 actions of Status Change portion after sending the state confirmation signal, oneself state is changed to state of activation.So, break down and transmit status to change under the situation of order, also can change the state of other MFP automatically at for example MFP1.

As mentioned above, by making two MFP while storage print tasks of state of activation and holding state,, also can not interrupt print out task ground and handle even when making a mistake.

And as mentioned above, when unactivated state further was categorized as busy condition, OFF state, holding state, in power connection, the MFP of unactivated state was set to any one in OFF state and the holding state.Particularly, when power connection, the MFP that is set at state of activation sends indication to other MFP, makes it be converted to holding state.Particularly, the Status Change portion 40 of the MFP of state of activation makes the change order of self make portion's 42 actions, in other MFP, sends indication at least one other MFP, makes it be converted to holding state.So, in the MFP of unactivated state, at least one MFP is set to holding state.

So, the MFP that present embodiment relates to (signal conditioning package) can not use server, by automatically switch the MFP that should handle print out task, the adjustment of can load dispersion and print out task between a plurality of MFP.

And, in the above-described embodiment, each functions of components of configuration information treating apparatus realizes in the following manner: arithmetic elements such as CPU are read the program code that is stored in the ROM recording mediums such as (Read OnlyMemory), this program code is launched in RAM (RandomAccess Memory) and carry out.But each functions of components of configuration information treating apparatus also can only realize by the hardware that carries out handling equally with this function.And, also can by combination carry out hardware that a part handles, and the above-mentioned arithmetic element of executive routine code realize that the said procedure code carries out the control and the remaining processing of this hardware.Further, in above-mentioned each parts, as the parts of hardware description also can by combination carry out hardware that a part handles, and the above-mentioned arithmetic element of executive routine code realize that the said procedure code carries out the control and the remaining processing of this hardware.In addition, above-mentioned arithmetic element can be a monomer, also can be to realize by the common executive routine code of a plurality of arithmetic elements that installs the connection of inner bus and various communication line.

But the program code self that can directly carry out by above-mentioned arithmetic element or as the program of the data by processing generator program codes such as following decompressions, this program (program code or above-mentioned data) is stored in the recording medium, and distribute this recording medium, the communication unit that perhaps makes said procedure utilize wired or wireless communication line to transmit sends and distributes, and is carried out by above-mentioned arithmetic element.

And when transmitting by communication line, each transmission medium that constitutes communication line utilizes this communication line to transmit said procedure by transmitting the train of signal of representation program mutually.And when transmitting train of signal, dispensing device can transmit ripple by the train of signal modulation that utilizes representation program, makes above-mentioned train of signal overlapping with the transmission ripple.At this moment, transmit ripple by the receiving trap demodulation, train of signal is restored.On the other hand, when transmitting above-mentioned train of signal, dispensing device also can make as the train of signal packets of information of digital data strings to be cut apart and transmits.At this moment, receiving trap links the packets of information group who receives, and restores above-mentioned train of signal.And, when dispensing device sends train of signal, can cut apart by the time/methods such as frequency division/code division, train of signal and other multipleization of train of signal and transmission.At this moment, receiving trap is extracted train of signal and recovery one by one out from the train of signal of multipleization.In either event, as long as can pass through the communication line convey program, then can obtain same effect.

Wherein, the recording medium during allocator is preferably dismountable, and then whether it detachable no matter distribute recording medium after the program.And as long as aforementioned recording medium is stored programme, and no matter whether it can rewrite (writing), whether have volatibility, and no matter its recording method and shape.Example as recording medium, comprise bands such as tape, magnetic tape cassette, perhaps disks such as Off ロ Star ピ one (floppy disk, registered trademark) dish, hard disk, perhaps CD-ROM, photomagneto disk (MO), mini-disk (MD), digital video disc dishes such as (DVD, Digital Versatile Disc).And recording medium also can be cards such as IC-card, light-card, perhaps semiconductor memories such as mask ROM, EPROM, EEPROM or flash ROM.Perhaps also can be the interior storeies that form of arithmetic element such as CPU.

And, the said procedure code can be with above-mentioned each handle be indicated to the code of above-mentioned arithmetic element in steps, and call by the pre-arranged procedure, there are above-mentioned in steps part or all of displacement such as the then also available code, pointer that calling of this base program is indicated to above-mentioned arithmetic element if can carry out above-mentioned each part or all base program (for example operating system, routine library etc.) of handling.

And the form with procedure stores during to aforementioned recording medium can be, as the state that is configured in actual storage, and the file layout that arithmetic element can conduct interviews; Also can be before being configured to actual storage, arithmetic element be installed to the file layout behind the local record medium (for example actual storage, hard disk etc.) that always can visit; Or, be installed to file layout before the above-mentioned local record medium from network, transmissible recording medium etc.And, the object identification code after program is not limited to compile, the intermediate code that midway generates that also can be used as source code, intermediate code or compiling is stored.In either event, decompress(ion) by information compressed, decoding, code translation, compiling, the link of information encoded or be configured to the processing of actual storage etc. or the combination that each is handled, as long as the variable executable form of above-mentioned arithmetic element that is changed to, then the form during to recording medium with procedure stores no matter all can obtain same effect.

And above-mentioned inherent address or virtual address particularly for example comprise MAC Address, IP address etc.Carry out data processing by reality (intrinsic) MAC Address, to also not having obstacle by the service that utilizes reality (intrinsic) MAC Address such as arp, rarp to provide to this machine.

And, in the above description, be illustrated when the MFP that is set at state of activation is one.But the platform number that is set at the MFP of state of activation is not particularly limited, and for example also can be made as two.At this moment, can set priority, mainly carry out data processing, perhaps also can make the MFP of state of activation receive data successively by specific MFP to the MFP of a plurality of states of activation.

And, in the present embodiment, utilize MFP to be illustrated, but also can be the simple network printer as multi-function printer.And in the present embodiment, by wired lan 7, PC is connected with MFP, but also can be for example to utilize connections such as WLAN.Further, PC is so long as can send to print out task the equipment of MFP and get final product.And PC and MFP are not particularly limited.

And, in the above description, utilize MFP to be illustrated to signal conditioning package, but be not limited to MFP as signal conditioning package, for example also can be network facsimile machine (the Internet FAX) etc.

And, in the above description,, be categorized as one of four states (state of activation, holding state, busy condition, OFF state) as the state of MFP1.But the classification of state and definition are not limited thereto.For example also can be categorized as state of activation, busy condition, three kinds of states of OFF state, perhaps also can further append other classification.These sorting techniques can suitably be set according to the kind of signal conditioning package.

And in the above description, state and the inherent address of all MFP of and data that can receive virtual address that connect by wired lan 7 to storage in the status information storage part 41 are that example is illustrated.But, for example when having preestablished the order that is transformed into state of activation and holding state among a plurality of MFP, need not to store all status informations relevant with MFP, can when becoming state of activation, self only store the inherent address of the MFP that becomes holding state.That is, when from as state of activation the time, if the next inherent address that is converted to the MFP of state of activation of storage, by ordering to this inherent address transmit status change, in other MFP, can make a MFP at least is state of activation.

And, handle by each MFP owing to send to the data (print out task) of inherent address, and the data that send to virtual address are handled by a plurality of MFP, therefore can separately use the MFP of output according to the processing intent difference.That is, when for example outputing to specific MFP,,, use the MFP that exports thereby can suitably separate when hope sends to virtual address with data during deal with data as early as possible when inherent address sends data.

And the structure of the signal conditioning package that present embodiment relates to also can be to have: storage unit; Receiving element can receive the data that send to predetermined virtual address; Registering unit, the data supplementing that this receiving element is received is registered to said memory cells; Data processing unit, handle the data of storing in the said memory cells successively, wherein, has the Status Change unit, control above-mentioned registering unit and data processing unit, and switch the unactivated state beyond state of activation and the state of activation, above-mentioned state of activation is the state that appends registration and data processing that can carry out above-mentioned data, and above-mentioned unactivated state is the state that appends registration and/or data processing that can not carry out data; State storage unit, storage can receive the inherent address of other signal conditioning packages of the data that are sent to above-mentioned virtual address and the state of these other signal conditioning packages, when the untreated data that above-mentioned Status Change unit is registered in said memory cells surpass threshold value, other signal conditioning packages of the unactivated state of storing in above-mentioned state storage unit send indication, make it be converted to state of activation, and make and self be converted to unactivated state, make data processing unit handle untreated data.

And, receive print out task by network from host apparatus, the formation of the network printer system that a plurality of image processing systems (MFP) that related to by embodiments of the present invention constitute also can be: each image processing system has the network interface of the virtual address that can utilize the common reception special use of except inherent address print system, and the adjustment unit of the processing sequence of the print out task between the adjustment image device, according to adjusting the result, at least one image processing system receives print out task with virtual address, and an image processing system reception print out task is also handled.By said structure, in the network printer system that does not utilize server, the user need not to consider which printer to send print out task to.As long as send to predetermined certain virtual address, then can not focus on the printer, the printer accessible information corresponding with processing sequence also prints processing.

And, the structure of the image processing system that present embodiment relates to (MFP) also can be: have and can utilize the image processing system that receives the network interface of special-purpose virtual address except inherent address, when receiving print out task, the information notice that receives is comprised the transmission source of the print out task of inherent address with virtual address.By said structure, can inquire and operate to the image processing system that receives print out task from host apparatus.

Signal conditioning package of the present invention has to achieve these goals: storage part; Acceptance division can receive the data that are sent to predetermined particular address; Location registration process portion, the data supplementing that this acceptance division is received is registered to above-mentioned storage part; Data processing division is handled the data of storing in the above-mentioned storage part; The Status Change handling part, control above-mentioned location registration process portion and data processing division, and switch the unactivated state beyond state of activation and the state of activation, above-mentioned state of activation is meant the processing of appending registration and these data of the data that can send to above-mentioned particular address, when the untreated data that above-mentioned Status Change handling part is registered in above-mentioned storage part surpass predetermined threshold value, order other signal conditioning packages to be transformed into state of activation, and make and self be converted to unactivated state, make data processing division handle untreated data.

