JP2000255121A - Printing processing apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing processing apparatus capable of efficiently executing developing processing, in a constitution for executing developing processing by a hardware to output printing. SOLUTION: In constitution executing the developing processing due to a developing processing part 5 wherein a plurality of processings are enabled by constitutional alteration, drawing element data processable by common constitution are grouped and the drawing elements in the same group are collected to be successively processed. Since the memory address of the drawing elements and a developing processing constitution ID are allowed to correspond to each other to be stored in a table, object data to which common developing processing constitution is adaptable can be successively taken out of a buffer to be processed and, therefore, the writing number of times of a developing processing means can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus and a print processing method. More specifically, in a configuration in which drawing data described by a predetermined drawing command is input, the input drawing data is converted into intermediate data, and the drawing processing is executed by hardware to perform print output, the drawing processing is performed efficiently. The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus and a print processing method that can be executed in a flexible manner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of an electrophotographic page printer suitable for small, high-speed digital printing, images, figures, characters, and the like, which have escaped from the conventional printing of mainly character information, are handled in the same manner. 2. Description of the Related Art A printing processing apparatus using a description language in which enlargement, rotation, deformation, and the like of an image can be freely controlled has been widely used. A typical example of such a description language is PostScript (Adobe System).
s), Interpress (trademark of Xerox), Acrobat (trademark of Adobe Systems), GDI (Graphics Device I)
Internet, trademark of Microsoft Corporation) and the like are known.

[0003] Print data created in a description language is:
It is composed of commands and data strings in which drawing commands and data for expressing images, figures and characters at arbitrary positions in a page are arranged in an arbitrary order. In order to print with the page printer according to the present invention, before printing, Print data must be rasterized. Rasterization is the process of developing a raster scan line by developing it into a series of individual dots or pixels that traverse a page or portion of a page, and generating successive scan lines below the page.

In a conventional page printer, print data of the entire page is rasterized before printing and stored in a page buffer memory. However, storing raster data for an entire page requires a large amount of memory. In particular, in the latest electrophotographic color page printer, C (Cyan), M (Magenta), Y
Raster data corresponding to four color toners (Yellow) and BK (Black) is required, and image quality is required more than a black and white page printer. Yes, and requires more memory.

Recently, a band memory technology has emerged as a technology for reducing memory requirements from the viewpoint of cost reduction in response to the need for a large amount of memory. Band memory technology can rasterize print data created in a description language faster than rasterizing print data, instead of rasterizing all print data for one page before printing by a page printer. Convert to relatively simple intermediate data,
This technique divides a page into a plurality of adjacent areas (bands), stores intermediate data corresponding to each band, sequentially transfers the intermediate data to a raster development processing unit, and develops the data in a buffer memory corresponding to the band.

In the band memory technology, a memory for storing intermediate data is newly required, but it is possible to reduce a buffer memory which requires a large capacity for raster data. However, in general band memory technology, by the time the printing of raster data of a certain band is completed,
It is necessary to finish developing raster data from intermediate data for the next band. When the print data includes a complicated graphic drawing instruction or an image drawing instruction with a large amount of data to be handled, or when a specific band in one page includes a complicated graphic drawing instruction or an image drawing instruction, There is a possibility that a situation may occur where the development of the intermediate data into the raster data is not in time.

In order to speed up the process of developing the intermediate data into raster data, it has been considered to use dedicated hardware. As described above, objects to be drawn in a page include images, figures, and characters, and these require special processing according to the type of each object. For example, in the case of an image, resolution conversion, affine conversion, interpolation accompanying these processes, color processing, and the like are performed. In the case of a figure, coordinate conversion, vector / raster conversion,
Filling processing is required. In the case of a character, conversion of outline coordinates, hint processing, vector / raster conversion, filling processing, and the like are required. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare dedicated hardware corresponding to all of these processes one by one. However, in this case, even if the memory amount can be reduced, there is a problem that the amount of dedicated hardware to be added increases and the entire system becomes expensive. In addition, H /
W can be used only when the intermediate data is converted into a bitmap, and there is a problem that it is extremely wasteful to prepare dedicated hardware corresponding to the processing in parallel in view of the usage rate. .

Conventionally, as an attempt to solve such a problem, instead of providing hardware in parallel for all the expansion processing functions, the functions are changed by reconfiguring the hardware programmability or the structure to reduce the number of hardware. Attempts have been made to realize many functions in hardware at high speed. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 6-131155 and Hei 10-278361 disclose conventional techniques relating to the present invention having such a concept.

