JP2001237998A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively utilize a memory by utilizing not only the memory area of a printer board but also the memory area of a FAX board when the printer board receives reception data from an outer unit and an image is developed in the case that the FAX board is in a stand-by state. SOLUTION: The image forming device is provided with a printer control part 17 having interface control for taking the charge of communication with the outer unit and having control to develop received image data and to transmit it to an engine plotter part 14, a FAX communication control part 15 having control to transmit a scanner image from a scanner part 13 to an outer line, to develop reception data from the outer line and to transmit it to the engine plotter part 14, an operating part 11 for inputting setting information of the device and a display part 12 for displaying the input setting information and information of a device state. Besides, a video bus change-over control part 16 is disposed so that the memory area of a FAX communication control part 15 is utilized together with the memory area of the printer control part 17 when a printer is operated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a memory and image data transfer control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a multifunction machine having copying, printer, and FAX functions, a printer board corresponding to a printer control unit and a FAX board corresponding to a FAX control unit are positioned as optional products of a copier (copier) body. In many cases, the hardware of the printer board and the hardware of the FAX board exist separately. For this reason, even when one of the boards is in the standby state, the image is developed using only the memory resources of each board without using the memory resources of the other board, and is sent to the engine plotter. As described above, it is expected that a multifunction peripheral in which the printer board and the FAX board are separately arranged in terms of product configuration will be developed in the future.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, in the case described above, when the FAX board is in a standby state and the printer board receives received data from an external device and develops an image, a memory area of the printer board is used. It is another object of the present invention to utilize not only the memory area of the FAX board but also to effectively use the memory.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer control unit having an interface control for controlling communication with an external device, a control unit for expanding received image data and transmitting the image data to an engine plotter unit, A facsimile communication control unit having a control for transmitting a scanner image from the scanner unit to an external line, expanding received data from the external line and transmitting the data to the engine plotter unit, and an operation unit for inputting setting information of the apparatus. A display unit for displaying the input setting information and device status information, and a video bus switching control unit are used, so that the memory area of the FAX communication control unit is used together with the memory area of the printer control unit during printer operation. An image forming apparatus is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus of the first aspect, the printer control section performs parallel image development processing on image data developed in band units, and switches the video data in band units by the video bus. This is sent to the control unit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the image forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect, wherein, of the image data expanded in band units under the printer control, when a band requiring a long time for image expansion is used, the image expansion is performed. The image data of the next band which has been completed is transmitted first and stored in the memory area of the FAX communication control unit via the video bus switching control unit.

[0007] The invention of claim 4 is the invention of claim 1 or 2 or 3
In the image forming apparatus, the image data of the plurality of bands stored in the memory area of the FAX communication control unit and the image data of the plurality of bands developed by the printer control unit are transmitted through the video bus switching control unit. Combine and 1
The image data is sent to the engine plot section as image data for a page.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.
1, a display unit 12 is composed of a key switch, an LED, a liquid crystal panel, a touch panel, and the like, and is capable of inputting setting conditions for the apparatus, and referencing and notifying setting conditions and states of the apparatus. it can. The scanner unit 13 reads a document image when using the copier function or the facsimile transmission function of the apparatus, and sends it to the engine plotter unit or the facsimile control unit via the video bus switching control unit.

A printer controller 17 having an interface control for communicating with an external device and developing received image data can communicate with an external device such as a Centro I / F, a serial I / F, and a network I / F. The control unit receives image data, a drawing command, drawing information, and the like transmitted from an external device, and develops the image data in a memory area. The image-developed data is transmitted to the engine plotting unit 1 via the video bus switching control unit 16.
4 is sent.

The video bus switching control unit 16 transmits and receives image data information, status information of each control unit, and commands to and from the printer control unit 17, the FAX communication control unit 15, the engine plotting unit 14, and the scanner unit 13. Transmission / reception control is performed by serial communication. The video bus switching control unit 16 transmits and receives image data to and from the printer control unit 17, the FAX control unit 15, the engine plotter unit 14, and the scanner unit 13 using a synchronization signal.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are flow charts for explaining the operation of the present invention. The printer control unit 17 which has received image data from an external device transmits the image data via the video bus switching control unit 16 by serial communication. It is checked whether the FAX control unit 15 is in the standby state and the memory area of the FAX control unit 15 is not used. When the fax control unit 15 is in the standby state and the memory area of the fax control unit 15 is not used, the memory area of the fax control unit 15 is controlled by the printer until the fax transmission function or the reception function of the fax control unit 15 is activated. The memory is opened as a part of the memory area of the unit 17.

Here, an example of image expansion processing in the printer control unit 17 which has received image data from an external device will be described with reference to FIG. One page of the received image data is divided into bands (every several lines), and band numbers (band 1, band 2,..., Band n) are assigned to each band. When the total number of lines for one page is X and the number of bands is n, the number of lines in each band is X / n. Further, by the parallel image development processing, for example, band 1 and band 2 are developed in parallel.

When band 3 is a band having a long image development time and band 4 is a band having a short image development time,
Since band 3 and band 4 are simultaneously performing image development processing by parallel image development processing, image development of band 4 ends first. When the image development of the band 4 is completed, the counter of the printer control unit is operated to determine whether a predetermined time (set value) has elapsed. In the present embodiment, a description will be given on the assumption that the image development is continued even after the band 3 has passed the predetermined time.

