EP1950629B1 - Appareil de formation d'image adapté pour compter les images formées par l'appareil - Google Patents

Appareil de formation d'image adapté pour compter les images formées par l'appareil Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1950629B1
EP1950629B1 EP08100628A EP08100628A EP1950629B1 EP 1950629 B1 EP1950629 B1 EP 1950629B1 EP 08100628 A EP08100628 A EP 08100628A EP 08100628 A EP08100628 A EP 08100628A EP 1950629 B1 EP1950629 B1 EP 1950629B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
count value
count values
count
counter
memory
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Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Not-in-force
Application number
EP08100628A
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German (de)
English (en)
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EP1950629A1 (fr
Inventor
Antonius C.M. Van Buren
Alexander H. Venema
Johannes T.M. Neggers
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Canon Production Printing Netherlands BV
Original Assignee
Oce Technologies BV
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G21/00—Arrangements not provided for by groups G03G13/00 - G03G19/00, e.g. cleaning, elimination of residual charge
    • G03G21/02—Counting the number of copies; Billing

Definitions

  • the invention relates to an image forming apparatus, e. g. a copier or printer, implementing a method for counting the number of "clicks", i. e. the number copies that have been made, as specified in the preamble of claim 1.
  • US 4 774 544 discloses an image forming apparatus wherein the "clicks" are counted by a CPU of the machine control which comprises a non-volatile memory.
  • An EEPROM Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
  • An EEPROM is provided as a non-volatile memory for saving the count values to make them persistent during those times when the power supply for the CPU is turned down.
  • the contents of an EEPROM can be read as often as desired, but can be erased and re-written only a limited number of times.
  • this EEPROM is subdivided into a plurality of memory areas each of which can store a complete count value, so that the storage capacity of the EEPROM is multiplied.
  • the new count value is written in one of the memory areas of the EEPROM, and when the number of erase and write cycles of that memory area becomes exhausted, the future count values will be written into another memory area.
  • EP-A-0 412 039 , US 5 568 626 and US 5 450 460 disclose other counting methods dealing with the problem of the limited number of write cycles of an EEPROM.
  • EP-A-0412039 discloses an apparatus according to the preamble of claim 1.
  • US-A-4 665 497 describes an odometer wherein a travelled distance is counted in a volatile counter, and certain increments of that distance, e. g. 100 m, are saved in a non-volatile memory having a plurality of memory areas. Another count value is saved when the power is switched off. When power is switched on again, the counter is initialized with the maximum of the count values read from the memory areas.
  • the counting system as a whole will be robust against events of damage or destruction even if some of the EEPROM's are affected.
  • a write procedure in the non-volatile memory will not be required for each event that is to be counted, but instead, such a write procedure will be required only every M-th count, so that, for a given storage capacity of the non-volatile memory, the member of counts that can be stored persistently is multiplied by M.
  • the count value in the volatile counter will get lost, the count value will be saved in the non-volatile memory and will later be used for re-initialising the volatile counter with that count value when the apparatus passes again into the operative mode.
  • the method according to the invention is capable of keeping track of the exact count value.
  • an unexpected power shutdown occurs, e. g. because of an error, there will be no time to save the current count value before the contents of the volatile counter get lost, and the count value that is stored persistently will then be the count value that has been saved last time when an integral multiple of M had been reached.
  • the method according to the invention will lead to a loss of up to M counts in the worst case.
  • the method wherein, in a cycle of N consecutive saving steps each memory area is written once, comprises a step of checking the validity of the count values stored in the non-volatile memory by checking whether the difference between two of the count values in the memory areas (0, 1, 2, 3) is not larger than M * N.
  • the N memory areas of the non-volatile memory will always store the N count values that have been saved in the last N save operations, and the difference between any two of these count values will always be smaller than N*M, if all count values have been saved correctly.
  • the condition that the difference between any pair of count values that are stored in the non-volatile memory must be smaller than N*M provides a simple criterion for checking the validity of these count values. In other words, if this criterion is not met for a specific pair of count values, it must be concluded that one of the two count values is invalid, e. g. because of an error that has occurred during the write procedure.
  • the step of step of checking the validity includes a step of identifying valid count values on the basis of the criterion that the difference between any two of the valid count values is not larger than N * M, and identifying an invalid count value on the basis of the criterion that the difference between that count value and any of the valid count values is larger than N * M. Since, normally, an error occurring during the write procedure will corrupt only one of the N count values, all pairs of count values that do not involve the one corrupted value will still fulfill the above criterion, so that it is even possible to identify the invalid one among the N count values.