[0009]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention
5 reconfigures the means for generating an address for the data storage area and reconfigures the arithmetic means for the data in the data storage area obtained by the means for generating the address, thereby performing various image processing with a small amount of hardware. What we are trying to achieve. However, this configuration can reconstruct image processing that is significant in address information, but cannot cope with vector processing such as graphics and characters. Also, since image processing is always performed by performing reconstruction, PDL (Page D
When various images appear arbitrarily, as in the case of the script language (page description language),
There is also a problem that the reconstruction time is increased. Furthermore, unless the rewriting process is a process of substantially the same size, the rewriting unit is matched to the largest process, and there is a problem that reconfiguration of processes of various sizes causes waste.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-278361 discloses a technique in which reconfiguration hardware is used to perform expansion processing for outputting input print data to an output device, thereby reducing the required amount of hardware and providing print data to be processed. The throughput is improved by adopting an optimal hardware configuration accordingly. For example, judging the overlap of drawing elements included in the print data, and rearranging the drawing elements of the print data based on the determination information and the contents of the print data, thereby causing the reconfiguration hardware units to operate in parallel. By reducing the number of changes in the configuration of the reconfiguration hardware means, it is possible to speed up the expansion processing by the reconfiguration hardware means. However, this configuration has a problem in that it takes time for preprocessing of the developing means, such as determination of overlapping of drawing elements and rearrangement of drawing elements, and the overall throughput is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and rewrites the reconfiguration of hardware used for expansion processing at least according to the contents of print data including images, figures, and characters. An object of the present invention is to enable high-speed and resource-saving print processing by using the same hardware resource by efficiently performing both the number of times and the scale of rewriting.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus and a print processing method for achieving the above object. That is, the print processing apparatus according to the present invention has at least one of a character, a figure, and an image drawing element, and inputs drawing data described by a predetermined drawing command, and a drawing input to the input means. Based on the data, the rendering processing configuration information is added in correspondence with the rendering element included in the rendering data to generate the rendering processing configuration information-added intermediate data, and the rendering element to which the common rendering processing configuration information is added. Conversion means for selecting and classifying,
The expansion processing means can be changed to a plurality of configurations and can perform a plurality of processes in accordance with the change. The configuration is changed according to the expansion processing configuration information, and the common expansion processing configuration information classified by the conversion means is converted. The image processing apparatus is provided with an expansion processing unit that executes expansion processing in the order of the rendering elements, and an output unit that outputs expansion data expanded by the expansion processing unit.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The expansion processing means can be changed to a plurality of configurations, and is constituted by reconfigurable hardware capable of performing a plurality of processes in accordance with the changes.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The conversion means creates a table that associates each object data storage address in the input buffer that stores the object data indicating the rendering element with identification information indicating the rendering processing configuration information of the rendering element, thereby creating a common development processing configuration. The present invention is characterized in that a drawing element having information is selected and classified.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The expansion processing means selects, based on the table, the object data addresses having the common identification information indicating the expansion processing configuration information as one group, and sequentially selects and expands the object data designated by the object data addresses in the group. After executing the processing, and after completing the expansion processing of the object data defined by the group, the expansion processing is performed on the group of the different object data addresses specified by the identification information indicating the different expansion processing configuration information included in the table. It is characterized by having the structure which does.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The expansion processing means changes the expansion processing configuration based on the identification information indicating the expansion processing configuration information common to the object data addresses included in the next group when shifting to processing of a different next group included in the table. It is characterized by having a configuration.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The expansion processing means has a configuration code storage unit storing a plurality of configuration codes corresponding to the configurations of the plurality of changeable expansion processing means, and based on identification information indicating the expansion processing configuration information associated with the drawing element. By selecting a configuration code corresponding to the identification information from the configuration code storage unit and performing reconfiguration of the expansion processing unit according to the selected configuration code,
The present invention is characterized in that the configuration is changed to a configuration in which the expansion process according to the expansion process configuration information can be executed.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The decompression processing means stores the decompressed decompression object data in the output buffer, and associates a storage address of the decompression object data in the output buffer with a pointer indicating the address information storage position of the decompression object data to be output next. And storing the data in an output buffer.

Further, the print processing method according to the present invention has an input step of inputting drawing data which has at least one of a character, a figure, and an image and is described by a predetermined drawing command. Based on the data, expansion processing configuration information is added in association with the rendering element included in the rendering data to generate expansion processing configuration information-added intermediate data, and the rendering element with the common expansion processing configuration information is added. In the conversion step of selecting and classifying, and in the expansion processing means capable of being changed to a plurality of configurations and capable of performing a plurality of processes in accordance with the change, the configuration is changed in accordance with the expansion processing configuration information, and classified by the conversion means. Processing step for executing the expansion processing in the order of the drawing elements having the common expansion processing configuration information, and output for outputting the expansion data expanded in the expansion processing step And having a step.

Further, in the print processing method of the present invention,
The conversion step creates a table in which each object data storage address in an input buffer for storing object data indicating a rendering element and identification information indicating rendering processing configuration information of the rendering element are created, and a common development processing configuration is created. The method includes a step of selecting and classifying a drawing element having information.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of a print processing apparatus and a print processing method according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0022]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a print processing apparatus according to the present invention. Referring to FIG.
A drawing data spooling unit 2, a drawing data interpreting unit 3, a conversion processing unit 4, a development processing unit 5, an output device control unit 6,
And an output device 7. Hereinafter, the outline and operation of each component of the present embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 will be described.

In FIG. 1, drawing data 1 is described in a description language that can be processed by a print processing apparatus, and is created by an application program that processes document creation and editing on a personal computer or workstation (not shown). Generated from the document data. The description language targeted in this embodiment is, for example, G
Although it is DI, PDF (P
convertable Document Format),
A page description language represented by PostScript (P
DL).

The drawing data spool unit 2 stores the drawing data 1
And a function of temporarily storing drawing data until the drawing data is output to the drawing data interpreting unit 3.