According to said structure, when the untreated data that the Status Change handling part is registered in above-mentioned storage part surpass predetermined threshold value, order other signal conditioning packages to be transformed into state of activation, and make and self be converted to unactivated state, handle the untreated data of accumulation.Therefore, can make at least one station information treating apparatus always be in the state that can receive data.So, can need not server and the data centralization that prevents to handle to a station information treating apparatus, therefore can carry out the processing of data efficiently on the whole.And, compare with the existing structure of server-assignment data of utilizing, can prevent that all from answering concentrating of deal with data, therefore can need not server and make the data dispersion treatment.

And, from operator's angle, can grasp the state ground deal with data of each signal conditioning package, and can carry out data processing efficiently.

And, construct when connecting a plurality of network information processing systems with above-mentioned signal conditioning package by network, only by the reception transmission of Status Change order, any one signal conditioning package in the system can send to the processing of the data of particular address between each signal conditioning package.Therefore, compared with prior art, can reduce the data transmit-receive amount between the signal conditioning package.So, can reduce the burden of each signal conditioning package.

And above-mentioned control can be that the Status Change handling part is directly controlled location registration process portion and data processing division, also comprise the Status Change handling part according to the change state and the action of change of registration handling part and data processing division.That is, above-mentioned control comprise the direct control directly controlled, and by other indirect control of controlling indirectly.

The signal conditioning package that the present invention relates to also can be: the status information that above-mentioned Status Change handling part is relevant according to the state of other signal conditioning packages of status information storage portion stores, decision are converted to other signal conditioning packages of state of activation from unactivated state.

According to said structure, the Status Change handling part is according to the status information of storing in the status information storage part, and the decision indication is converted to other signal conditioning packages of state of activation.Particularly, in the signal conditioning package of the unactivated state that the Status Change handling part is stored from the status information storage part, decision is converted to other signal conditioning packages of state of activation.Therefore, for example in other signal conditioning packages of unactivated state, can make other the highest signal conditioning packages of performance be converted to state of activation.

The signal conditioning package that the present invention relates to has: the computing portion that goes out the treatment capacity of these untreated data according to the untreated data computation of registering in the above-mentioned storage part; The comparison process portion of this treatment capacity and predetermined threshold relatively, above-mentioned Status Change handling part is according to the comparative result of comparison process portion, and whether decision makes and self is converted to unactivated state.

According to said structure, have comparison process portion, be used for the untreated data that the comparison storage part stores and whether surpass predetermined threshold value.And, according to this comparative result, the state of Status Change handling part change self.So, can be according to the state of the data change self of real-time transmission.

In the signal conditioning package that the present invention relates to, comprise in the above-mentioned unactivated state according to the conversion command that is converted to state of activation that sends by other signal conditioning packages and make the holding state that self is converted to state of activation, also can above-mentioned Status Change handling part when judging that oneself state is holding state, portion controls to location registration process, the registration of appending with the data that send to above-mentioned particular address, and, when other signal conditioning packages that are judged as state of activation can't carry out data processing, handle the data of appending registration.

According to said structure, comprise holding state in the above-mentioned unactivated state, and under holding state, above-mentioned Status Change handling part send to above-mentioned particular address data append registration.Therefore, for example other signal conditioning packages of state of activation break down when self being converted to state of activation, can utilize the data of (accumulation) of having appended registration to get started data processing.And, owing to accumulated data in advance, therefore, need not to carry out the transmission once more of data from the transmission source when holding state is converted to state of activation.

In addition, when other signal conditioning packages of judging state of activation can carry out data processing, the Status Change handling part made the action of data judging part, and the data of registration are appended in deletion.That is, can't normally carry out the data processing except for example judging that other signal conditioning packages hinder etc. for some reason, the Status Change handling part does not append the processing of the data of registration.

And the Status Change handling part judges that the method whether other signal conditioning packages of state of activation can carry out data processing comprises: receive from other signal conditioning packages of state of activation and can't normally carry out the method for signal to judge that data processing is a purport; Regularly the signal conditioning package to state of activation sends signal, by the method for response of this signal not being judged; The signal conditioning package of state of activation does not send the signal that should regularly send, thus the method for judging etc.But this method is not particularly limited.

In the signal conditioning package that the present invention relates to, above-mentioned unactivated state comprises: the OFF state that appends the registration and the processing of these data that does not send to the data of above-mentioned particular address; Make data processing unit handle the busy condition of untreated data, also can above-mentioned Status Change handling part after being transformed into busy condition, during the finishing dealing with of the untreatment data that carries out when the judgment data handling part, make self to be transformed into the OFF state, and control data processing division is failure to actuate.

According to said structure, above-mentioned Status Change handling part is controlled, under busy condition, handle untreated data after, make self to be converted to the OFF state, and do not make data processing division action.Therefore, owing under the OFF state, data processing division is failure to actuate, so can realize energy-conservation.And, in the signal conditioning package of the data that always connect, can receive particular address by Department of Communication Force, at least one station information treating apparatus is set to state of activation, even therefore other signal conditioning packages are set at the OFF state, also can not damage operator's convenience, can realize saving.

In the signal conditioning package of the present invention,, the information of data and the inherent address of self have been received to the transmission source notice that sends these data when above-mentioned location registration process portion judges that the data that receive are when sending to the data of particular address.

Above-mentioned inherent address is to point to the address that each signal conditioning package is given.That is, not the address of sharing by a plurality of signal conditioning packages as above-mentioned particular address, but the address that signal conditioning package has separately.

So long as can receive the signal conditioning package of the data that are sent to this particular address, the whichever signal conditioning package all can receive the data that send to particular address.Therefore, for example the transmission source of data can't judge which signal conditioning package receives this data when particular address sends data.By said structure, the signal conditioning package that receives the data be sent to particular address sends the information that receives, and inherent address to the transmission source, so the transmission source can judge which signal conditioning package receives data.

And above-mentioned signal conditioning package also can be realized by hardware, also can be by being realized by executive program.Particularly, the program that the present invention relates to is the program that makes computer action as signal conditioning package.And, write down this program in the recording medium that the present invention relates to.

When these programs were carried out by computing machine, this computing machine moved as above-mentioned signal conditioning package.So, can not use server and carry out the distribution of data according to the setting of each signal conditioning package.

The image processing system that the present invention relates to also can have above-mentioned signal conditioning package to achieve these goals, reach the data of handling by above-mentioned signal conditioning package are carried out the image forming part that image forms.

According to said structure, can make at least one image processing apparatus always can receive the data that are sent to particular address, therefore can not need server, and the data centralization that can prevent to handle is in a station information treating apparatus.

In the image processing system of the present invention, above-mentioned unactivated state comprises the holding state that next time is transformed into state of activation, and above-mentioned Status Change handling part is controlled when oneself state is holding state, makes image forming part become operating state.

According to said structure, under holding state, image forming part is set at operating state.And image forming part (image forms and uses engine) needs spended time just to become running status generally speaking.Therefore, when when other signal conditioning packages send the indication that is transformed into state of activation, the signal conditioning package of holding state is converted to state of activation, and gets started image and form.

(embodiment 2)

With reference to Figure 13 to Figure 24 other embodiments that the present invention relates to are carried out following explanation.

And in the following description, data are made of a plurality of frames.That is, data for example represent that one of print out task etc. is gathered, and frame is represented the segment of data.And each frame has the destination address of transmission and transmission source address.And in the following description, utilize MAC Address explanation as the address, but the kind of address there is no particular limitation.

The network printer system (network information processing system) that present embodiment is related to reference to Figure 14, Figure 15 describes.Figure 14 is the block diagram of the summary structure of the network printer system that relates to of expression present embodiment.And Figure 15 is the block diagram of structure of the major part of the above-mentioned network printer system of expression.The network printer system 101 that present embodiment relates to is to be connected with other networks by router 99 as shown in figure 14, and is formed on the printer system on the star-like LAN, is connected with a plurality of printer systems on the router 99.And as shown in figure 15, in the network printer system 101, (98a, 98b) (97a, 97b 97c) connect by conversion equipment (line concentrator) 100 a plurality of host apparatus with a plurality of MFP (MultiFunction Printer, signal conditioning package).And in the following description, except special differentiation explanation, to host apparatus 98a, 98b illustrates with host apparatus 98, with MFP97a, and 97b, 97c illustrates with MFP97.And, for example comprise PC etc. as host apparatus 98.And, when conversion equipment 100 receives the first frame of a print out task (data) that sends from a host apparatus 98, be registered in the linking objective table of being managed 123 (with reference to Figure 13), according to this linking objective table 123 couple subsequent frame selective reception side MFP97.And in the following description, host apparatus 98 is described by the structure that conversion equipment 100 is connected with MFP97.And linking objective table 123 is being discussed after a while.

Host apparatus 98 is used for sending print out task to MFP97.And this print out task can be made by host apparatus 98, perhaps also sends to the task of this host apparatus 98 from external unit.

Then MFP97 is described with reference to Figure 16.Figure 16 is the block diagram of the summary structure of expression MFP97.

MFP97 is used to handle the print out task that sends from host apparatus 98.MFP97 has as shown in figure 16: power supply 130, operating portion 131, Printer Engine 132, control part 133, image processing part 134, impact damper 135, communication IF portion 136, and state notifying portion (information notifier processes portion) 137.

Power supply 130 has auxiliary power 138, and being used for provides electric power to MFP97 integral body.Operating portion 131 is used for by operator's input picture formation condition etc., or carries out various settings.Printer Engine 132 is used to carry out image and forms action.Communication IF portion 136 is used to carry out and outside message exchange.Particularly, be used for, or send print out task, reach following status information etc. to the outside from outside reception print out task.Impact damper 135 is used for the print out task that temporary transient storage sends from the outside etc.Image processing part 134 is used to the Flame Image Process of the task that prints.