The image data of band 4 for which image development has been completed is sent to video bus switching control section 16 prior to band 3 in order to release the memory area of printer control section 17 used in band 4. Before sending the image data to the video bus switching control unit 16, it is necessary to determine the number of bands of image data to be sent and the number of continuous image data to be sent by the video bus by serial communication. It is necessary to transmit the image data to the switching control unit 16, and the number of the band of image data to be transmitted and the number of continuous image data to be transmitted are stored.

The video bus switching control unit 16 determines which band of image data is transmitted,
The number of consecutive bands to be transmitted is stored. Here, the video bus switching control unit 16
A synchronization signal corresponding to the number of transmitted bands (number of lines, image bits) is sent to the printer control unit 17, and the printer control unit 17 sends the necessary number of bands to the video bus switching control unit 16 in accordance with the synchronization signal. Will be sent.

Next, image data is transferred from the video bus switching control unit 16 to the fax control unit 15. Serial communication and image data transfer between the printer control unit 17 and the video bus switching control unit 16 are performed. It is performed in a similar sequence. The FAX control unit 15 stores the image data of the transferred band in the memory area of the FAX control unit 15 and, at the same time, determines which band of the image data has been transferred and the number of continuous bands. Whether the image data is transferred is stored.

As described above, when the image development processing time of band 3 is long and the image development processing time of bands 1, 2, 4,... N is short, the image data of band 4 is transferred prior to the image data of band 3. You. When the band 3 has been developed, the bands 1, 2, 4 are stored in the memory area of the facsimile control unit 15. Here, when the image development for one page is completed (bands 3 to 5 to n are stored in the memory area of the printer control unit 15), the image data for one page, that is, the FAX control unit 15 The bands 1, 2, 4 in the memory area and the bands 3, 5 to n in the memory area of the printer controller 17 are connected to the video bus switching controller 16.
, The image data is synthesized in the order of the band number and transmitted to the engine plot unit.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, when the FAX control unit 15 is in the standby state and the memory area of the FAX control unit 15 is not used,
Until the FAX transmission function or the reception function in the X control unit 15 is activated, the memory area of the FAX control unit 15 is opened as a part of the memory area of the printer control unit 17, and image data of a plurality of bands is stored. It can be combined with the image data of the remaining plural bands of the section 17 and printed as image data of one page.

[0019]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer control unit having an interface control for controlling communication with an external device, a printer control unit having a control for expanding received image data and transmitting the image data to an engine plotter unit, and a scanner. FAX communication control unit with control to send scanner image from external unit to external line, expand received data from external line and send it to engine plotter unit, operation unit to input setting information of this device and its input Since a display unit for displaying setting information and device status information is provided, and a video bus switching control unit is provided, the memory area of the FAX control unit can be used together with the memory area of the printer control unit during printer operation. .

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the printer control unit performs parallel image expansion processing on image data expanded in band units, and controls video bus switching of the image data in band units. Can be sent to the department.

According to the invention of claim 3, claim 1 or 2
In the image forming apparatus, if the band required for image development is long among the image data developed in band units by the printer control, the image data of the next band after the image development is transmitted first, The data can be stored in the memory area of the FAX control unit via the video bus switching control unit, and the memory area of the FAX control unit can be used as a part of the memory area of the printer control unit.

According to the invention of claim 4, according to claim 1 or 2,
Alternatively, in the image forming apparatus of (3), the image data of the plurality of bands stored in the memory area of the FAX control unit and the image data of the plurality of bands developed by the printer control unit are combined via the video bus switching control unit. By sending image data for one page to the engine plot section, F
Print output utilizing the memory area of the AX control unit can be enabled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a main part for describing an example of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a part of a flowchart for explaining the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart following the flowchart shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of an image expanding process according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 operation unit, 12 display unit, 13 scanner unit, 14
... Engine plot unit, 15 FAX control unit, 16 Video bus switching control unit, 17 Printer control unit.

Claims (4)

[Claims] A printer control unit having an interface control for communicating with an external device and a control for expanding received image data and sending it to an engine plotter unit;
A facsimile communication control unit having a control for transmitting a scanner image from the scanner unit to an external line and expanding received data from the external line and transmitting the data to the engine plotter unit; an operation unit for inputting device setting information; A display unit for displaying input setting information and apparatus status information is provided, and a video bus switching control unit is provided. When a printer is operated, a memory area of the printer control unit and a memory area of the FAX communication control unit are used. An image forming apparatus comprising: 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printer control unit performs parallel image expansion processing on image data expanded in band units, and sends the image data to the video bus switching control unit in band units. An image forming apparatus comprising: 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, of the image data expanded in band units by the printer control unit, if the time required for image expansion is long, the image expansion ends. An image forming apparatus comprising: means for transmitting the image data of the next band that has been transmitted first and storing the image data in the memory area of the FAX communication control unit via the video bus switching control unit. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data of a plurality of bands stored in a memory area of the facsimile communication control unit and a plurality of image data developed by the printer control unit. An image forming apparatus comprising: means for combining band image data through the video bus switching control unit and sending the combined image data to the engine plot unit as image data for one page.