The drawing data interpreting unit 3 cuts out the drawing data input from the drawing data spooling unit 2 as a token according to the syntax of a predetermined description language, and then interprets the token and converts it into an internal command or its argument. I do. The internal commands include a drawing command for executing drawing of characters / graphics / images and a drawing state command for setting information necessary for drawing such as color and line attribute. The drawing command is transferred to the conversion processing unit 4.

The conversion processing unit 4 converts the input drawing data into intermediate data that can be expanded into print data in the expansion processing unit 5. The purpose of converting to intermediate data is
The purpose is to enable high-speed expansion processing in the expansion processing unit 5. Further, a hardware configuration ID which is an identifier for the configuration data written to the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 of the expansion processing unit 5 is added to the intermediate data as information regarding the expansion processing. The details of the conversion processing unit 4 and the intermediate data will be described later.

The expansion processing unit 5 reads out the intermediate data output from the conversion processing unit 4 in band units,
The output image data is created in the output buffer memory inside.
That is, it receives the intermediate data output from the conversion processing unit 4 and expands it into data that can be output by the output device 7.

The input data includes images, figures, and characters, which require special processing according to the type of each object. For example, in the case of an image, resolution conversion, affine conversion, interpolation accompanying these processes, color processing, and the like are performed. In the case of a graphic, coordinate conversion, vector / raster conversion, filling processing, and the like are performed. For characters, convert outline coordinates, hint processing, vector / raster conversion,
Filling processing is required. Expansion processing unit 5 of the present invention
Has a reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 that changes functions by reconfiguring hardware programmability or structure and realizes many functions at high speed with a small amount of hardware. Various development processes are enabled by 50. Reconfigurable expansion processing unit 5
0 will be described in detail later. For example, a field programmable
There is a gate array (FPGA).

The data expanded in the expansion processing section 5 is alternately stored in two output buffer memories in the expansion processing section 5. As will be described later, the output device 7 used in this embodiment is a color page printer, and the output image data alternately stored in the buffer memory is converted into print data of the recording color printed in the output process 7. Yes, it is.
Subsequently, the output image data stored in the output buffer memory is alternately output to the output device in response to a data request from the output device 7. Details of the development processing unit 5 will be described later.

The output device control unit 6 transfers output image data in the output buffer memory in the expansion processing unit 5 to the output device 7 and executes state control and management of the output device 7.

The output device 7 outputs an image. For example, in a case where the output device 7 is a color page printer using an electrophotographic system of a laser scanning system capable of outputting a full-color image by repeating exposure, development, and transfer for each of CMYBK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) colors. Under the control of the output device control section 6, the output image data output from the output buffer memory is received, printed on recording paper, and output.

Next, an outline of a processing flow in the image processing apparatus configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. When the drawing data 1 including characters / graphics / images is input to the drawing data spool unit 2, intermediate data divided in band units is generated via the drawing data interpretation unit 3 and the conversion processing unit 4 (step S21). ). In the generated intermediate data, one table including the hardware configuration ID of each drawing object is included in each band. Then, the conversion processing unit 4 outputs the intermediate data in response to a request from the development processing unit 5.

The expansion processing unit 5 scans the table added to the intermediate data input from the conversion processing unit 4 and sends the data from the configuration data management unit 52 as necessary according to the hardware configuration ID included in the table data. The configuration data relating to the hardware configuration is input, and the reconfiguration control unit 51
The function of the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 is rewritten by the control of (step S22).

Next, the intermediate data is received in band units and converted into output image data output by the output device 7 (step S23). It is checked whether the processing of all the intermediate data in the band is completed (step S24). If the processing is not completed, the expansion processing is repeated while rewriting the function of the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 as necessary. When the expansion processing of all the intermediate data in the band is completed and the cycle of the output device 7 is completed or the output preparation is completed, the output image data is output from the output buffer memory to the output device 7 in accordance with the recording speed of the output device 1. Transferred line by line (step S2
5).

Next, it is checked whether the processing of all the bands in the page has been completed (step S26). If the processing has not been completed, while the output image data of one output buffer memory is being output, the expansion processing of step S22 and subsequent steps is repeatedly executed for the next band, and is output to one output buffer memory as output image data. Store. That is, the expansion processing unit 5 performs expansion processing on output image data and the output device 7.
Is repeated for each color or simultaneously for four colors until output image data for one page is processed. If completed, the development process for one page is completed. If the output image data is composed of a plurality of pages, the above process is repeated until the output of all pages is completed.

The outline of the printing process according to the present invention has been described above. Next, details of a main part of the print processing apparatus will be described.

First, the conversion processing unit 4 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 3, the conversion processing unit 4 includes an instruction execution unit 40, a drawing state instruction storage unit 41, an image processing unit 42
, A vector processing unit 43, a list generation unit 44, a band division management unit 45, and an intermediate data storage unit 46.

