JP2002264400A - Color image controlling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate factors of wastefully occupying a PCI bus and automatically switch the process to another transferable job so as not to occupy the PCI bus by disconnection and retrial. SOLUTION: This apparatus comprises a speed absorbing/exception processing buffer 4 for temporarily storing writing image data for a memory/image controller 8 corresponding to each edition, a speed absorbing buffer 5 for temporarily storing read image data from the memory/image controller 8, a writing controller 6 for executing PCI bus control and a reading controller 7 for executing PCI bus control, wherein the writing controller 6 and the reading controller 7 automatically switch to a process of another edition with a transfer command outputted at the time retrial and disconnection are generated during image data transfer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color image control device for transferring data of a plurality of versions using a PCI bus in a color printer, a digital color copying machine, or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a color image is read and is read as Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan),
In the system for performing image processing for each plate of (black) and printing out, many interface controls and high-speed data transfer are realized by using a PCI bus. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-179975 discloses a color printer control device that uses an internal bus for such transfer of color image data, and particularly performs monochrome printing.

[0003]

In the above-described color printer control device, the use of the PCI bus facilitates interface with many processing modules and enables high-speed transfer. Was. However, on the other hand, since they are transferred on the same bus,
During transfer between other modules connected on the PCI bus, transfer between other modules cannot be performed. Of course,
Since it is theoretically time-divided so that a required amount of data can be transferred between some modules, the transfer between the modules must be performed in a limited transfer space.

If there is a module that occupies the PCI bus more than the limited transfer space due to unnecessary disconnection retries, the balance is lost immediately and the system is broken. Also, if the same number of data is carelessly transferred without considering the priority order in a state where the transfer amount is large (read control and write control are performed simultaneously), for example, the write control which must be processed promptly becomes the read control. However, there is a problem that the transfer is not completed within a specified time (overrun) due to the interrupt of the above.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and has been made to eliminate the cause of wasteful use of the PCI bus, and to perform processing to another version that can be automatically transferred so that the PCI bus is not occupied by disconnect retry. Switching the first
The purpose of.

It is a second object of the present invention to prevent occurrence of overrun by enabling transfer control in consideration of priority.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a color image control apparatus, comprising: a controller having a large capacity memory for performing image processing; and a printer for forming a color image. A color image control device for controlling transfer of image data to and from an engine, comprising: a buffer for temporarily storing image data to be written to the controller corresponding to each plate; and a buffer for temporarily storing image data read from the controller. Comprising a buffer for temporarily storing data, a write control module for controlling the PCI bus, and a read control module for controlling the PCI bus, and a write control module for controlling the PCI bus and a read control module for controlling the PCI bus. Indicates that an exception (retry, disconnect) occurred during image data transfer In point, it is determined that no transfers can be ready for the controller, in which switching to automatically transfer instruction is other editions being output process.

[0010] According to the present invention, even if disconnection is made by exception processing during image data transfer, data lost by disconnection can be reproduced in the buffer and transmitted again to the PCI bus. Further, when disconnection or retry is continuously requested, unnecessary transfer is avoided by automatically switching to another version to be processed.

Further, in the color image control device according to the second aspect, when writing and reading are simultaneously controlled, the ratio of the amount of write data to the amount of read data is varied, and the idle period of the PCI bus (nothing is transferred) (A state in which data transfer is not performed) and the transfer concentration is dispersed.

According to the present invention, when simultaneously controlling writing and reading, the idle period of the PCI bus (a state in which nothing is transferred) is reduced by changing the ratio between the amount of write data and the amount of read data. Thus, it becomes possible to disperse the transfer concentration.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a color image control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a PCI bus, reference numeral 2 denotes a scanner for reading a color image, reference numeral 3 denotes a printer engine for forming a color image, reference numeral 4 denotes a speed absorption / exception processing buffer, reference numeral 5 denotes a speed absorption buffer, and reference numeral 6 denotes a light. Reference numeral 7 denotes a read controller, and reference numeral 8 denotes a memory / image controller. A write controller 6, a read controller 7, and a memory / image controller 8 are connected to the PCI bus 1, respectively.

Next, the operation of the color image control device configured as described above will be described. As a data flow, the color image read from the scanner 2 is stored in a large-capacity storage device such as a FIFO, and is written to the memory / image controller 8 through the speed absorption / exception processing buffer 4 under the control of the write controller 6. The color image processed by the memory / image controller 8 is output to the printer engine 3 through the speed absorption buffer 5 under the control of the read controller 7.