  • step (c) it is possible to identify a memory area of the non-volatile memory that has become defective. Then, it is possible to automatically continue with a modified counting procedure which leaves out the defective memory area (with M being changed to M-1).
  • the method according to the invention is also robust in the sense that it tolerates a failure of one or more of the N memory areas. So the system will remain robust against events of damage or failure as long as at least two EEPROM's are operating properly.
  • the step of checking the validity is included in the step (a), and the initialisation of the counter (109) is based only on the maximum of the valid count values.
  • step (c) the count value is saved in the memory area that has produced the count value with which the counter (109) has been initialised.
  • the first count value to be saved after an increment of M counts may be written into any of the N memory areas of the non-volatile memory. In a preferred embodiment, however, this count value is written into the memory area that has shown the largest count value in the initialisation step.
  • an apparatus comprises more than one counter, e. g. counters for separately counting sheets of different formats and/or for distinguishing between simplex and duplex copies
  • the above method may be performed individually for each of these counters which will then have a suitable number of memory areas in the non-volatile memory associated therewith. Then, it will also be possible to count and save also the total number of copies that have been made, irrespective of the format or type (simplex or duplex), and another validity check may be made by comparing the sum of the count values of the individual counters to the total count value.
  • An image forming apparatus implementing the above method is claimed in the independent apparatus claim.
  • the EEPROM's are distributed over various locations within the apparatus. This will ameliorate the robustness against failures and damages.
  • the control system of the image forming apparatus may further comprise a counting control module that manages a local user interface (LUI) and/or networking with a remote accounting facility, so that the actual count values may at any time be called-up from the remote facility for billing purposes and/or may be viewed by a local user.
  • this control module has access to a hard disk device which will serve as a second non-volatile memory for the count values, thereby to provide more redundancy.
  • a hard disk device may be subject to damage and data loss, it is preferable that the "non-volatile memory" in the meaning of this invention is in the first place formed by EEPROM's.
  • the control unit and the hard disk may act as a server for making the count values available for the local user and the remote facility, even in periods in which the apparatus is in the non-operative mode and the power supply for the embedded software is cut off. If a reset of the control module becomes necessary, updated and correct count values may be downloaded from the EEPROM's.
  • Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of an image forming apparatus 101 which will briefly be called “printer” hereinafter, although the apparatus may also be a copier, e. g. a digital copier, or a multi-purpose copier/printer combining the functions of scanning, copying and printing. Since the general construction and function of such an image forming apparatus are known in the art, they will not be described herein, and the printer 101 has only been shown as a single block in Fig. 1 . Likewise, Fig. 1 shows only those parts that are relevant to explain the present invention.
  • the control system 102 of the printer 101 comprises a Local User interface (LUI) 103, a network interface 104 for connection to a remote accounting facility (not shown), a hard disk device 105, a counting control module 106 connected with a volatile storage location 107 and a non-volatile memory 108.
  • Hardware components making up the control system may be distributed over various locations in the apparatus.
  • Volatile storage location 107 is provided with four counters 109 each of which has a volatile memory (of e. g. four byte) for storing a current count value for the number of sheets that has been printed with the printer 101.
  • each counter 109 receives a count signal via the counting control module from a fuse unit 110 of the printer 101 each time an image has been fused on a copy sheet.
  • the four counters 109 serve for counting small format simplex sheets, small format duplex sheets, large format simplex sheets and large format duplex sheets, respectively, on which an image has been fused on one side (simplex) or both sides (duplex) in the fuse unit 110.
  • the storage location 107 may further comprise an additional counter (not shown) for counting the total number of sheets, which should always correspond to the sum of the count values of the counters 109.
  • a non-volatile memory 108 which is specifically dedicated the purpose of storing the count values of the counters 109 is formed here by a plurality of EEPROM's 111. Each EEPROM provides four 4-byte memory areas, one for each of the counters 109.
  • a 4-byte memory area is capable of storing a count value that may be larger than 750 million counts, which is more than enough for counting all the copies made during the lifetime of the printer 101.
  • a count value stored in one of the memory areas is to be replaced by a new count value, the corresponding memory area of the EEPROM has to be erased, so that the new contents can be written therein.