The command execution unit 40 executes the internal command sent from the drawing data interpretation unit 3. The commands executed here mainly include a drawing command and a drawing state command. For example, there are three types of drawing commands as shown in Table 1,
Information necessary for each drawing is shown. Of these, information with an underline is given as an argument in the drawing command, and other information is stored in the drawing command state storage unit 41 in advance by initial setting or a preceding command. To execute the drawing command, the received drawing command is transferred to the vector processing unit 43 as it is except for drawing an image. In the case of image drawing, the received drawing command is transferred to the image processing unit 42 and the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header are transferred to the vector processing unit 43. For the drawing state command, the command is transferred to the drawing state command storage unit 41.

[0039]

[Table 1]

The drawing state command storage unit 41 stores the command execution unit 4
For example, the value of the information without underline shown in Table 1 is set with the value of the argument included in the instruction received from 0, and the values are stored. Further, the image processing unit 42,
In accordance with requests from the vector processing unit 43, the band division management unit 45, and the like, those values are transferred.

The image processing unit 42 receives the input image header and the input image data, which are the arguments of the command input from the command execution unit 40, and if a compressed image is input based on the compression ID added to the header. Is subjected to affine transformation using the transformation matrix acquired from the drawing state command storage unit 41. Further, in some cases, the processed image is compressed, an output image header and output image data are generated, and transferred to the band division management unit 419. For this compression, it is usual to use a compression method that originally compressed image data on the PDL side, but this need not be the case. For example, if the data is compressed by DCT (discrete cosine transform) on the PDL side, it may be compressed by DCT, may be compressed by LZW, or may not be compressed. In the affine transformation to be performed, in order to reduce the amount of memory in the intermediate data buffer,
Affine transformation may be performed on purpose for a resolution smaller than the resolution of the output device.

The vector processing unit 43 uses the command and argument sent from the command execution unit 40 and the value of the drawing state command storage unit 41 to generate vector data for new drawing except for solid drawing. I do. First, the case of character drawing will be described. The character code given by the argument and the font ID obtained from the drawing state command storage unit 41 are transferred to the font management unit to obtain character outline data. Since the acquired outline data does not include information on the drawing origin (current point), the target vector data is generated by adding the offset of the current point acquired from the drawing state command storage unit 41 to the outline data. . In the case of image drawing, a rectangular vector corresponding to the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header given by the argument is generated, and the offset of the current point acquired from the drawing state command storage unit 41 is added to obtain the target vector data. Generate In the case of stroke drawing, the vector given by the argument and the drawing state command storage unit 4
An outline vector of a line having a thickness is generated from the various line attributes acquired from step 1. The vector generated in this manner (in the case of solid drawing, the vector directly received from the instruction execution unit 40) is subjected to matrix conversion, and if there is a curved vector in the vector, converted to a short vector composed of all straight lines. I do. The generated vector is transferred to the list generation unit 44.

The list generation unit 44 generates, from the vector generated by the vector processing unit 43, header information for each drawing object, the starting point, inclination, and direction of the vector forming the drawing object, and the intersection of the vector and the scanning line. A list composed of edge information including numbers is generated. The generated list data is transferred to the band division management unit 45.

The band division management section 45 includes an image processing section 42
In addition, of the image data and the list data each including the header information input from the list generation unit 44, the data over a plurality of bands is divided for each band. Further, intermediate data is generated by adding additional information to the data divided for each band.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of the intermediate data. The intermediate data includes drawing object data: OD divided for each band as described above, and BID, OID, PI as additional information.
D is added.

The additional information is composed of management information for managing the intermediate data and a development processing ID representing the contents to be processed by the reconfigurable development processing unit 50. The management information includes a band ID (BID) for indicating to which band the object belongs, and an object ID (OID) which is an identification number assigned to one drawing command. The development processing ID (PID) is an ID as identification information indicating the type of a development processing hardware configuration for performing the development processing by the reconfigurable development processing unit 50 on the drawing object.

As shown in FIG. 4, the additional information of the BID, OID, and PID includes, for each band generated by the drawing command, image data including header information and drawing object data: OD which is list data. Prepended. Here, the image data as the intermediate data may be stored in a compressed form because of its large capacity. The image header information also includes the type of color conversion processing and the type of compression method, in addition to the parameter indicating the size of the image. The intermediate data is a set of data for such a drawing object.

The intermediate data, which is the aggregate data of each drawing object divided for each band by the band division management unit 45, is sent to the intermediate data storage unit 46. In the intermediate data storage unit 46, each drawing object data is stored in the band ID and the object ID in the additional information of each drawing object.
Are interpreted, collected for each band, and further stored in the drawing order. When the command execution unit 40 interprets a page output command, EOP (End Of Page)
e) is sent to the intermediate data storage unit 46 via the band division management unit 45, and the final data of each band stored in the intermediate data storage unit 46 has EOD (End Of Da
ta) is added to clarify the end of the band data. This EOP is also sent to the expansion processing unit 5 to activate the processing of the expansion processing unit 5.

