CN85107210A

CN85107210A - The dot-matrix printer that has the word memory device

Info

Publication number: CN85107210A
Application number: CN 85107210
Authority: CN
Inventors: 常木幸男
Original assignee: Toshiba Corp
Current assignee: Toshiba Corp
Priority date: 1985-09-28
Filing date: 1985-09-28
Publication date: 1987-04-15
Also published as: CN85107210B

Abstract

Dot-matrix printer of the present invention has adopted word memory, with the prior storage font data corresponding with non-standard character.This word memory is included in the ROM and the RAM of storage font data in the storage zone of page unit.When the dot lattice printing non-standard character, microprocessor is arranged on given page address in the interior page address register of word memory.Microcomputer is read required font data from the storage zone corresponding to ROM that presets page address or RAM.And it is stored in the work memory.The print control unit that comprises printhead is controlled print machinery to print by this font data, for example the high density printing of non-standard character.

Description

The dot-matrix printer that has the word memory device

The present invention relates to have the dot-matrix printer of word memory device, this dot-matrix printer is read such as the high density font data that is stored in advance in the word memory device, and finishes dot lattice printing according to this sense data.

Some dot-matrix printer can be finished the high density dot lattice printing, and the print quality of the normalized character that character printer printed of up to specificationization.A kind of dot-matrix printer like this includes read-only memory (ROM), and except that the font data corresponding to standard character, also storage has the high density font data therein.This dot-matrix printer is read needed font data and is carried out high density dot lattice printing corresponding to sense data from this ROM.

Usually, printable character has different patterns to change, for example, different countries, its character style is just different.Therefore, if the ROM of dot-matrix printer stores each national font data, a jumbo ROM so just must be arranged, thereby the total price of printer has just improved.In order to overcome this shortcoming, prepare storing the ROM have corresponding to the font data of various countries respectively in advance, and as required, ROM is accordingly picked out be contained on the dot-matrix printer.Certainly, in this case, the memory capacity that is contained in the ROM on the printer is fixed, and the pattern number of the character that print also is restricted.

One object of the present invention, be that a kind of dot-matrix printer that has the word memory device will be provided, wherein have the word memory device, this word memory device is except that standard character, also storage has the font data corresponding to book character, the memory capacity of this character memory device can change because of font data, so just can the character than polymorphic type be printed with latticed form.

Just can reach purpose of the present invention with the dot-matrix printer that has the word memory device, and this word memory device has following structure.According to the present invention, the dot-matrix printer that is provided comprises:

The word memory device, it comprises the font memory, and this font memory is used for storing in advance the font data corresponding to book character; Address register is used for storing address date from font memory read out word graphic data the time; Input/output device is used for I/O and is stored in the address date of address register and the font data of reading from the font memory;

Print control unit is used at address register address date being set, so that during by access, produce print data according to the font data of reading from the font memory at the font memory of word memory device;

Electrical connector is used for the input/output device and the print control unit of connective word memory device, so that transmit between address date and font data;

Printing device is used for carrying out the dot lattice printing operation according to the print data that is produced by print control unit.

According to the dot-matrix printer with above-mentioned configuration, the memory capacity of word memory device can change because of font data.Therefore, can prepare font data on demand than the character of polymorphic type.So, except that standard character, can latticed form print character than polymorphic type.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a block scheme, and expression is according to the dot-matrix printer configuration that has the word memory device of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the block scheme of expression printing mechanical controller configuration of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is the layout of the memory of printer of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is the block scheme of the configuration of expression word memory device of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a process flow diagram of explaining the present invention's operation.

Describe a kind of embodiment below with reference to Fig. 1 to Fig. 5, dot-matrix printer roughly comprises print control unit 10 and print machinery.Print machinery comprises printhead 11, is used to drive the carrying motor 12 of the carrier that printhead 11 is housed and is used for the paper driving unit 12 of paper feeding.

Device 10 comprises microprocessor (CPU) 14, character ROM15, program ROM 16, read/write memory (RAM) 17, printing mechanical controller 18, and system bus 19.CPU14 operates according to the program that is stored in advance in the program ROM 16, so that the whole machinery of control printer.Character ROM15 has stored the font data (character data) corresponding to standard character.RAM17 is the work memory that uses when CPU14 forms print data.Print data that controller 18 provides according to CPU14 and control data are to printhead 11, and carrying motor 12 and paper driving unit 13 carry out drive controlling.