And, have state notifying portion 137 among the MFP97.This state notifying portion 137 is used for to the conversion equipment 100 notices status information relevant with the state of MFP97.Above-mentioned status information for example is meant the information of the state of the performance of MFP97, present MFP97.

Figure 13 is the block diagram of the summary structure of the conversion equipment 100 that relates to of expression present embodiment.

Conversion equipment 100 is used to comprise between host apparatus 98 and the MFP97, between host apparatus 98 and the host apparatus 98, the relaying of all frames (data) of the print out task that exchanges between MFP97 and the MFP97.That is, conversion equipment 100 is used for the relaying of the data communication frame that carries out between the equipment that this conversion equipment 100 connected.Specifically, conversion equipment 100 is used for reference to the reception MAC Address that is attached to by the frame that sends the source apparatus transmission, and decision sends these data to which device.

The conversion equipment 100 that present embodiment relates to has as shown in figure 13: the port unit 200 that is made of a plurality of port one 11..., address table (port storage part, port memory cell) 112, data buffer 113, virtual address storage part (address storage part, address storaging unit) 114, data processing division (output processing part, output unit) 115, data judging part (data judgment processing portion, data determining unit) 116, and MFP determination section (device decision handling part, treating apparatus decision unit) 117.

And, conversion equipment 100 also can be provided with as required: port registration portion 118, transmission source rewriting portion (handling part is rewritten in the transmission source, the unit is rewritten in the transmission source) 119, self inherent address storage part (self inherent address storage part, self inherent address storage unit) 120, state table (state storage portion, state storage unit) 121.And in the following description, to have this port registration portion 118, transmission source rewriting portion 119, self inherent address storage part 120, and the structure of state table 121 describe.

Pair cable such as available 10base-T freely connects printer (comprising MFP4), PC (host apparatus 3), hub, switch, router etc. in each port one 11.And, to each port one 11 give portal number (P1, P2, P3...).

Data buffer 113 is used for the frame (data) that frame (data) that temporary transient storage sends from host apparatus 98 or MFP97 maybe will send.

Port registration portion 118 is used for the portal number and the equipment (host apparatus 98 or the MFA97 that are connected with this port one 11 at following address table 112 record port ones 11; Below when not distinguishing host apparatus 98 and MFP97, be called equipment) the corresponding relation of MAC Address.

Address table 112 is used to write down MAC Address, and the corresponding relation of the portal number of each port one 11 of the equipment that is connected with each port one 11.That is, record which port one 11 in the address table 112 and be connected to which equipment.

Figure 17 is the key diagram that is used for illustrating the information of address table 112 records.As shown in figure 17, in the address table 112, the portal number of each port one 1 is set up corresponding relation respectively with the device mac address that is connected with each port one 11, with this corresponding relation as one group of storage.Only there is the number that is equivalent to the equipment that is connected with port one 11 in this corresponding relation.Particularly, in the address table 112 the registration MAC Address be connected (can arrive) and had a group of port one 11 of the equipment of this address.Therefore, when conversion equipment 100 received frame, the reception MAC Address of reference frame detected the group of address table 112, can know the port one 11 that should send this frame.

When port registration portion 118 is used for receiving frame by the equipment that port one 11 is never known the MAC Address (hereinafter referred to as transmission source address) in transmission source, the group of the port one 11 of above-mentioned transmission source address and received frame is registered to address table 112.That is, above-mentioned port registration portion 118 is used to make address table 112.

The transmission source address that frame added that transmission source rewriting portion 119 is used for sending is rewritten as following virtual address.This transmission source rewriting portion 119 is being discussed after a while.

The frame that data judging part 116 sends by parsing extracts take over party's's (transmission target) of this frame MAC Address (hereinafter referred to as the take over party address), according to the take over party address of this extraction, distributes (transmission) this frame.That is, data judging part 116 is with reference to self inherent address of storage in the virtual address of storage in the following virtual address storage part 114 and self the inherent address storage part 120, the processing intent ground (transmission target) of decision frame.

Particularly, when the take over party address of the frame that data judging part 116 sends in judgement is virtual address, this frame is sent to MFP determination section 117.And when the take over party address of the frame that sends is known take over party address and unknown take over party address (in other words take over party address be beyond virtual address and self inherent address time), data judging part 116 sends to data processing division 115 with this frame.

And data judging part 116 is judged when the take over party address of the frame that sends is self inherent address, resolves the content of this frame, upgrades the setting of conversion equipment 100, and carries out various processing.Particularly, for example carry out the setting of virtual address and change etc.

The virtual address (particular address) that 114 storages of virtual address storage part are set by data judging part 116.This virtual address is not the intrinsic MAC Address of equipment, but the shared MAC Address of network printer system.That is, in the present embodiment, by data (frame) are sent to this virtual address, conversion equipment 100 determines the transmission target of these data automatically, carries out data processing.

Self inherent address storage part 120 storages self inherent address is promptly stored the inherent address of conversion equipment 100.In the present embodiment, by data (frame) being sent to this self inherent address, the setting of variable conversion equipment 100.

MFP determination section 117 is used to determine send to the transmission target (pass on destination) of the frame of virtual address.Particularly, be used to determine to send the MFP97 of the frame of the virtual address of sending from host apparatus 98.In the present embodiment, MFP determination section 117 determines the MFP97 of transmit frame according to following state table 121.The determining method of the transmission target of the detailed description of MFP determination section 117 and frame is being discussed after a while.

State table 121 storages are by state and the ability of all MFP97 of port one 11 connections.

Figure 18 is the key diagram that is used for description status table 121 canned data.As shown in figure 18, the inherent address of each MFP97 of being connected with conversion equipment 100 of storage in the state table 121, reach the status information of the ability (device information, preferred value) of representing this MFP97.

Data processing division 115 is according to the take over party address of the frame that sends from data judging part 116 or MFP determination section 117, and decision sends the port one 11 of this frame.Particularly, data processing division 115 is with reference to the portal number of address table 112 decisions with the take over party address corresponding port 111 of the frame that sends.And data processing division 115 sends to above-mentioned frame the portal number of decision.

So, the print out task that sends to MFP97 from host apparatus 98 is broken down into a plurality of frames, and this frame sends to MFP97 via conversion equipment 100.Particularly, send to the frame of conversion equipment 100,, send to other port ones 11 from certain port one 11 according to the MAC Address of storage in the address table 112 and the group of portal number.And above-mentioned frame finally sends to the equipment with take over party address through this conversion equipment 100.

Figure 19 is the process flow diagram of a series of processing of expression conversion equipment 100 when receiving frame.With reference to Figure 19, the processing when frame is sent to conversion equipment 100 describes.

At first, when port one 11 receives frame (S110), this frame temporarily stores data buffer 113 into.And above-mentioned frame is sent to port registration portion 118.Then, port registration portion 118 resolves above-mentioned frame and extracts transmission source address, judges whether this transmission source address is stored (registration) and arrived address table 112 (S111).That is, judge whether transmission source address is known.

In S111, do not store (registration) in address table 112 time (being "No" among the S111) when judging transmission source address, port registration portion 118 makes the establishment of port one 11 (portal number) of transmission source address and reception upright corresponding, and is registered to (S112) in the address table 112.Then, port registration portion 118 sends to data judging part 116 via transmission source rewriting portion 119 with above-mentioned frame.And treatment conversion is to S115.On the other hand, in S111, when judging that transmission source address storage (registration) has been arrived in the address table 112 ("Yes" among the S111), above-mentioned frame is sent to transmission source rewriting portion 119.And transmission source rewriting portion 119 judges with reference to linking objective table 123 whether the transmission source address of the frame that sends is the MAC Address (S113) of MFP97.In other words, transmission source rewriting portion 119 judges whether above-mentioned frame sends from MFP97.

In S113, when judging that transmission source address is the MAC Address of MFP4 (being "Yes" among the S113), transmission source rewriting portion 119 is with reference to virtual address storage part 114, and the transmission source address of above-mentioned frame is rewritten as virtual address (S114).And the frame that above-mentioned transmission source is rewritten is sent to data judging part 116.And treatment conversion is to S115.And in the following description, the frame that the transmission source is rewritten describes as identical frame with the frame of not rewritten.

On the other hand, in S113, when judging that transmission source address is not the MAC Address of MFP4 (being "No" among the S113), transmission source rewriting portion 119 sends to data judging part 116 with above-mentioned frame.

Then, data judging part 116 is resolved above-mentioned frame and is extracted take over party address (S115), according to the take over party address of this extraction, and the transmission target of decision frame.Particularly, whether the take over party address of data judging part 116 judgment frame is corresponding to self inherent address of storage in the virtual address of storage in the virtual address storage part 114 or self the inherent address storage part 120.

And when judging that the take over party address is virtual address, data judging part 116 sends to MFP determination section 117 with above-mentioned frame.And MFP determination section 117 determines the MFP decision of the transmission target (take over party) of above-mentioned frame to handle (printer is selected processing) (S116) with reference to state table 121.And, the decision of above-mentioned MFP is handled in argumentation after a while.And, determined take over party's frame to be sent to data processing division 115.

When the frame that has determined the take over party was sent out, data processing division 115 was with reference to address table 112, and decision sends the port one 11 of this frame.And data processing division 115 sends to above-mentioned data the port one 11 (S117) of decision.And, finish a series of processing.

On the other hand, when judging that the take over party address does not correspond to virtual address and self inherent address, data judging part 116 sends to data processing division 115 with above-mentioned frame.And in data processing division 115, the take over party address of judging above-mentioned frame is known or unknown (S118).Particularly, data processing division 115 judges with reference to address table 112 whether the take over party address and the port one 11 that append to above-mentioned frame be corresponding.And, when the take over party address of above-mentioned frame is not stored in address table 112,, be known during storage for unknown.

In S118, when being known, the take over party address of the frame that sends when judgement (is "Yes" among the S118), carry out the processing of S117.On the other hand, in S118, the take over party address of the frame that sends when judgement (being "No" among the S118) when unknown, data processing division 115 is to 111 transmission (flooding) the above-mentioned frames (S119) of all of the port except the port one 11 that sends this frame.And, finish a series of processing.