When an intermediate data transfer request is received from the intermediate data transfer control unit 62, the intermediate data storage unit 46 transfers the intermediate data to the input buffer in the expansion processing unit 5 in band units. At this time, in the intermediate data storage unit 46, as shown in FIG. 5, the head address indicating the location on the input buffer where one piece of drawing object data is stored, and the development processing ID of the drawing object can be actually reconfigured. One table is created for each band as a set of data obtained by converting the hardware configuration ID corresponding to the hardware configuration of the expansion processing unit 50 on a one-to-one basis. The end of the table is terminated with NULL.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a table created in the intermediate data storage unit 46 of the conversion processing unit 4. The input buffer shown on the left side of FIG. The input buffer stores intermediate data for each band. The data for each band has a data array as shown in the center of FIG. ADR0, ADR1, AD
R2. . . Is a start address indicating a location on the input buffer where each drawing object data is stored. As indicated by arrows in FIG. 5, ADR0, ADR1,
ADR2. . . Indicates the corresponding object data OD0, OD1, OD2. . . Indicates the storage start address on the buffer. Where OD0, OD1, O
D2. . . Are image data including header information and drawing object data which are list data as described with reference to FIG.

The head addresses ADR0, ADR1, ADR2. . . HWID1, HWID2, HWID added corresponding to each of
3. . . Is a drawing processing I for each drawing object.
D (PID: see FIG. 4) is a hardware ID converted into a hardware configuration ID corresponding to the actual hardware configuration of the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 on a one-to-one basis. For example, it is shown that the expansion processing of the object data OD0 specified by ADR0 is executed by organizing the hardware configuration of the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 into the hardware configuration specified by the hardware configuration ID: HWID1. I have. Hereinafter, similarly, the expansion processing of the object data OD1 designated by ADR1 is performed by the hardware configuration ID: HW
ADR2, the hardware configuration specified by ID0
It can be seen that the expansion processing of the object data OD2 specified by the above may be executed with the hardware configuration specified by the hardware configuration ID: HWID1.

Next, the expansion processing section 5 will be described in detail. FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 included in the expansion processing unit 5. The intermediate data for each output generated by the conversion processing unit 4 is read by the intermediate data transfer control unit 62 and is stored in the input buffer A 650 of the memory unit 65.
Alternatively, the data is written to the input buffer B651. The reconfiguration hardware unit 60 reads the intermediate data from the input buffer A650 or the input buffer B651, expands it, and outputs it to the output buffer A652 or the output buffer B6.
Draw on 53.

The output image data transfer control unit 63 is provided with the output buffer A 652 or the output buffer B 653 after the drawing.
The output image data expanded from is read, and the read image data is converted into serial data for each read word.
And outputs it to the output device 7 in synchronization with the serial output clock signal.

The refresh controller 61 includes an input buffer A 650, an input buffer B 651, and an output buffer A 65
2. The refresh of the memory unit 65 including the output buffer B 653 and the work area 654 is controlled. When the refresh control unit 61, the intermediate data transfer control unit 62, the output image data transfer control unit 63, the reconfiguration hardware unit 60, and the reconfiguration control unit 51 access the memory unit 65, the arbitration unit 64 Arbitration control is performed according to the access priority assigned to the block.

How to use the input buffer and the output buffer will be described. FIGS. 7A and 7B show the use states of the buffers while intermediate data is being input to the input buffer A and the input buffer B, respectively. FIG.
In (a), intermediate data corresponding to band i is being input to input buffer A, and intermediate data corresponding to band (i-1) has already been input to input buffer B. The reconfiguration hardware unit 60 reads the intermediate data stored in the input buffer B, expands the intermediate data, and draws the intermediate data in the output buffer B. The output buffer A stores output image data as a result of developing and rendering the intermediate data corresponding to the band (i-2), and the output image data transfer control unit 63 reads this to the output device 7.

In FIG. 7B, the band (i + 1)
Is being input to the input buffer B, and the intermediate data corresponding to the band i has already been input to the input buffer A. The reconfiguration hardware unit 60 includes:
The intermediate data stored in the input buffer A is read, expanded, and drawn in the output buffer A. The output buffer B stores output image data as a result of developing and rendering the intermediate data corresponding to the band (i-1), and the output image data transfer control unit 63 reads this to the output device 7.

The work area 654 is used as a temporary work area as necessary when the expansion processing section 5 expands the intermediate data input from the conversion processing section 4.

The reconfigurable expansion processing section 50 expands the intermediate data using the table shown in FIG. 5 created for each band by the conversion processing section 4. The reconfiguration control unit 51 receives the table data from the input buffer and controls the reconfiguration hardware unit 60. The control procedure is described below with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of control of the reconfiguration hardware unit by the reconfiguration control unit. In the description of this flow, for the sake of explanation, an example of a table of a certain band i is the table shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 9, band i has object data from OD0 to OD7, and for each object data, ADR indicating the head address of the object data and each object data as described in FIG. Hardware configuration ID: H indicating the hardware configuration for performing the expansion processing by the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50
WID is associated.

The flow of FIG. 8 will be described. First, in step S81, the table of the band i shown in FIG. 9 stored in the input buffer is sequentially scanned from the top to NULL, and classified by hardware configuration ID. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which the tables shown in FIG. 9 are classified. The hardware configuration IDs appearing in the scanning order in the table shown in FIG. 9, that is, divided into areas of HWID1, HWID0, and HWID2, and the hardware configuration ID and the head address information (ADR) storing the drawing object data are regenerated. register. Since the table of band i is registered according to the drawing order, the drawing order is also registered in the drawing order ID when re-registering. Also, serial numbers corresponding to the number of head address information are registered as registration IDs.