Word memory device 22 is linked device 10 by connector 21.Connector 21 can be taken from installing 10, and when bus 20 is connected, is connected on the system bus 19 by bus 20.

As shown in Figure 2, controller 18 comprises the needed print head drive circuit 24 of drive controlling of print data register 23 and printhead 11.Register 23 is stored in the print data that sends from RAM17 by system bus 19 under the control of CPU14.Circuit 24 drives the some pin of printhead 11 selectively according to the print data that is stored in the register 23.Be noted that print data has comprised the font data of delegation.

Further, controller 18 also comprises phase data register 25, the needed carrying motor driver of the drive controlling of motor 12 circuit 26, the needed paper driving unit drive circuit 28 of the drive controlling of phase data register 27 and paper driving unit 13.Register 25 and the 27 excitation phase transition of storing

step motor

12 and 13 are controlled needed various phase data.Circuit 26 provides exciting current so that CD-ROM drive motor 12 to the field coil of motor 12.Circuit 28 provides exciting current to the field coil of motor 13, so that CD-ROM drive motor 13.Phase data is transferred in

relevant register

25 and 27 by system bus 19.

Fig. 3 has represented the memory layout according to printer of the present invention.The storage portions of CPU14 that can free access is made of four districts, and promptly program ROM 16, character ROM15, RAM17 and page or leaf district 29.Page or leaf district 29 comprises eight districts again, and promptly page or leaf 1 district is to page or leaf 8 districts.This part is contained in the word memory.Each page district has stored the font data of each kinds of characters.CPU14 specifies one page so that change memory cell, thereby certain one page district in eight page or leaf districts is carried out access.Page or leaf 1 district and page or leaf 2 a districts formation RAM district are with as a RAM integral body.Page or leaf 3 districts to page or leaf 8 districts constitute the ROM district, as a ROM integral body.Page or leaf 1 district and page or leaf 2 districts are suitably used, so that the central processing unit in the system of employing printer of the present invention transmits the required character font that will print.(downgoing line input).RAM can have reserve battery, also can not have.As shown in Figure 4, word memory device 22 comprises the memory sets of being made up of RAM39 to 43, page address register 30, page address code translator 31 and I/O (I/o) address decoder 32.The font data that RAM39 and 40 capacity will enough be stored a kind of type character, and corresponding respectively page or leaf 1 district and page 2 districts.ROM41 to 43 stores the font data of two types character respectively, and corresponding to page or leaf 3 districts to the page or leaf 8 districts.In embodiments, ROM41 and 42 does not comprise memory chip.

When ROM or the specified font data of RAM were read out, 30 pairs in register was stored from the page address that CPU14 sends by connector 21.32 pairs in code translator is deciphered from the I/o address (first level address) that CPU14 sends by connector 21, and provides the storage of register 30 to operate desired time clock CK according to decode results to register 30.The page address that 31 pairs of registers 30 of code translator are produced and decipher from the I/o address of CPU14, and provide chip selection signal CS to ROM or RAM by decode results.

The operation that below description is had the dot-matrix printer of above-mentioned configuration.Print command or printable character sign indicating number are provided by the interface circuit (not shown) by the principal computer as external equipment: CPU14 begins print processing then.CPU14 stores the font data corresponding to the printable character code in the storage portions of RAM17, so that produce the font data of delegation.When printable character code during corresponding to the standard character code, CPU14 just reads the font data corresponding with the printable character code from character ROM15.And it is stored among the RAM17.When the font data of delegation was stored among the RAM17, CPU14 just was sent to printing mechanical controller 18 to the print data that comprises font data from RAM17.Controller 18 is shown in Figure 2 according to being sent to register 23() font data control printhead 11.Printhead 11 prints on paper and the font data corresponding characters.In this case, printhead 11 is contained on the carrier that is driven by motor 12.When motor 12 was driven by controller 18, the printhead 11 just delegation on the paper moved.When controller drives motor 13, printhead 11 is whenever finished delegation's dot lattice printing, and paper is just walked delegation.