And, in S115, when judging that above-mentioned take over party address is self inherent address, data judging part 116 will be above-mentioned the frame of self inherent address to restore be data.And data judging part 116 is resolved the data of restoring, and judges whether these data are to set change order (S120).

And in S120, when judging that the data of restoring are (to be "Yes" among the S120) when setting the change order, data judging part 116 is according to the content of above-mentioned setting change order, the setting (S121) of change (renewal) conversion equipment 100.Particularly, the virtual address of storage in change (renewals) virtual address storage part 114, or self inherent address of storing in change (renewal) self the inherent address storage part 120.And end process.

On the other hand, in S120, when the data of judge restoring are not (to be "No" among the S120) when setting the change order, data judging part 116 judges that whether the data of above-mentioned recovery are the notices (S122) from MFP97 (printer).And when the data of judging above-mentioned recovery when being notices from MFP97 (being "Yes" among the S122), data judging part 116 carries out the processing (S123) at above-mentioned notice.Particularly, for example the notice from above-mentioned MFP97 is when changing the order of state table 121, and data judging part 116 is rewritten state tables 121.Processing to this notice will discussed after a while.In addition, this rewriting can be that data judging part 116 is directly rewritten state table 121, also can be that data judging part 116 makes 117 actions of MFP determination section to rewrite state table 121.On the other hand, when the data of judging above-mentioned recovery when not being notice from MFP4 (being "No" among the S122), end process.

As mentioned above, the structure of the conversion equipment 100 that relates to of present embodiment is to have: the virtual address storage part 114 of storing virtual address; Judge whether the frame that sends is the data judging part 116 of virtual address; MFP determination section 117 judges that by data judging part 116 frame that sends is when sending to virtual address, at a plurality of MFP97 (equipment that can handle the data that send to virtual address; Signal conditioning package) in, decision sends the take over party address of this frame at least one MFP97; Data processing division 115, decision can be exported the port one 11 of above-mentioned frame to the take over party address that is determined by above-mentioned MFP determination section 117, and this frame is outputed to this port one 11.

So, MFP determination section 117 determines to handle among a plurality of MFP97 the MFP97 of this frame for the frame that sends to virtual address.And data processing division 115 sends above-mentioned frame to the MFP97 by 117 decisions of MFP determination section.Therefore, though server is not set, the conversion equipment 100 that present embodiment relates to can make the frame that sends to virtual address that sends to this conversion equipment 100, and the MFP97 that is handled this frame by the decision among a plurality of MFP4 handles.

And, in order to transmit frame, host apparatus 98 and the conversion equipment between the MFP97 100 between transmit frame distribute the frame of virtual address, different during therefore with server-assignment, data traffic (traffic) between server and the conversion equipment 100 can not increase, and can reduce the data traffic of network integral body.

And in S119, data processing division 115 sends to all of the port 111 except the port one 11 that sends this frame with above-mentioned frame.But for example in S113, when judging that transmission source address is the MFP97 address, data processing division 115 sends to above-mentioned frame on all of the port 111 except port one 11 that sends this frame and the port one 11 that is connected MFP97 and gets final product.

And in S113, transmission source rewriting portion 119 when judging that transmission source address is the MFP97 address, is rewritten as virtual address with transmission source address with reference to linking objective table 123.So, for example with data from host apparatus 98 send to virtual address by MFP97 finish handle after, carry out from MFP97 finish report the time, by transmission source address is rewritten as virtual address, that is,, can improve security by only carrying out the exchange of data with virtual address.And, for S113,114 processing, not necessarily, preferably by setting the variable above-mentioned processing of whether carrying out.

At this concrete structure, and distribute the MFP of the frame that sends to virtual address to select processing to describe to MFP determination section 117.

As shown in figure 13, MFP determination section 117 has: take over party's determination section 122, linking objective table (linking objective storage part, connection destination storage unit) 123, timer (deletion handling part, delete cells) 124.

Take over party's determination section 122 is in a plurality of frames that constitute data, for the frame that sends at first, according to the status information decision take over party address of storage in the state table 121.And, take over party's determination section 122 with the take over party address of above-mentioned decision, and the transmission source address of the above-mentioned frame that sends at first in groups, and is written to linking objective table 123.Further, the frame that sends after second in 122 pairs of above-mentioned a plurality of frames of take over party's determination section, according to the connection destination information of storage in the linking objective table 123, decision is as the take over party address of the transmission target of above-mentioned frame.

Promptly, take over party's determination section 122 is resolved and is sent to the frame of virtual address and extract transmission source address, in the above-mentioned transmission source address in the linking objective information that judgement is stored in linking objective table 123 and the group of take over party address, the transmission source address of said extracted of whether having stored (registration).And, when 122 judgements of take over party's determination section have been registered, according to above-mentioned linking objective information decision take over party address.And, when 122 judgements of take over party's determination section are unregistered, according to above-mentioned status information decision take over party address.And take over party's determination section 122 is rewritten as the take over party address of the above-mentioned frame that sends the take over party address of above-mentioned decision from above-mentioned virtual address.

Linking objective table 123 is tables of group of the MAC Address of registration MAC Address of host apparatus 98 and MFP97.That is the group of registration take over party address and transmission source address in the linking objective table 123.

Conversion equipment 100 detects from the MAC Address of host apparatus 98 that will be consistent with transmission source address is registered to the group of linking objective table 123 when receiving the frame that sends to virtual address.And, when the corresponding group of storage, the take over party address of the group of correspondence is rewritten as the MAC Address of MFP97 from virtual address.And, send target port 111 by address table 112 decisions.On the other hand, when not having corresponding group,, select the best MFP97 of transmit frame, the MAC Address of host apparatus 98 and the group of MFP97 are registered to linking objective table 123 with reference to state table 121.And, in each group, set the deletion time respectively, during certain in, when the host apparatus 98 from correspondence does not receive frame, delete this group.This is carried out following explanation.

Figure 20 is the key diagram that is used for illustrating the information of linking objective table 123 record.As shown in figure 20, in the linking objective table 123, the MAC Address of host apparatus 98 and the MAC Address of MFP97 in groups and be stored are set the deletion times by timer 124 in each group.

Timer 124 is used to delete the group of the MAC Address of the MAC Address of host apparatus 98 and MFP97.That is, be used to delete the connection destination information of linking objective table 123.Particularly, timer 124 for example from host apparatus 98 when MFP97 send to constitute a plurality of frame of data (print out task), conversion equipment 100 is judged the frame of the end of (detection) above-mentioned data.And, after timer 124 has been judged the end frame of data, the corresponding group of deletion in connecting destination information.In addition, handle in argumentation after a while for the deletion of concrete above-mentioned connection destination information.

Figure 21 is used for illustrating that MFP selects the process flow diagram of a series of processing of processing.Illustrate that with reference to Figure 21 MFP selects to handle.And in the following description, the preferred value according to each MFP97 is described the method for selecting MFP97.Therefore, in the state table 121, as shown in figure 18, store the preferred value of each MFP97 as status information.

And above-mentioned preferred value is the value with the surplus datumization of the processing power of MFP97, for example deducts the amount that sends to the frame of MFP97 by port one 11 from the initial value corresponding with the processing power of MFP97, finishes the amount that handled frame is recovered in the back in processing.Numerical value is high more, and the frame (data) that expression sends to this MFP97 is few more.That is, the MFP97 that preferred value is high does not also have more frame to send, and therefore means that this MFP97 can handle more data (task).

At first, when sending frame in the data judging part 116 judgement virtual addresses, this frame is sent to MFP determination section 117.In addition, the frame that sends to above-mentioned virtual address is that host apparatus 98 sends.And, when take over party's determination section 122 receives the frame that sends to virtual address (S130), resolve this frame and extract transmission source address.And take over party's determination section 122 judges whether the transmission source address of the frame that sends is registered in (S131) in the linking objective table 123.

In S131, when judging that the transmission source address of the frame that sends has been registered to linking objective table 123, take over party's determination section 122 (is "Yes" among the S131), handle advancing to S134.On the other hand, when take over party's determination section 122 judges that the transmission source address of the frame that sends also is not registered in the linking objective table 123 in S131, the frame that sends is considered as new task, selects the MFP97 that handles.Particularly, take over party's determination section 122 in a plurality of MFP97, is selected the MFP97 (S132) of preferred value maximum with reference to state table 121.That is, take over party's determination section 122 is with reference to state table 121, and decision sends above-mentioned frame to the highest MFP97 of preferred value.

Then, take over party's determination section 122 as the take over party address, is registered to linking objective table 123 (S133) with the group of the transmission source address of this take over party address and above-mentioned frame with the MAC Address of the MFP97 of above-mentioned decision.

Then, take over party's determination section 122 is rewritten as the take over party address of above-mentioned frame the MAC Address (S134) of the MFP97 that handles according to linking objective table 123 from virtual address.And the frame that take over party's determination section 122 will have been rewritten the take over party address sends to data processing division 115.

Then, among a plurality of MFP97 that take over party's determination section 122 writes down, reduce the preferred value (S135) of the status information of the MFP97 corresponding in state table 121 with the take over party address of above-mentioned frame.

So, in the MFP determination section 117, decision sends to the distribution destination of the frame of virtual address.And the MFP97 by according to state table 121 decision transmit frames can prevent that the frame (data) that sends from focusing among the MFP97.And by utilizing the transmission target (MFP97) of above-mentioned preferred value decision frame, network printer system is deal with data (task) efficiently on the whole.

And in the above description, take over party's determination section 122 among the S133 is registered the group of transmission source address and take over party address in linking objective table 123 structure is illustrated.But the group of the port one 11 of also registrable transmission source address and the above-mentioned frame of output in the linking objective table 123.

And in S133, the group of 124 pairs of above-mentioned registrations of timer is set the time that is used to delete this group.Be explained.