  • the lifetime of state of the art EEPROM's is limited to about one million erase and write cycles. Thus, if each count signal issued by the fuse unit 110 would be counted on the EEPROM's 111, the lifetime of the EEPROM's would expire long before the printer 101 reaches the end of its life.
  • each of the four counters 109 in the volatile storage area 107 cooperates with a total of four EEPROM's 111.
  • this 4-fold storage capacity would be far to little to store each individual count in the EEPROM'Ss
  • the hard disk device 105 storing the count values that are updated once per minute is also a non-volatile memory, it will be understood, that, if these count values were stored only on the hard disk device 105, they would be lost and could no longer be billed for in case of a crash of the hard disk device 105.
  • the non-volatile memory formed by the EEPROM's 111 provides a storage facility that will be safer and more robust.
  • the first row (a) in Fig. 2 illustrates a condition in which the embedded software is initialised, i.e. when the printer 101 passes from the sleep mode to the operative mode.
  • the last count value that had been reached before the printer went into the sleep mode was 892 and is stored in area 2 in this example.
  • the row (b) shows the situation 13 clicks later, when the counter has counted up to 905. It can be seen that the values in the memory areas are not changed, i. e. no save operation has been performed.
  • the counter has reached 972, which is after an increment of 80 from 892, and this triggers the next one of the periodic save operations.
  • the count value 972 is saved in the memory area 2, i. e. the one from which the last (highest) count value 892 had been read.
  • the row (d) shows the situation yet another 80 clicks later, when the count value in the counter has reached 1052 and the next periodic save operation is performed. As can be seen, this count value 1052 is stored in the next memory area 3, replacing the value 720 that had previously been stored in that area.
  • the row (e) illustrates the situation when the printer passes again into the sleep mode while a count value of 1167 has been reached in the counter 109.
  • the count values 1052 and 1132 have been saved in the areas 3 and 0 in the periodic save operations.
  • the current count value 1167 is saved in memory area 1.
  • the counter 109 will be initialised with the value of 1167 stored in area 1, i. e. with the maximum of the four count values stored in the memory areas.
  • Row (f) illustrates a situation in which an unexpected power shutdown has occurred when the count value in the counter 109 had reached 1679.
  • This unexpected power shutdown may have occurred because of an error, e. g. because the user has turned down the printer by pressing an emergency button or because of a breakdown of the line power.
  • the value 1600 had been stored in memory area 0.
  • the next periodic save operation would have taken place at a count value of 1680, and this value would have been saved in area 1.
  • this save operation could not be reached because the power shutdown occurred already at 1679.
  • the counting control module has attempted to save this value of 1679 in the memory area 1, but the save operation has failed because of power shortage. Due to this failure, a senseless or random value 19631 has been stored in memory area 1.
  • the row (g) illustrates the situation when the printer 101 passes again into the operative mode after the unexpected power shutdown mentioned in conjunction with row (f).
  • the largest of the count values stored in the memories areas 0-3 is the value 19631 stored in area 1.
  • the counting control module finds that the value of 19631 can not be valid and initialises with the next largest values.
  • the erroneous count value stored in area 1 is randomly selected from among the possible count values which range from 0 to 750 million, so that there is only a negligible probability that this count value accidentally meets the above difference criterion, i. e. happens to fall within the interval between 1200 (1600 - 400 ) and 1760 (1360 + 400).
  • the row (h) illustrates the situation that is reached another 160 clicks later.
  • the count value in the counter (which is still 79 counts too small) has reached 1760.
  • this count value has again been stored in the memory area 0 form which the value of 1600 for initialisation had been read, as was described above.
  • the erroneous value in area 1 is overwritten with 1760, so that all traces of the error are removed.
  • the validity check and (approximate) error correction procedure described above does not depend upon the specific type of error that has caused the wrong storage value in one or more of the memory areas. For example, this procedure will also be effective if a wrong result is stored in one of the memory areas because the corresponding EEPROM has reached the end of its lifetime. Since the five memory areas associated with an individual counter 109 are formed by or located on different EEPROM's, the failure of one EEPROM will not affect the results stored in the other EEPROM's.
  • a normal user will of course not have the possibility to reset the EEPROM's.
  • authorised personnel e. g. a service engineer, may have appropriate tools for resetting the EEPROM's, for example in a case that the printer 101 is refurbished and thus has a "second life".
  • the lifetimes of the EEPROM's will be sufficient for a second or even a third life of the printer without exceeding the maximum number of erase/write cycles.
  • Fig. 3 is a flow diagram for an initialising routine that will be performed each time the printer 101 passes from the sleep mode to the operative mode.