When the printable character code that receives from principal computer corresponding to the character beyond the standard character, for example, during the high density dot character, CPU just reads corresponding font data from memory device 22.That is, the font data corresponding to the high density dot character is stored among the ROM43 of device 22 in advance.

CPU14 is according to receiving the printable character code of coming from principal computer, to the access of device 22 aspects conversion memory.As shown in Fig. 5 step S30, the given page address A1 corresponding to the printable character code is arranged in the register 30 by

bus

19 and 20, connector 21 and I/o bus 35.In this case, in order to indicate address in corresponding page or leaf by address bus 36 to I/o address decoder 32, CPU14 will transmit first level address A2.Code translator 22 is deciphered the first level address A2 from CPU14 according to selecting signal by control signal wire 33 from the I/o that CPU14 receives, and provides triggering time clock CK according to decode results to register 30.CK is synchronous with time clock, and register 30 is stored the next page address A1 from CPU14, then, provides it to code translator 31.31 pairs in code translator is deciphered from the page address A1 of register 30 with from the first level address A2 of CPU14, and chip selection signal CS is offered ROM43.So, as shown in Figure 4, chosen the page or leaf 7 with storage high density font data and the ROM43 in page or leaf 8 districts, font data wherein is corresponding to the printable character code.

Shown in step S31, CPU14 utilizes page address A1 access ROM43, with appointment such as page or leaf 7 and page or leaf 8, and utilizes first level address A2 access ROM43, in order to specify the address of corresponding page or leaf, so that read the font data of formation high density font data from ROM43.CPU14 reads line 37 by memory to be provided to ROM43 and reads to control signal RD, so that by I/o bus 35, connector 21 and

bus

20 and 19 read out word graphic data.

Shown in step S32, the font data that the CPU14 handle is read from ROM43 writes the storage portions by the RAM17 of first level address A2 appointment.CPU14 repeats the read operation of above-mentioned font data about ROM43.This process repeats by the juggling among the step S33, until the font data of reading a character from ROM43 and be stored among the RAM17.

CPU14 is according to the read operation of the repetition of the juggling among the step S34 about ROM43, until the font data that produces delegation in RAM17.When producing the font data of delegation in RAM17, CPU14 carries out the processing (step S36) of conversion page address, and this process is to read with the corresponding font data of printable character code desired from ROM43.That is, CPU14 will be transformed into corresponding to the page address such as page or leaf 8 corresponding to the page address such as page or leaf 7, and it is arranged in the register shown in Figure 4 30.So CPU14 reads the font data in page or leaf 8 districts that are stored in ROM43, and a data storage of reading is at RAM17.

With the method, when transmitting the printable character code of corresponding non-standard character from principal computer when, what CPU14 read corresponding printable character code from install 22 ROM43 presets the high density font data.When in RAM17, producing the high density font data of the delegation of from ROM43, reading, the printing shown in the CPU14 execution in step S37.In other words, CPU14 is sent to controller 18 to the print data that contains font data in the mode the same with the dot lattice printing operation of standard character.Controller 18 removes to control printhead 11 according to the high density font data that is transferred to register shown in Figure 2 23.So printhead 11 just will print on paper with latticed form corresponding to the character of high density font data.

In configuration of the present invention, word memory device 22 is linked print control unit 10 by connector 21, comprise prior the storage and ROM43 and install 22 such as the corresponding font data of non-standard high density character (corresponding to normalized character), for this reason, store the word memory device 22 that has with the corresponding font data of various countries' character respectively when having prepared, and chosen needed device 22 and, just can carry out dot lattice printing corresponding to required state character with itself and device 10 when connecting.In this case because store font data RAM39 and 40 or ROM41 to 43 do not need to be fixed in the device 10, do not need the high capacity memory to store the font data different so install 10 with the standard word graphic data.

Be provided with page address register 30 further in device 22 in addition, desired font data is read according to the page address that CPU14 is provided with.For example from ROM43, read.Therefore can easily change the storage number of (memory capacity of RAM or ROM) storage font data in page unit.Therefore, because the memory capacity about font data can change in the device 22, thus can read font data corresponding to the character of larger capacity type, to carry out dot lattice printing.