Preferably deletion when data (task) are sent completely of the group of the take over party address of registration and transmission source address in the linking objective table 123.But, in the time of a plurality of compoundization of frame can't being discerned the finishing of data, be difficult to hold finishing that data send.And, for restored data needs spended time.That is, when data are made of a plurality of frames, only be difficult to finishing of recognition data by a frame.

Therefore in the present embodiment, in linking objective table 123 in the group of registration,, delete above-mentioned group when judging that certain hour not when transmission source address sends to the frame of take over party address, thinks that data are sent completely.Particularly, timer 124 detects the transmission that does not have the frame of take over party address from above-mentioned transmission source address, deletes above-mentioned group according to this testing result.

Figure 22 is the process flow diagram that is used for illustrating that the deletion of the group of timer 24 deletion linking objective tables 123 registrations is handled.With reference to Figure 22 above-mentioned deletion processing is described.

At first, in S133, when take over party's determination section 122 is registered to the group of the transmission source address of this take over party address and above-mentioned frame when being connected table, timer 124 is set deletion time (S140) to this group.Particularly, as shown in figure 20, in linking objective table 123, in the group of registration, set the deletion time respectively.

And, the countdown (S141) of the deletion time of the above-mentioned setting of timer 24 beginnings.Then, take over party's determination section 122 judges whether the transmission source address transmit frame of the group of record from above-mentioned linking objective table 123, and in other words, timer 124 judges whether to receive the frame corresponding with above-mentioned group transmission source address (S142).

In S142, when judgment frame (being "Yes" the S142) when the transmission source address of group of registration sends, take over party's determination section 122 sends indication to timer 124, makes timer 124 be set in the deletion time (S143) of setting in this group once more.Particularly, the time of the deletion time of setting during timer 124 will be organized from the recovering state that reduces to initial setting.And handle and turn back to S141.

In S142, judge that when take over party's determination section 122 when not having frame to send, take over party's determination section 122 sends indication to timer 124 from the transmission source address of the group of registration, make timer 124 judge the time of above-mentioned group of deletion whether arrive (S144).In other words, timer 124 is judged the whether countdown and should whether become 0 (overtime) the deletion time of deletion time of setting.

In S144, when judging that the deletion time is not overtime (being "No" among the S144), the processing of timer 124 turns back to S141.On the other hand, in S144, when judging that the deletion time is overtime, timer 124 is deleted (S145) with overtime group from above-mentioned connection destination address.And end process.

So, in linking objective table 123 in the group of registration, send beginning when not having new frame to send after the regular hour from previous frame, timer 124 judges that the transmission of data finishes, and deletes above-mentioned group.So, when new data send to virtual address, can be in different MFP97 with this data allocations.

In addition, the value of the deletion time that timer 124 is set can suitably be set, and overtime size can not take place but need be set at midway to data (task).And, can make from the continuous several tasks that send of a main frame and handle by a MFP97 by being set greatlyyer.But, when above-mentioned value is excessive, can't carries out suitable load and disperse, so this value need suitably be set at the size that a task is sent conscientiously.

Then, the processing to notice in S123 is described.Figure 23 when to be expression according to the preferred value that is connected with each port one 11 of MFP97 select best MFP97, to process flow diagram from the processing of the notice of MFP97.

In the S122 of Figure 19, when judging that above-mentioned data are notices from MFP4 (being "Yes" among the S122), data judging part 116 is resolved above-mentioned data, judges whether it is to notify (S150 among Figure 23) unusually.

In S150, when being generation notice unusually, judgement (is "Yes" among the S150), data judging part 116 makes 122 actions of take over party's determination section, the content of storage in the state table 121, the i.e. unusual preferred value that the port one 11 of notice takes place of transmission are kept on the not shown storer, and are set at 0 (S151).And end process.

(be not "No" among the S150) in S150 when judgement is not generation notice unusually, whether the data that 116 judgements of data judging part are sent are releasing notice unusually (S152).

In S152, when being releasing notice unusually, judgement (is "Yes" among the S152), data judging part 116 makes 122 actions of take over party's determination section, and the preferred value that sends the port one 11 of above-mentioned unusual releasing notice is returned to the preferred value (S153) that is kept at the above-mentioned storer from 0.And end process.

Be not unusual when removing notice (being "No" among the S152) when judging in S152, data judging part 116 judges whether the data that send are to print end notification (notice of finishing dealing with) (S154).

In S154, when judgement is (to be "Yes" among the S154) when printing end notification, data judging part 116 makes take over party's determination section 122 action, makes the preferred value of the port one 11 that sends above-mentioned printing end notification only recover the part (S155) of the task (data) that finishes.And end process.On the other hand, in S154,, then finish processing (being "No" among the S154) at once to notice if not printing end notification.

So, by the processing to notice, the preferred value of variable port one 11.

Figure 24 is the process flow diagram that is used to illustrate the processing of the initial setting when MFP97 is connected to conversion equipment 100.

When MFP97 is connected to conversion equipment 100 (S160),, the internal information (processing power, MAC Address etc.) of this MFP97 is sent to conversion equipment 100 (S161) by the state notifying portion 137 of MFP97.The conversion equipment 100 that receives internal information is obtained this internal information (S162) with the unit of the port one 11 that connects this MFP97.And port registration portion 118 and data judging part 116 carry out the setting (S163) of various tables according to above-mentioned internal information.Particularly, according to above-mentioned internal information, port registration portion 118 is to the MAC Address of address table 112 registration MFP97 and the group of the port one 11 that receives above-mentioned internal information, and data judging part 116 is made state table 121 simultaneously.

So, the MFP97 that newly is connected with network sends to conversion equipment 100 with the internal information of this MFP97.And, in the conversion equipment 100, make various tables according to the internal information of sending.So, above-mentioned conversion equipment 100 can carry out the management of MFP97 according to each port one 11.

And in the above description, when MFP97 was connected with network, MFP97 notified internal information automatically, but also for example conversion equipment 100 also can be to the equipment requirements transmission internal information that is connected with port one 11.

And in the above description, be that example is illustrated with MFP97 as signal conditioning package, but be not limited thereto.Above-mentioned signal conditioning package can be for example the Internet FAX, printer etc.And the quantity of the equipment that is connected with above-mentioned conversion equipment 100 and the quantity of port one 11 are proportional, and there is no particular limitation.And in the above description, being connected a plurality of with host apparatus 98 respectively with MFP97 is that example is illustrated, but also can for example be the structure that connects MFP97 and host apparatus 98 and the Internet FAX in conversion equipment 100.

(embodiment 3)

According to Figure 25 to Figure 30 further other embodiments that the present invention relates to are carried out following explanation.And for convenience of explanation, be marked with same mark for the parts that have an identical function with each parts shown in the above-mentioned embodiment 2, and omit its explanation.

In the conversion equipment 100 that present embodiment relates to, to be the frame that will send to virtual address distribute according to the state of the port one 11 that connects each MFP97 its structure.

Figure 25 is the key diagram that is used for illustrating the information of state table 121 records that embodiments of the present invention relate to.As shown in figure 25, store in the state table 121: the inherent address of each MFP97 that is connected with conversion equipment 100, and the status information of ability (device information, state) of this MFP97 of expression.

Particularly, in the present embodiment, the state classification that connects the port one 11 of MFP97 is state of activation, busy condition, holding state, OFF state, reaches five states of error condition.Above-mentioned state of activation represents to send the state of the frame (data) that is sent to virtual address.Above-mentioned busy condition is the state that the port one 11 of state of activation is transformed into other states.Particularly, busy condition is the state that can't send the frame that is sent to virtual address, the state that can be switched to the OFF state.Above-mentioned OFF state is the state that can be switched to holding state.Under this OFF state, can't receive the frame that is sent to virtual address.Above-mentioned holding state is the state that is transformed into next state of activation.Under above-mentioned holding state, can't receive the frame that is sent to virtual address.Above-mentioned error condition is the unusual state of expression.Particularly, when the MFP97 that connects by port one 11 breaks down, become above-mentioned error condition.Under above-mentioned error condition, can't receive the frame that is sent to virtual address.

And, under any one state except above-mentioned error condition, can receive the frame that sends to inherent address.

So, according to the port one 11 of condition managing conversion equipment 100 time, the MFP of (with reference to Fig. 7) selected to handle and different with above-mentioned explanation to the processing of notice when conversion equipment 100 received the frame that is sent to virtual address.That is, the status information of storage is different with above-mentioned embodiment 2 in the action of data judging part 116 and take over party's determination section 122 and the state table 121.This is carried out following explanation.

Figure 26 is used for illustrating that MFP that present embodiment relates to selects the process flow diagram of a series of processing of handling.And, be marked with identical step number for the step identical, and omit its detailed description with above-mentioned explanation.

In S131, (be "No" among the S131) when the transmission source address of the frame that judgement is sent is unregistered in linking objective table 123 time, take over party's determination section 122 is considered as new task with the frame that sends, and selects to handle MFP97.Particularly, take over party's determination section 122 is with reference to state table 121 shown in Figure 25, and selection mode is the MFP97 (S170) of state of activation from a plurality of MFP97.That is, take over party's determination section 122 is with reference to the state table 121 of storaging state information, and decision sends above-mentioned frame to the MFP97 of state of activation.And handle and advance to S133.

Then in S134, according to linking objective table 123, the take over party address of above-mentioned frame is rewritten as the MAC Address of the MFP97 that handles from virtual address, take over party's determination section 122 frame that will rewrite the take over party address sends to data processing division 115 afterwards.

Afterwards, take over party's determination section 122 calculates the total amount (S171) of the frame that the MFP97 that determines is sent in S170.Particularly, when take over party's determination section 122 calculates from this take over party's determination section 122 the transmission target decision of frame to specific MFP97, till now during in, the total amount of the frame that sends to this MFP97.And take over party's determination section 122 is by data judging part 116, for the frame that has sent from the MFP97 that sends above-mentioned frame, the processing that receives this frame finished finish report the time, will deduct the value of amount of the frame of finishing processing as the total amount of frame.That is, take over party's determination section 122 calculates the amount of the untreated frame of MFP97 of transmit frame, i.e. calculating is accumulated in the amount of the frame among this MFP97.