  • the count values C i are read from the four memory areas 0 -3.
  • Step S2 is the validity check, wherein each of the count values C i is compared to each of the other three count values C j , to check whether their difference is smaller than 320.
  • a count value C i is considered to be valid if there exists at least one other count value C j for which the difference criterion is met.
  • the system would still be operative if three of the five EEPROM's are defective.
  • a subsequent step S3 searches for the maximum C among the valid count values C i and stores an index k which points to the memory area in which the highest count value had been stored. Then, in step S4, the counter 109 is initialised with the maximum C found in step S3, and the routine passes on to the count procedure that is illustrated in Fig. 4 .
  • step S5 it is checked whether a shutdown condition is met, i. e. whether a command for starting a regular shutdown procedure has occurred, so that the printer will pass into the sleep mode or will be switched off completely.
  • a command for entering into the sleep mode may for example be generated automatically when the printer has not been used for a predetermined time interval.
  • step S6 If no shutdown condition is met, it is checked in step S6 whether a new click has occurred, i. e. whether a count signal has been received from the fuse unit 110.
  • the steps S5 and S6 are repeated cyclically as long as the printer remains in the operative state and no new click occurs.
  • the loop is left via step S7, where the previous count value C in the volatile memory of the counter 109 is increased by one.
  • step S8 it is checked in step S8 whether the count value has been incremented in step S7 with a multiple of 80. If this is not the case, the routine loops back to step S5.
  • step S9 this count value is written into the EEPROM memory area with the index k (which was initialised in step S3), and the former value of k is replaced by (k + 1) mod3. This assures the cyclic switching of the memory areas 0 - 3 to which the count values are written, as was described in conjunction with Fig. 2 .
  • step S5 the routine loops back to step S5 via step S10, and the count procedure is continued.
  • step S5 If a shutdown condition is detected in step S5, the routine branches directly to step S9 to store the current count value, as in row (e) in Fig. 2 . Then, the procedure is ended via step S10, and it will be only then that the shutdown procedure leads to the power supply for the embedded software being cut off. Thus, under normal conditions, it is assured that the save operation will be performed correctly.
  • step S8 will then check the condition "has the counter reached a value that is a multiple of 80?". If yes the method proceeds with step S9, if no the method returns to step S5.
  • Row (h) represents a typical configuration in which the differences between all the count values stored in the memory areas 0-3 are multiples of 80. It is an advantage of this embodiment that the differences between all count values are multiples of 80. This condition must always be fulfilled if the number of counts that has occurred since the last power start-up of the embedded software becomes larger than 320. This can be used as a criterion that is easy to check and therefore permits a simple and fast validity check that may replace a more complex checksum or other validity check procedure.
  • the embedded software may not attempt to save a current count value if an unexpected shutdown occurs. Then, unlike the example illustrated in row (f) in Fig. 2 , the contents of the pertinent memory area 1 would be left as it is (at1360), but in the next initialisation step (row (g)) the value 1600 would still be highest valid count value, and the further procedure would be the same as in row (h). The only difference would be, that it would not be possible to conclude from the invalidity of at least one count value that a loss of up to 80 counts has occurred. Of course, such a condition which implies a possible loss of counts may be detected by other means, as is well known in the art. A situation comparable to the one shown in rows (f) and (g) in Fig. 2 may however occur when the pertinent EEPROM is defective or when the power supply happens to be cut off in the very moment in which the save operation (step S9) is performed.
  • step S2 in Fig. 3 may be extended to include a procedure for identifying the memory area that has produced an invalid count value, and this information may be passed on to the control module 106 where the error may be recorded in a log file.
  • the control module may disable that EEPROM or memory area and continue with a modified count procedure utilising only the remaining, non-defective memory areas.
  • the control module 106 may further be used for performing additional checks. For example, if the printer has a maximum production rate of 180 copies per minute (summed over all sheet formats), then the difference between the last count value stored in the hard disk device 105 for a specific counter 109 and the next update for that counter cannot be larger than180, since the count values are updated in the control module 106 once per minute. Thus, if an unreasonably large difference is detected or if the count value appears to have decreased, this is an indication that an error has occurred in the counting system. If the printer has been in the sleep mode in the interval between the last and the last but one update, it is likely that the error has occurred in the EEPROM write procedure or the initialisation procedure. Such events may be recorded on the log file and/or may cause the control module 106 to send an error message to the accounting facility via the network interface 104.