Claims

1, the dot-matrix printer that has the word memory device, this printer comprise the printing equipment of carrying out the dot lattice printing operation according to print data, and this print data is made up of the font data of preparation, and this dot-matrix printer is characterised in that and comprises:

The word memory device, it comprises, the font memory is used for storage in advance corresponding to the data of book character; Address register, be used for when the time from described font memory read out word graphic data, store used address date, input/output device is used for I/O and is stored in the address date of described address register and the font data of reading from described font memory;

Print control unit is used at described address register address date being set, so that when by described input/output device described font memory being carried out access, produces print data according to the font data of reading from described font memory;

Electrical connector is used to connect the described input/output device and the described print control unit of described word storing apparatus, so as between them transfer address data and font data.

2,, it is characterized in that the described font memory of described word memory device comprises read-only memory or read/write memory and stored the particular glyph data in advance according to the printer of claim 1.

3, according to the printer of claim 1, it is characterized in that described print control unit comprises microprocessor and work memory, storage has the font data of being read from described font memory by described microprocessor in described work memory, so that form print data.

4, according to the printer of claim 1, it is characterized in that described electrical connector comprises the mechanical hook-up that can take, it makes the described input/output device of described memory device can connect/separate with described print control unit.

5, the dot-matrix printer that has the word memory device includes the printing equipment of carrying out the dot lattice printing operation according to print data, and this print data is made up of the font data of preparation, and this printer is characterised in that and comprises:

The word memory device comprises a plurality of font memories, is used for storage in advance and the corresponding font data of character of giving definite form; Address register is used for storing used address date when from described font memory read out word graphic data; The address decoding apparatus, be used for the address date that is stored in described address register is deciphered, so that in described a plurality of font memories, specify the font memory of the needed font data of storage, input/output device is used for I/O from described font memory font data of reading and the address date that will be stored in described address register;

Print control unit, be used at described register, address date is set, so that when the needed font memory to described word memory device carries out access, according to font data of reading or prepared beforehand from described font memory with the corresponding font data of standard character, produce print data;

Electrical connector is used to connect the described input/output device and the described print control unit of described word memory device, so as between them transport address data and font data.

6,, it is characterized in that the described font memory of described font memory device comprises read-only memory or read/write memory, and store specific font data according to the printer of claim 5.

7, according to the printer of claim 5, it is characterized in that described print control unit comprises microprocessor and work memory, and a font data of being read from described font memory by described microprocessor is stored in the described work memory, so that form print data.

8, according to the printer of claim 5, it is characterized in that described electrical connector has the mechanical hook-up that can take, it makes the described input/output device of described word memory device can connect/separate with described print control unit.

9, the dot-matrix printer that has the word memory device, this printer have the printing equipment of carrying out the dot lattice printing operation according to print data, and this print data is made up of the font data of preparation, and this printer is characterised in that and comprises:

The word memory device, it comprises: the font memory is used for handle and is stored in a page unit with the corresponding font data of character of giving shaping type; Address register is used to store the page address data, during from described font memory read out word graphic data, indicates used page address with box lunch; Input/output device is used for I/O and is stored in the page address data of described address register and the font data of reading from described font memory;

Print control unit, have with printing memory corresponding to the first level address access of page address, be used for page address being set at described address register, and be used for the font data of reading from described font memory is stored in described printing memory, so that when the font memory to described word memory device carries out access, produce print data;

Electrical connector is used to connect the described input/output device and the described print control unit of described memory device, so as between them transmission page address date and font data.

10,, it is characterized in that the described font memory of described memory device includes read-only memory or read/write memory, and store specific font data according to the printer of claim 9.

11, according to the printer of claim 9, it is characterized in that described word memory device comprises the page address code translator, described page address code translator to the page address in the described page address register and from the page or leaf that described print control unit produces the address decipher, and chip selection signal is sent to described font memory according to decode results.

12, according to the printer of claim 9, it is characterized in that described electrical connector has the mechanical hook-up that can take, it makes the input/output device of described word memory device can connect/separate with described print control unit.