Then, take over party's determination section 122 judges that whether the total amount of the frame that calculates is greater than predetermined threshold value (S172) in S171.

In S172, when the total amount of take over party's determination section 122 judgment frame during less than above-mentioned threshold value (being "No" among the S172), end process.On the other hand, in S172, when the total amount of take over party's determination section 122 judgment frame during greater than above-mentioned threshold value (being "Yes" among the S172), the state of each MFP97 of storage in take over party's determination section 122 changes state table 121 shown in Figure 25.Particularly, take over party's determination section 122 changes to busy condition (S173) with the state (status) of the MFP97 of state of activation.And take over party's determination section 122 is state of activation (S174) with the Status Change of the MFP97 of holding state.Further, take over party's determination section 122 is holding state (S175) with the Status Change of a MFP97 in the MFP97 of OFF state.And end process.

In addition, MFP97 for the busy condition of storage in the state table 121, when data processing is finished report when this MFP97 sends to take over party's determination section 122, this take over party's determination section 122 is the OFF state with the Status Change of the MFP97 of the busy condition of storage in the state table 121.

And, send unusually when notice takes place to above-mentioned conversion equipment 100 from the MFP97 that connects, the Status Change that take over party's determination section 122 will send the MFP97 of the above-mentioned unusual generation notice of storage on the state table 121 is an error condition.And unusual when removing notice when sending to above-mentioned conversion equipment 100 from the MFP97 that sent unusual generation notice, the Status Change that take over party's determination section 122 will send the MFP97 of the above-mentioned unusual releasing notice of storage on the state table 121 is a busy condition.

So, by to the MFP97 of state of activation transmit frame, and, thereby under present state, can distribute the data (frame) that send to virtual address near the MFP97 of actual act according to the state of the MFP97 of storage in the total amount of the frame that the sends to MFP97 change state table 121.

And above-mentioned MFP97 also can change the state of self according to the status information of storage in the above-mentioned state table 121.

Particularly, for example the status information relevant with self of storage can be set at when being holding state in the state table 121, only makes control part 133, Printer Engine (image formation engine) 132, reaches communication IF portion 136 and be in operating state.

And, when for example the status information relevant with self of storage is the OFF state in the state table 121, can be set at, only make 136 actions of communication IF portion by auxiliary power 138, other stop.

So, by the state table 121 according to conversion equipment 100, the state of change and this conversion equipment 100 direct or indirect MFP97 that are connected can make to be set at the MFP97 that does not receive virtual address and to become holding state.Therefore compared with prior art can realize energy-conservation.

Then other processing to notice among the S123 are described with reference to Figure 27.

Figure 27 when to be expression according to the state (status) that is connected to the MFP97 of each port one 11 select best MFP97, to process flow diagram from the processing of the notice of MFP97.And in the following description, " state " is the state of the expression MFP97 of storage in the state table 121.Therefore, the change state is then represented the change carried out of state to storage in the state table 121.

In the S122 of Figure 19, when judging that above-mentioned data are notices from MFP4 (being "Yes" among the S122), data judging part 116 is resolved above-mentioned data, judges whether these data are to notify (S180) unusually.

In S180, when judgement is (to be "Yes" among the S180) when unusually notice taking place, data judging part 116 makes 122 actions of take over party's determination section, and, judge whether the state of storing in the state table 121 of the MFP97 that sends above-mentioned unusual generation notice (to call state representation in the following text) is state of activation (S181) with reference to state table 121.

In S181, when judging that sending the unusual state that the MFP4 of notice takes place is state of activation, (be "Yes" among the S181), data judging part 116 makes take over party's determination section 122 action, is state of activation (S182) with the Status Change of the MFP97 of the holding state of storage in the state table 121.And, handle advancing to S184.On the other hand, in S181, when judging that sending the unusual state that the MFP97 of notice takes place is not state of activation, (be "No" among the S181), data judging part 116 makes 122 actions of take over party's determination section, and judges with reference to state table 121 whether the state of the MFP97 that sends above-mentioned unusual generation notice is holding state (S183).

In S183, when judging that sending the unusual state that the MFP97 of notice takes place is holding state, handle advancing to S184.On the other hand, when judgement is not holding state, handle advancing to S185.

Then, data judging part 116 makes 122 actions of take over party's determination section, is the MFP97 of holding state from state, and a MFP97 is changed to holding state (S184).

And the Status Change that take over party's determination section 122 will send the MFP97 of above-mentioned unusual generation notice is error condition (S185), and end process.

On the other hand, in S180, not that data judging part 116 is resolved above-mentioned data when unusually notice taking place, and judge whether these data are unusual releasing notices (S186) when judging.

In S186, when judgment data is (to be "Yes" among the S184) when removing notice unusually, data judging part 116 makes 122 actions of take over party's determination section, and judges among the MFP97 that sends above-mentioned unusual releasing notice whether standby task (untreated task) is arranged (S187).

In S187, when existing the standby task, judgement (is "Yes" among the S187), data judging part 116 makes 122 actions of take over party's determination section, is busy condition (S188) with the Status Change that sends the MFP97 of above-mentioned unusual releasing notice.On the other hand, in S187, when there is not the standby task in judgement, (be not "No" among the S187), handle advancing to S190.

And, in S186, when not being releasing notice unusually, judgment data (is not "No" among the S186), data judging part 116 is resolved above-mentioned data, and judges whether these data are that notice (S189) is finished in printing.And, in S189,, be OFF state (S190) with the Status Change that sends the MFP97 of above-mentioned printing end notification when judging that these data are (to be "Yes" among the S189) when printing end notification.On the other hand, in S189, not (to be "No" among the S189) when printing end notification when judging, finish processing at once to notice.

And in embodiment 2, for linking objective table 123, be that example is illustrated with the host apparatus 98 that is connected with conversion equipment 100 of storage and the group of transmission source address among the MFP97 and take over party address.But linking objective table 123 is not limited to the content in the storage implementation mode 2, for example also can store following illustrated information.

As the information that stores in the linking objective table 123, as shown in figure 28, also can comprise MAC Address, the IP address of host apparatus 98, the port numbers of TCP/IP, and the port numbers of the MAC Address of MFP97, IP address, TCP/IP.So, by the information of the upper layer of storage on linking objective table 123, at length identification communication amount.And, because the port numbers in transmission source (host apparatus 98) is the unit difference with task (data), therefore by storage port in linking objective table 123 number, also can clearly distinguish even send a plurality of tasks (data) continuously, the printer that should handle can be disperseed or concentrate from a host apparatus 98.

And, be stored in the linking objective table 123 by the port numbers that makes MFP97, can distinguish frame that conversion equipment 100 receives and be print out task or other.Therefore can make not send to MFP97 beyond the print out task for example, and by conversion equipment 100 responses.

And, the port numbers of the MAC Address of linking objective table 123 storage host device 98, IP address, TCP/IP, and during the port numbers of the MAC Address of MFP97, IP address, TCP/IP, when transmission source address is rewritten as virtual address, in S13, when received frame is the MAC Address of MFP97, also transmission source address (MAC Address and IP address) can be rewritten as virtual address (MAC Address and IP address).That is, when linking objective table 123 was stored the IP address of each equipment, also the IP available address managed.

And, in the above description, when the IP address of each equipment of linking objective table 123 storage and TCP/IP port numbers, in the location registration process (S133) of linking objective table 123, also to the information of linking objective table 123 registering IP address and port numbers.And, at this moment, in address rewriting processing (S134), also the take over party address can be rewritten as the IP address.In addition as mentioned above, when making linking objective table 123 according to the IP address, port registration portion 118 writes down the port numbers of port one 11, the MAC Address that reaches the equipment that is connected with this port one 11 and the corresponding relation of IP address in address table 112.And take over party's determination section 122 also can write down the corresponding relation of MAC Address and IP address in state table 121.

Describe in this processing with reference to the initial setting of Figure 29 when MFP97 is connected to conversion equipment 100.And in the following description, the example that above-mentioned conversion equipment 100 is connected to Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server (IP address assignment handling part, IP address assignment unit) describes.And in the following description, each port one 11 is connected a host apparatus 98, a MFP97 respectively, perhaps the example of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server describes.That is, in Figure 29, the example that a port one 11 is connected an equipment describes.Therefore a MFP97 is corresponding with a port one 11, therefore can manage by each port one 11.

When MFP97 is connected to conversion equipment 100 (S200), notify conversion equipment 100 (S201) with internal information (processing power, MAC Address etc.) by MFP97.Conversion equipment 100 with the unit of the port one 11 that connects this MFP97 obtain, maintenance information (S202).At this moment, the group of MAC Address and portal number is registered in the address table 112, simultaneously port numbers is registered in the groups of printers.And conversion equipment 100 is busy condition (S203) with the setting state of corresponding port 111 when confirming with being connected of MFP97.Then, MFP97 sends to Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server (S204) with DHCPDISCOVER.This be because, the parameter of networks such as search Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server and automatic setting IP address, default gateway.

Conversion equipment 100 connects according to take over party's address translation.So, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server can receive DHCPDISCOVER (S205).And the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server that receives DHCPDISCOVER sends the DHCPOFFER (S206) that comprises network parameter to MFP97.When conversion equipment 100 receives DHCPOFFER, obtain the IP address (S207) that is assigned to MFP97, be saved in address table 112 and/or state table 121.And, when MFP97 receives DHCPOFFER (S208), obtain network parameters such as IP address and carry out self setting (S209).After setting was finished, MFP97 sent the unusual notice (S210) of removing to conversion equipment 100, was transformed into the only OFF pattern (S211) of communication IF portion 136 actions by auxiliary power 138.When conversion equipment 100 receives from the unusual releasing notice of MFP97, be OFF state (S212), finish a series of processing relevant with initial setting with the Status Change of port one 11.