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Claims (8)

  1. Appareil de formation d'image (10) comprenant un système de commande (12, 14) conçu pour commuter l'appareil d'un mode inactif dans un mode actif et vice versa et comprenant au moins un compteur volatil (30) et une mémoire non volatile (34) avec une pluralité de N zones de mémoire (0, 1, 2, 3) pour chaque compteur (30),
    caractérisé en ce que chaque zone de mémoire est mise en oeuvre en tant qu'EEPROM séparée et le système de commande est conçu pour effectuer les étapes suivantes pour compter un nombre d'images formées par l'appareil (10), consistant à :
    a) lorsque l'appareil (10) passe dans le mode actif, initialiser le compteur (30) avec la valeur maximum parmi les valeurs de comptage mémorisées dans les N zones de mémoire ;
    b) compter les événements au moyen du compteur volatil (30) ; et
    c) sauvegarder la valeur de comptage dans l'une des zones de mémoire à chaque fois que la valeur de comptage a été incrémentée d'un nombre prédéterminé M > 1 ou lorsque l'appareil (10) passe dans le mode inactif.
  2. Appareil selon la revendication 1, dans lequel, dans un cycle de N étapes de sauvegarde consécutives, chaque zone de mémoire est écrite une fois.
  3. Appareil selon la revendication 2, dans lequel le système de commande est conçu pour effectuer une étape de vérification de la validité des valeurs de comptage mémorisées dans la mémoire non volatile (34) en vérifiant si la différence entre deux des valeurs de comptage dans les zones de mémoire (0, 1, 2, 3) n'est pas supérieure à M * N.
  4. Appareil selon la revendication 3, dans lequel ladite étape de vérification de la validité comprend une étape d'identification de valeurs de comptage valides sur la base du critère que la différence entre deux valeurs quelconques parmi les valeurs de comptage valides n'est pas supérieure à N * M, et d'identification d'une valeur de comptage non valide sur la base du critère que la différence entre cette valeur de comptage et l'une quelconque des valeurs de comptage valides est supérieure à N * M.
  5. Appareil selon la revendication 3 ou 4, dans lequel ladite étape de vérification de la validité est incluse dans l'étape (a), et l'initialisation du compteur (30) est basée uniquement sur la valeur maximum parmi les valeurs de comptage valides.
  6. Appareil selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel, à l'étape (c), la valeur de comptage est sauvegardée dans la zone de mémoire qui a produit la valeur de comptage avec laquelle le compteur (30) a été initialisé.
  7. Appareil selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel, à chaque fois qu'une valeur de comptage est sauvegardée à l'étape (c), la zone de mémoire dans laquelle la valeur de comptage est écrite est commutée cycliquement.
  8. Appareil selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel la mémoire non volatile est incorporée dans une architecture logicielle intégrée (12), et les zones de mémoire de la mémoire non volatile sont réparties sur divers emplacements dans l'appareil (10).
EP08100628A 2007-01-24 2008-01-18 Appareil de formation d'image adapté pour compter les images formées par l'appareil Not-in-force EP1950629B1 (fr)

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EP07101082 2007-01-24
EP08100628A EP1950629B1 (fr) 2007-01-24 2008-01-18 Appareil de formation d'image adapté pour compter les images formées par l'appareil

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EP1950629B1 true EP1950629B1 (fr) 2011-07-20

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US11056192B2 (en) 2018-12-21 2021-07-06 Micron Technology, Inc. Monotonic counters in memories

Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6463512B2 (en) * 2000-01-28 2002-10-08 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Storage device, method of processing stored data, and image forming apparatus
US20030067803A1 (en) * 2001-09-10 2003-04-10 Frank Boeh Arrangement for storing a count

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS59196414A (ja) 1983-04-22 1984-11-07 Hitachi Ltd 電子式オドメ−タ
JPS62202294A (ja) 1986-02-28 1987-09-05 Casio Comput Co Ltd カウンタ装置
US5023813A (en) 1989-08-03 1991-06-11 International Business Machines Corporation Non-volatile memory usage
JPH03250499A (ja) 1990-02-27 1991-11-08 Nec Corp データ記憶回路
US5450460A (en) 1994-03-09 1995-09-12 National Semiconductor Corporation Non-volatile electronic counter with improved reliability and a substantitally increased maximum count

Patent Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6463512B2 (en) * 2000-01-28 2002-10-08 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Storage device, method of processing stored data, and image forming apparatus
US20030067803A1 (en) * 2001-09-10 2003-04-10 Frank Boeh Arrangement for storing a count

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