FIG. 10 will be briefly described. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state of classification performed based on the table (table data of band i) shown in FIG. The left end of FIG. 10 shows that the start address ADRn of the object data included in the band i on the buffer can be reconfigured by the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 5.
0 hardware configuration ID: organized by HWIDx. That is, at the beginning, ADR0 is set as the address of the object data processed by HWID1,
ADR1 and ADR3 are selected and listed.

As understood from FIG. 9, these ADRs
The hardware configuration IDs associated with 0, ADR1, and ADR3 are all HWID1. The object data OD0, OD1, and OD3 corresponding to these addresses ADR0, ADR1, and ADR3 are expanded by the hardware configuration of the reconfigurable expansion processor 50 associated with HWID1. That is, the head addresses of the object data that can be processed in the common development processing configuration are classified and arranged as one group. FIG.
0, address data AD of object data to be processed by HWID0 and HWID2.
Rn are listed separately, each constituting a different group.

Since the table of band i is registered according to the drawing order, the drawing order is also registered in the drawing order ID when re-registering. In the example shown in FIG.
D0, OD1, OD2. . . The drawing order ID in FIG. 10 is 0 for ADR0 and 1 for ADR1. Furthermore, serial numbers for the number of the head address information are also registered as registration IDs. This is, as understood from FIG. . . It is.

The hardware configuration ID shown in FIG.
The area to be classified and re-registered for each area may be a fixed length area or a variable length area. The area used for re-registration is a work area, but is not limited to this.

In S82, according to the order of classification,
Based on the hardware configuration ID, the configuration data management unit 5
2 to read the configuration data from the reconfiguration hardware unit 60
Write to. In the case of FIG. 10, since HWID1 is classified at the top, processing by the hardware configuration of the reconfigurable expansion processing unit 50 associated with HWID1 is performed. The configuration data is written to the reconfiguration hardware unit 60.

In S83, the reconfiguration hardware unit 6
When the reconfiguration of 0 is completed, the top address information (ADR0) classified as data having the hardware configuration ID of HWID1 is transferred to the reconfiguration hardware unit 60, and a synchronization signal for starting the expansion process is sent.

At S84, the reconfiguration hardware unit 6
It waits until the development processing at 0 ends.

In S85, a table is created on the output buffer, and two data as shown in FIG. 11 are written as one table data. Of the two data shown in FIG. 11, OADR indicates the head address of the output data in the reconfiguration hardware unit 60 on the output buffer. PNTID is a pointer ID, and indicates pointer information to table data to be read next by the output image data transfer control unit 63 in a table created on the output buffer.

For example, in response to the output data of the object data OD0 specified by ADR0 expanded at the top with HWID1, OADR, P
The NTID is written. That is, when the reconfiguration processing of the data OD0 indicated by the head address information ADR0 in the reconfiguration hardware unit 60 configured in the hardware corresponding to the HWID1 ends in S83,
The head address OADR0 in the output buffer in which the output data of OD0 is stored is set as OADR, and the output image data transfer control unit 63 registers the 1 to be output next in the drawing order ID shown in FIG. The registration ID 1 is set and written as the PNTID.

In S86, the same hardware configuration I
It is checked whether there is any other data classified by D (HWID) (can be determined by the presence or absence of ADRn). If there is, the process from S83 is repeated. If not, the process proceeds to S87.

In S87, another hardware configuration I
It is checked whether data classified by D (HWID) remains. If there is, the process from S82 on is repeated. If not, the data processing is terminated because all data in the table shown in FIG. 10 has been expanded.

The above-described control in accordance with the flowchart shown in FIG. 8 is performed by the reconfiguration control unit 51 to reconfigure the reconfiguration hardware unit 60 necessary for expanding the intermediate data in the input buffer. The number of times to perform is the same as the type of the hardware configuration ID, and the reconfiguration hardware unit 60 is reconfigured by the conventional processing device, that is, the configuration data corresponding to the hardware configuration ID of the drawing object simply in accordance with the drawing order. The number of times of reconfiguration can be greatly reduced as compared with the conventional method. This makes it possible to reduce the entire development processing time.

The reconstruction control unit 51 creates a table on the output buffer in order to maintain the drawing order of the drawing objects, as in the processing in S85 described above.
FIG. 13 shows a table created on the output buffer after processing the table shown in FIG. 10 according to the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 13 is an example of a table of the band i on the output buffer, and is a table created on the output buffer after the processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 8 as described above. This table configuration will be described.

The output buffer stores the output data processed by the expansion processing unit OD0, OD1,. . . Are sequentially stored as output data. As shown in FIG. 13, OD0 together with the start address and pointer ID as table data
The following output data is stored in the output buffer. Here, the start address OADRn indicates the start address in the output buffer in which each output data is stored in the order in which the output data is stored in the output buffer. OADR0 is OD
0, OADR1 is OD1, and OADR2 is OD3.
The order of storage is the order of processing in the expansion processing unit, which is shown in FIG.
The order corresponds to the leftmost list shown by.