And, when conversion equipment 100 receives the DHCPDISCOVER that sends to Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server from MFP97, and, conversion equipment 100 receives the DHCPOFFER that sends to MFP97 when (comprising the IP address) from Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server, be judged as and connected new equipment, the content of preferred scheduler table 112 and/or state table 121.

In other words, the line concentrator that present embodiment relates to judge self data converted whether corresponding to: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server when the MFP97 distributing IP address of unallocated IP address still, between this MFP97 and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server, receive the data that send.When being judged as at once the content of scheduler table 112 and/or state table 121.

So, the network information processing system of present embodiment does not use server, utilizes conversion equipment 100 to switch and answers the MFP97 of Processing tasks, disperses and the task adjustment thereby can load.And, when changing, can carry out high speed processing by MAC Address.

And in the above description, address table 112, state table 121 are illustrated respectively.But be not limited to above-mentioned situation, for example as shown in figure 30, also can use address table 112 and state table 121 exchanges is one table, carries out various processing.Particularly by with these two tables as a table, can be one with the data exchange that repeats, therefore can reduce conversion equipment 100 canned data amounts.

And, the structure of the network information processing system that present embodiment relates to also can be: further have IP address notification unit, notify the IP address of this signal conditioning package to above-mentioned signal conditioning package by above-mentioned line concentrator, and the data determining unit of above-mentioned line concentrator when signal conditioning package is notified the IP address of this signal conditioning package, makes the above-mentioned IP address store state storage unit at the secondary IP address notification unit.According to said structure, signal conditioning package can make line concentrator store the IP address of this signal conditioning package when obtaining the IP address.

And in the above description, the situation of setting a virtual address is illustrated, but for example scanner is the same with image processing system, when the different equipment of function is connected to above-mentioned line concentrator, also can set the virtual address that only sends information to the equipment with specific function.Therefore the quantity of virtual address is not particularly limited.

And, in above-mentioned

embodiment

2,3, the function that constitutes in each parts of line concentrator realizes in the following manner: arithmetic elements such as CPU are read the program code that is stored in the ROM recording mediums such as (Read OnlyMemory), this program code is launched in RAM (RandomAccess Memory) and carry out.But each functions of components that constitutes line concentrator also can be only realizes with the hardware of the same processing of this function by carrying out.And, also can by combination carry out hardware that a part handles, and the above-mentioned arithmetic element of executive routine code realize that the said procedure code carries out the control and the remaining processing of this hardware.Further, in above-mentioned each parts, as the parts of hardware description also can by combination carry out hardware that a part handles, and the above-mentioned arithmetic element of executive routine code realize that the said procedure code carries out the control and the remaining processing of this hardware.In addition, above-mentioned arithmetic element can be a monomer, also can be to realize by the common executive routine code of a plurality of arithmetic elements that installs the connection of inner bus and various communication line.

But the program code self that can directly carry out by above-mentioned arithmetic element or this program (program code or above-mentioned data) is stored in the recording medium as the program of the data by processing generator program codes such as following decompressions, and distribute this recording medium, the communication unit that the wired or wireless excessively communication line of said procedure utilization is transmitted sends and distributes, and is carried out by above-mentioned arithmetic element.

And when transmitting by communication line, each transmission medium that constitutes communication line utilizes this communication line to transmit said procedure by transmitting the train of signal of representation program mutually.And when transmitting train of signal, dispensing device can transmit ripple by the train of signal modulation that utilizes representation program, makes above-mentioned train of signal overlapping with the transmission ripple.At this moment, transmit ripple by the receiving trap demodulation, train of signal is restored.On the other hand, when transmitting above-mentioned train of signal, dispensing device also can make as the train of signal packets of information of data serial data to be cut apart and transmits.At this moment, receiving trap links the packets of information group who receives, and restores above-mentioned train of signal.And, when dispensing device sends train of signal, can cut apart by the time/methods such as frequency division/code division, train of signal and other multipleization of train of signal and transmission.At this moment, receiving trap is extracted train of signal and recovery one by one out from the train of signal of multipleization.In either event, as long as can pass through the communication line convey program, then can obtain same effect.

Wherein, the recording medium during allocator is preferably dismountable, and then whether it detachable no matter distribute recording medium after the program.And as long as aforementioned recording medium is stored programme, and no matter whether it can rewrite (writing), whether have volatibility, and no matter its recording method and shape.Example as recording medium, comprise bands such as tape, magnetic tape cassette, perhaps Off ロ Star ピ one (registered trademark: disks such as dish, hard disk floppy disk), perhaps CD-ROM, photomagneto disk (MO), mini-disk (MD), digital video disc dishes such as (DVD, Digital Versatile Disc).And recording medium also can be cards such as IC-card, light-card, perhaps semiconductor memories such as mask ROM, EPROM, EEPROM or flash ROM.Perhaps also can be the interior storeies that form of arithmetic element such as CPU.

And the form with procedure stores during to aforementioned recording medium can be that the state that for example is configured in actual storage is the same, the file layout that arithmetic element can conduct interviews; Also can be before being configured to actual storage, arithmetic element be installed to the file layout behind the local record medium (for example actual storage, hard disk etc.) that always can visit; Or, be installed to file layout before the above-mentioned local record medium from network, transmissible recording medium etc.And, the object identification code after program is not limited to compile, the intermediate code that midway generates that also can be used as source code, intermediate code or compiling is stored.In either event, decompress(ion) by information compressed, decoding, code translation, compiling, the link of information encoded or be configured to the processing of actual storage etc. or the combination that each is handled, as long as the variable executable form of above-mentioned arithmetic element that is changed to, then the form during to recording medium with procedure stores no matter all can obtain same effect.

And line concentrator of the present invention is characterized in that in order to solve above-mentioned problem, has: a plurality of ports; Address storage part is stored predetermined particular address; Output processing part is exported the data that certain port receives from the port that can be sent to data transfer destination; Data judgment processing portion judges whether the data of above-mentioned reception are specific take over party addresses; Device decision handling part, in a plurality of signal conditioning packages that can handle the data that send to specific take over party address, at least determine a take over party address that is used for sending these data to signal conditioning package, above-mentioned output processing part decision can transmit the port of above-mentioned data to the take over party address that is determined by device decision handling part, and these data are outputed to this port.

Above-mentioned " can handle a plurality of signal conditioning packages of the data that send to specific take over party address " is meant the signal conditioning package that is connected with the port of above-mentioned line concentrator.And, the signal conditioning package that is connected with port is meant and can carries out the signal conditioning package that Data Receiving sends with this port, particularly, can be and the direct-connected signal conditioning package of above-mentioned port, and also can be the signal conditioning package that connects via other line concentrators, router etc.

The decision of said apparatus decision handling part can be handled the signal conditioning package of the data of the specific take over party address that sends to above-mentioned address storage part storage.And above-mentioned output processing part outputs to signal conditioning package according to the decision of said apparatus decision handling part with above-mentioned data.Therefore, though server is not set, the equipment that sends data can send to the data that send to specific take over party address in a plurality of signal conditioning packages, determined the signal conditioning package of deal with data.Therefore, line concentrator can be handled the data that send to virtual address.

And, in order to transmit data, the data of distributing specific take over party address between the equipment that sends data and the line concentrator between the signal conditioning package, different during therefore with server-assignment, data traffic between server and the line concentrator (traffic) can not increase, and can reduce the data traffic of network integral body.

And the operator need not to consider which signal conditioning package to send data in the network printer system that does not utilize server, only by sending data to the particular address that is predetermined, just can carry out data processing.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is: have state storage portion, and each device-dependent information that storage is connected with above-mentioned a plurality of ports, and said apparatus decision handling part determines above-mentioned take over party address according to state storage portion canned data.

According to said structure, device decision handling part is according to canned data in the state storage portion, and decision is used for data are sent to the take over party address of signal conditioning package, therefore can determine to be used for the best information treating apparatus of deal with data.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is: have the port storage part, the port of the data of the above-mentioned specific take over party of storage transmission address and the combination of the address of the signal conditioning package that is connected with this port, above-mentioned output processing part is according to the port of the above-mentioned data of combinations thereof decision output.

According to said structure, owing to store the port of the data that send to specific take over party address and the combination of the address of the signal conditioning package that is connected with this port, therefore when the output of carrying out data (transmission), need not in broadcasting, to confirm the take over party address, can not increase the traffic, output data simply.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is: have the linking objective storage part, storage send above-mentioned specific take over party address data equipment transmission source address and by the combination of the above-mentioned take over party address of this device decision handling part decision, above-mentioned output processing part is according to the port of the above-mentioned data of combinations thereof decision output.

According to said structure, according to the combination of transmission source address and take over party address, therefore the port of the above-mentioned data of decision output can prevent from that data are disconnected to send to a plurality of addresses.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, self inherent address storage part with inherent address of storage self, above-mentioned data judgment processing portion judges whether the data of above-mentioned reception are the inherent address that sends to self, and said apparatus decision handling part is according to canned data in the above-mentioned state storage of the content alteration portion of the data of the inherent address that sends to self.

According to said structure, owing to can therefore can know state, the ability of the equipment that is connected to above-mentioned line concentrator simply according to the content of the data rewriting state storage portion of the inherent address that sends to self.

Line concentrator of the present invention is characterised in that, device decision handling part will send to this virtual address of the data of virtual address, be rewritten as the take over party address according to the combination of storing in the above-mentioned linking objective storage part, have the transmission source and rewrite handling part, when receiving the corresponding data of transmission source address with above-mentioned linking objective storage portion stores, the transmission source address of these data is rewritten as virtual address.

According to said structure, when receiving the data corresponding with the transmission source address stored in the linking objective storage part, by transmission source address is rewritten as virtual address, the equipment that sends the source can only carry out the communication of data with virtual address.And,, can improve security by the inherent address of the signal conditioning package of having handled data is hidden to the equipment in the source of transmission.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, has the deletion handling part in the said apparatus decision handling part, and being combined in through behind the preset time of storing in the above-mentioned linking objective storage part deleted.

According to said structure,,, can remove the state that transmission source address and take over party address always are connected by the deletion combinations thereof through behind the preset time.

And, by the time till the above-mentioned deletion handling part of the suitable setting deletion combination, can and same signal conditioning package handle by one and send a plurality of data (task) that source device sends continuously.And a plurality of frames that for example can will constitute data according to the traffic of network send to same signal conditioning package conscientiously.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, during conclude report that above-mentioned deletion handling part finishes in the processing that receives these data from the signal conditioning package of having handled the data that send to above-mentioned specific take over party address, the reception that deletion is used for these data sends and is stored in the combination of linking objective storage part.

By utilizing data processing to finish report deletion combinations thereof, send the data that the equipment of these data can make the next one handle and handle by other signal conditioning packages.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is that above-mentioned linking objective storage part is stored above-mentioned transmission source address and take over party address with the IP address.

According to said structure,, therefore can discern than MAC Address and lean on last upper layer, reach the traffic that other information produce because above-mentioned linking objective storage part is used IP address storage transmission source address and take over party address.And the above-mentioned IP address is the address of using in ICP/IP protocol.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, above-mentioned signal conditioning package is to have the image processing system that image forms engine, said apparatus decision handling part above-mentioned output processing part to an image processing system send that data go forward side by side that line data handles during, next other image processing systems that send data of decision, and control, make the image formation engine of these other image processing systems become operating state.

According to said structure, when other image processing systems continue data processing,, image is in operating state because forming engine, therefore can carry out data processing at once, so the operator need not to wait for that above-mentioned image forms engine and becomes operating state.And task of above-mentioned data representation.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, said apparatus decision handling part compares the total amount of the untreatment data in the data that send to signal conditioning package and predetermined threshold value, and, when the total amount of judging above-mentioned data surpassed above-mentioned threshold value, change sent the take over party address of above-mentioned data.

According to said structure, when the total amount that outputs to the data of signal conditioning package when judgement surpasses certain threshold value, change the take over party address for the output destination of changing the above-mentioned data of output.So, can prevent that data from only concentrating sends to a signal conditioning package.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, said apparatus decision handling part receive send by signal conditioning package, when expression outputs to the processing conclude report that the processing of at least a portion data in the data of this signal conditioning package finishes, calculate the total amount of the data that output to above-mentioned signal conditioning package once more.

According to said structure, device decision handling part calculates by the report of finishing dealing with once more to the data volume that sends to present signal conditioning package, therefore the state of awareness information treating apparatus correctly.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, when said apparatus decision handling part receives the unusual releasing notice that is sent by signal conditioning package, represent the state that the unusual generation notice of unusual state takes place in this signal conditioning package and represent above-mentioned unusual elimination, change canned data in the above-mentioned state storage portion.

According to said structure, can make that canned data is consistent in the state of signal conditioning package and the state storage portion.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, according to the IP address that the IP address assignment handling part from the IP address of distributing above-mentioned a plurality of signal conditioning packages sends, the content of said apparatus decision handling part update mode storage part.Particularly, preferably make structure be: when receiving or receive from a plurality of signal conditioning packages when the requiring of IP allocation process portion distributing IP address the content of said apparatus determination section update mode storage part from IP address that the IP address assignment handling part of the IP address of distributing above-mentioned a plurality of signal conditioning packages sends.

Above-mentioned IP address assignment handling part is: when new equipment is connected to the network that comprises line concentrator, to this new equipment distributing IP address.Pass through said structure, when line concentrator receives the IP address of secondary IP address allocation process portion transmission, when perhaps line concentrator receives the IP Address requests that sends to the IP address assignment handling part from new equipment, the content of change state storage portion gets final product, and therefore the renewal of state storage portion is carried out with proper spacing.

The structure optimization of line concentrator of the present invention is, according to the IP address that the IP address assignment handling part from the IP address of distributing above-mentioned a plurality of signal conditioning packages sends, the group of port storage portion stores port and MAC Address and IP address.

According to said structure, the reception that can carry out data with the IP agreement sends.

Network information processing system of the present invention is characterized in that in order to solve above-mentioned problem, and a plurality of signal conditioning packages that data can be sent to the host apparatus of virtual address and can handle above-mentioned data connect by above-mentioned line concentrator at least.

According to said structure,, so can provide a kind of network information processing system that can carry out data processing efficiently because the data allocations that line concentrator can send from host apparatus is to a plurality of signal conditioning packages.

The structure optimization of network information processing system of the present invention is that above-mentioned signal conditioning package has the information notifier processes portion to the above-mentioned line concentrator notice information relevant with self.

According to said structure, line concentrator by receiving the information relevant with self that sends from this signal conditioning package, can obtain the information relevant with signal conditioning package automatically when the link information treating apparatus.

The structure optimization of network information processing system of the present invention is, said apparatus decision handling part makes the total amount of the untreated data in the data that send to signal conditioning package and predetermined threshold ratio, when the problem of judging above-mentioned data surpasses above-mentioned threshold value, change sends the signal conditioning package of above-mentioned data, and get in touch with the signal conditioning package that has sent data so far, processing after informing is proceeded by other signal conditioning packages, above-mentioned signal conditioning package has control part, after receiving above-mentioned contact, handle the data that send so far, when this data processing finishes, make this signal conditioning package be transformed into power consumption than the low low power consumption state of state that can begin to carry out data processing immediately.

Under said structure, the signal conditioning package that should be proceeded to handle by other signal conditioning packages is transformed into the low power consumption state after handling the data that send so far.Therefore compare with the state that keeps this signal conditioning package can get started data processing, can suppress the power consumption of network information processing system integral body.On the other hand, when above-mentioned signal conditioning package is converted to the state (OFF state) of low power consumption, because other signal conditioning packages proceed to send to the data processing of above-mentioned particular address, so network information processing system can not produce any obstacle and is located in the data that above-mentioned particular address is delivered in haircut.Consequently, can not damage the user convenience that sends data to above-mentioned particular address, can reduce the power consumption of network information processing system.

And each handling part in the above-mentioned line concentrator can be realized by hardware, also can be by being realized by executive program.Particularly, the program that the present invention relates to is the program that makes computer action as signal conditioning package.And, write down this program in the recording medium that the present invention relates to.

And, the invention is not restricted to the respective embodiments described above, in scope shown in the claim, can carry out various changes, the embodiment that the disclosed respectively technological means appropriate combination of different embodiments is obtained also belongs in the technical scope of the present invention.

Be used to implement embodiment described in the best mode of the present invention or embodiment after all just for clear and definite technology contents of the present invention, must not only be defined in this concrete example and do the explanation of narrow sense, in purport of the present invention and claim scope, can carry out various changes and enforcement.

The possibility of utilizing on the industry

The present invention is used for comprising the network system of a plurality of information processors, is specially adapted to multiple The image processing systems such as seal machine, scanner, MFP are connected to the network printer system of LAN.

Claims

1. signal conditioning package has:

Storage part;

Acceptance division can receive the data that are sent to predetermined specific take over party address;

Location registration process portion, the data supplementing that this acceptance division is received is registered to above-mentioned storage part; With

Data processing division is handled the data of storing in the above-mentioned storage part,

It is characterized in that, has the Status Change handling part, control above-mentioned location registration process portion and data processing division, and switch the unactivated state beyond state of activation and the state of activation, above-mentioned state of activation is the processing of appending registration and these data that can be sent to the data of above-mentioned specific take over party address

Above-mentioned Status Change handling part, when the untreated data of registering in above-mentioned storage part surpass predetermined threshold value, indication comprises the inscape identical with above-mentioned signal conditioning package and is transformed into state of activation for the other signal conditioning package outside the above-mentioned signal conditioning package, and make and self be converted to unactivated state, make data processing division handle untreated data.

2. signal conditioning package according to claim 1 is characterized in that,

Have the status information storage part, be used to store the status information relevant with the state of above-mentioned other signal conditioning package,

Above-mentioned Status Change handling part is transformed into the above-mentioned other signal conditioning package of state of activation from unactivated state according to above-mentioned status information decision.

3. signal conditioning package according to claim 1 is characterized in that,

Have: computing portion, according to the treatment capacity of untreated these untreated data of data computation of registering in the above-mentioned storage part; With

Comparison process portion, relatively this treatment capacity and predetermined threshold value,

Above-mentioned Status Change handling part is according to the comparative result of comparison process portion, and whether decision makes and self be transformed into unactivated state.

4. signal conditioning package according to claim 1 is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned unactivated state comprises according to the conversion command that is converted to state of activation that is sent by above-mentioned other signal conditioning package makes the holding state that self is converted to state of activation,

Above-mentioned Status Change handling part, when judging that oneself state is holding state, portion controls to location registration process, the registration of appending with the data that are sent to above-mentioned specific take over party address, and, when the above-mentioned other signal conditioning package that is judged as state of activation can't carry out data processing, handle the data of appending registration.

5. signal conditioning package according to claim 1 is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned unactivated state comprises: the OFF state that appends the registration and the processing of these data that is not sent to the data of above-mentioned specific take over party address; With make data processing unit handle the busy condition of untreated data,

Above-mentioned Status Change handling part after being transformed into busy condition, during the finishing dealing with of the untreatment data that carries out when the judgment data handling part, makes self to be transformed into the OFF state, and controls data processing division is failure to actuate.

6. signal conditioning package according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, when above-mentioned location registration process portion judges that the data that receive are when being sent to the data of specific take over party address, the information of data and the inherent address of self have been received to the transmission source notice that sends these data.

7. image processing system is characterized in that having:

The described signal conditioning package of claim 1; With

Image forming part makes the data of handling by above-mentioned signal conditioning package form image.

8. image processing system according to claim 7 is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned unactivated state comprises the holding state that next time is transformed into state of activation,

Above-mentioned Status Change handling part when oneself state is holding state, is controlled, and makes image forming part become operating state.