The table shown in FIG. 13 is further provided with a pointer ID corresponding to each head address OADRn. This is for the output image data transfer control unit 63 to obtain and write the registration ID to be output next according to the drawing order ID shown in FIG. In this example, the drawing order is the order of the input data, and OD0, OD1, OD2, OD3, O
The order is D4, OD5, OD6, and OD7. However, in the expansion processing unit, the object data is reordered and processed so that those that can be processed by the same hardware configuration are collected, and stored in the output buffer in the processing order. Therefore, the storage order is as shown in FIG. OD0, OD1, OD3,
OD2, OD7, OD4, OD5, OD6.

It is the pointer ID that enables this to be output in accordance with the drawing order. The drawing order is recorded in the drawing order ID shown at the right end of FIG. 13, and it may be output in this order. The registration ID is assigned a number in the order of registration in the output buffer. By calling the registration ID in the order of the drawing order, the object data after the expansion processing can be output in the output order.

More specifically, first, the object data OD0 after the expansion processing is extracted from the address OADR0. Next, since the pointer ID corresponding to OADR0 indicates 1, the object data OD1 after the expansion processing indicated by OADR1 is output by OADR1 corresponding to registration ID = 1. Next, since the pointer ID corresponding to OADR1 indicates 3, the OADR3 corresponding to the registration ID = 3 uses the object data O after expansion processing.
D2 is extracted and output. Hereinafter, the data stored in the output buffer in the order of the expansion processing is output in the correct output order by the same procedure.

The above procedure is summarized as follows. The output image data transfer control unit 63 scans the table data of the table in the output buffer shown in FIG. 13 in the order indicated by the pointer ID. First, the first table data in the table is read, and the start address OADR0 is read.
Is transferred (output data of OD0).

Next, based on the pointer ID of the table data, the registration ID of the table data to be read next, 1
Get. Similarly, the table data of the registration ID, 1 is read, and the output image data (output data of OD1) indicated by the start address OADR1 is transferred to obtain the registration ID, 3 of the next table data.

By repeating this step,
The scan of the table data is 0 → 1 → 3 → 2 →
The processing is performed in the order of 5 → 6 → 7 → 4. By scanning the table data in this order and transferring the output image data to the output device 7 under the control of the output device control unit 6, the order interpreted by the drawing data interpretation unit 3, ie, the object It is possible to maintain the drawing order.

In this embodiment, the pointer ID is used to read the next table data.
The configuration for reading the next data is not limited to the pointer, but may be any position information indicating the next table data. For example, the address information for the next table data may be used. In this case, for example, an address calculated by the following equation is written in the table.

Table address = start address of output buffer + table data length × pointer ID

FIG. 14 shows the configuration of the configuration data management unit 52. The conversion table 110 receives the hardware configuration ID, and stores the address calculation unit 1 in the configuration code storage area 111.
12, the start address CFADR (Config)
uration Address) and data size CFS
It is a table for outputting ISE (Configuration Size). The configuration code storage area 111
An area in which configuration data corresponding to an actual hardware configuration ID is stored, and each entry is of variable length.

A control unit 113 includes a read control unit 114 and an addition / update unit 115. Read control unit 114
Inputs the readout signal and the hardware configuration ID from the reconfiguration control unit 51 and outputs the hardware configuration ID to the conversion table 110 to input the head address and the data size of the configuration data in the configuration code storage area 111 I do. Next, the read control unit 114 outputs the input head address to the configuration code storage area 111, reads configuration data corresponding to the hardware configuration ID of the data size from the configuration code storage area 111, and executes the reconfiguration control. Output to the unit 51.

The adding / updating unit 115 is a control unit for adding / updating configuration data sent via a host computer or the like (not shown). , Add, delete, and update. The configuration code storage area 111 includes configuration data corresponding to various circuit configurations for processing a single function, configuration data corresponding to a parallel circuit configuration having a plurality of the same functions, and parallel data having a plurality of different functions. Configuration data corresponding to various circuit configurations, and configuration data corresponding to a pipeline-like circuit configuration having a plurality of different functions.

Next, a specific configuration of the reconfiguration hardware unit 60 will be described with an example. The reconfiguration hardware unit 60 is a processing block that can change functions by writing configuration data managed and stored by the configuration data management unit 52 under the control of the reconfiguration control unit 51.
Typically, the reconfiguration hardware unit 60 can be configured by a field programmable gate array (FPGA). As the FPGA, for example, an FPGA manufactured by XILINX or an equivalent component can be adopted.

The present invention has been described in detail with reference to the specific embodiments. However, it is obvious that those skilled in the art can modify or substitute the embodiment without departing from the spirit of the present invention. That is, the present invention has been disclosed by way of example, and should not be construed as limiting. In order to determine the gist of the present invention, the claims described at the beginning should be considered.

[0089]

As described above, according to the print processing apparatus and print processing method of the present invention, a plurality of processes can be performed by changing the configuration of the expansion process in the expansion processing means for outputting to the output device. In addition to the configuration that is executed by the enabled expansion processing unit, object data that can be processed by a common expansion processing configuration is grouped,
Since the processing is performed sequentially, it is possible to reduce the number of rewriting processes of the expansion processing unit to the required minimum number of times, and it is possible to drastically reduce the rewriting process of the expansion processing unit which has been frequently executed in the conventional system. And the processing time can be greatly reduced.

Further, according to the print processing apparatus and the print processing method of the present invention, the expansion processing configuration to be individually executed for the drawing elements included in the input drawing data in correspondence with the storage addresses of the respective drawing elements. Is added to the table as an expansion processing configuration ID and stored in a table, and object data that can be processed by a common expansion processing configuration in one table scan is grouped. Therefore, the expansion processing configuration ID is used as an index. The storage address can be extracted, and the object data of the drawing elements to be expanded by the common expansion configuration can be sequentially extracted from the input buffer without repeating the table scan. Object data can be input.

Further, according to the print processing apparatus and the print processing method of the present invention, when storing the expanded object data after the expansion processing in the buffer, the storage address of each object data and the object to be output next Since the pointers indicating the data storage addresses are stored in association with each other, it is possible to quickly output the object data that has been subjected to the expansion processing to the output unit in the order in which the data should be output.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a print processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of overall processing of the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a conversion processing unit in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of intermediate data in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a table created by a conversion processing unit in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a reconfigurable development processing unit in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a method of using an input buffer and an output buffer in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of control of a reconfiguration hardware unit by a reconfiguration control unit in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table of a band i in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a state of classification of table data in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating data written to a table on an output buffer in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of data to be written into a table on an output buffer in the print processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table of a band i on an output buffer in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a configuration data management unit in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 drawing data 2 drawing data spooling unit 3 drawing data interpreting unit 4 conversion processing unit 5 expansion processing unit 6 output device control unit 7 output device 40 command execution unit 41 drawing state command storage unit 42 image processing unit 43 vector processing unit 44 list generation Unit 45 band division management unit 46 intermediate data storage unit 50 reconfigurable expansion processing unit 51 reconfiguration control unit 52 configuration data management unit 60 reconfiguration hardware unit 61 refresh control unit 62 intermediate data transfer control unit 63 output image data transfer control Unit 64 arbitration unit 65 memory unit 110 conversion table 111 configuration code storage area 112 address calculation unit 113 control unit 114 read control unit 115 addition / update unit

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An input means having at least one of a character, a graphic, and an image drawing element, and inputting drawing data described by a predetermined drawing command, based on the drawing data input to the input means. By adding expansion processing configuration information corresponding to the drawing elements included in the drawing data, generating expansion processing configuration information-added intermediate data, and selecting the drawing element to which the common expansion processing configuration information is added. Conversion means for classifying, and a development processing means capable of being changed to a plurality of configurations and capable of performing a plurality of processes in accordance with the change, changing a configuration in accordance with the development processing configuration information, and being classified by the conversion means Expansion processing means for executing expansion processing in the order of drawing elements having common expansion processing configuration information, and output means for outputting expansion data expanded by the expansion processing means. That the print processing apparatus. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said expansion processing means can be changed to a plurality of configurations, and is constituted by reconfigurable hardware capable of performing a plurality of processes in accordance with said changes. Print processing device. 3. The conversion means creates a table associating each object data storage address in an input buffer for storing the object data indicating the drawing element with identification information indicating development processing configuration information of the drawing element. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein drawing elements having common development processing configuration information are selected and classified. 4. The development processing means selects, based on the table, object data addresses having common identification information indicating development processing configuration information as one group,
After sequentially selecting the object data specified by the object data addresses in the group and executing the expansion processing, after completion of the expansion processing of the object data defined by the group, different expansion processing configuration information included in the table 4. The print processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the print processing apparatus has a configuration for executing a development process for a group of different object data addresses defined by the identification information indicating the group. 5. The identification information indicating the expansion processing configuration information common to the object data addresses included in the next group when the expansion processing means shifts to processing of a different next group included in the table. The print processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the configuration is such that the expansion processing configuration is changed based on the configuration. 6. The expansion processing means has a configuration code storage unit storing a plurality of configuration codes corresponding to the configuration of a plurality of changeable expansion processing means, and includes expansion processing configuration information associated with the drawing element. A configuration code corresponding to the identification information is selected from the configuration code storage unit based on the identification information indicating the configuration information, and the reconfiguration processing unit is reconfigured in accordance with the selected configuration code. The print processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the configuration is changed to a configuration capable of executing the expanded processing. 7. The expansion processing means stores expansion object data subjected to expansion processing in an output buffer, a storage address of the expansion object data in an output buffer, and an address information storage position of expansion object data to be output next. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a configuration in which the output buffer is stored in the output buffer in association with a pointer indicating “1”. 8. An input step having at least one of a drawing element of a character, a figure, and an image, and inputting drawing data described by a predetermined drawing command, based on the input drawing data, In addition to generating expansion processing configuration information and adding expansion processing configuration information to correspond to the drawing elements included in
A conversion step of selecting and classifying a drawing element to which common development processing configuration information is added; and a development processing means capable of being changed to a plurality of configurations and capable of performing a plurality of processes in accordance with the change. A development processing step of changing the configuration according to the information and executing the development processing in the order of the drawing elements having the common development processing configuration information classified by the conversion unit; and outputting the development data developed in the development processing step. And a print processing method. 9. The conversion step creates a table in which each object data storage address in an input buffer for storing the object data indicating the drawing element is associated with identification information indicating expansion processing configuration information of the drawing element. 9. The print processing method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of selecting and classifying drawing elements having common development processing configuration information.