Here, in a transfer example in which the PCI bus 100 is occupied the most, a method of exception processing and a method of avoiding transfer data concentration will be described. First, a condition that a disconnection (an end request is generated in the middle of a burst in which continuous data transfer is performed in one transfer) that occurs as an exception process occurs, for example, when data is written to the memory / image controller 8 and a write burst transfer is performed. On the way, the memory / image controller 8 cannot continue the transfer due to some cause (such as the write data buffer in the memory / image controller 8 becoming full due to another process), and the memory / image controller 8 itself becomes inoperable. This is a case where a transfer stop is requested.

The color image control device that has received the transfer stop request may not be able to request retransmission of the color image data already received from the scanner 2. This case refers to the large-capacity storage device F in the scanner 2.
This means that data lost by disconnection cannot be returned to the FIFO in order to perform the same processing again once read from the IFO. At this time, the data at the time of disconnection is stored in the speed absorption / exception processing buffer 4 and retransmitted from the data at the time of the next write control, thereby preventing data loss at the time of disconnection. it can.

Next, the conditions under which a retry (an end request is generated from the beginning without performing any burst transfer) are, for example, when reading out color image data from the memory / image controller 8, the requested version Y, M, This is when the transfer preparation for either C or K is not completed. If a transfer request of the same version is repeatedly made in a state where a retry occurs, there is a high possibility that a retry will occur again. That is, the transfer data is not ready in the memory / image controller 8.

In general, if color image data processing for each plate is performed in parallel, while one plate is being transferred, processing for another plate is completed and the next data is being processed. Therefore, the dead time (time wasted in retry) can be reduced by switching to a different version and transferring data, rather than issuing a transfer request for a version that is likely to cause a retry here.

FIG. 2 shows details of the internal processing of the read controller 7. The read controller 7 includes a burst number control unit 9 for controlling the number of bursts of each color plate, and a PCI bus 1.
A basic PCI transfer control unit 10 for controlling
Automatic version switching control unit 11 that issues a version switching request in accordance with a disconnect / retry signal from bus 1
And

In the read controller 7 configured as described above, when the automatic version switching control unit 11 receives disconnect / retry as the PCI bus information,
It issues a version switching request to the basic PCI transfer control unit 10.

Next, regarding avoidance of transfer data concentration,
The case where reading of the first page of color image data from the memory / image controller 8 and writing of the second page of color image data to the memory / image controller 8 are started almost simultaneously will be described. Writing and reading of color image data need not be completed at the same time just because they have been started at the same time. The scanner 2 takes in a color image at the same time as Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), K (black), and 4 plates, and is written to the memory / image controller 8 at the same time. The output from the printer engine 3 is sequentially transferred to the recording paper 21 with the Y, M, C, K, and four-plate drums (20Y, 20M, 20C, 20K) arranged in parallel as shown in FIG. It is not necessary to read simultaneously from the relationship.

Therefore, when write processing and read processing are performed alternately as PCI arbitration, it is necessary to weight the number of image transfers by a method other than arbitration. One method is to adjust the number of burst transfers so that the ratio between write processing and read processing is 2: 1.

By enabling the number of burst transfers to be controlled independently by the write controller 6 and the read controller 7 internal burst number control 9, for example, the number of bursts for write processing is set to 16 and the number of bursts on the read processing side is set to 8 In the case of a burst, in PCI arbitration, write processing and read processing are performed alternately, but when the number of data to be transferred is two bursts, write processing is performed for 32 data and read processing is performed for 16 data with respect to the time axis. Thus, weighting of 2: 1 becomes possible.

Therefore, according to the color image control apparatus of this embodiment described above, even if disconnection is performed due to the internal control of the memory / image controller 8, it is lost by disconnection in the speed absorption / image buffer 4. The reproduced data can be reproduced and transmitted on the PCI bus 1 again.

When a disconnection or a retry is continuously requested by the memory / image controller 8,
Since it is possible to automatically switch to another version to be processed, it is possible to avoid a situation in which unnecessary transfer occurs.

Further, since the number of bursts is controlled independently by the write controller 6 and the read controller 7 (burst number controller 9), it is possible to reduce the idle period of the PCI bus 1 and distribute the transfer concentration. .

[0026]

As described above, according to the color image control device of the present invention (claim 1), even if disconnection is made by exception processing during image data transfer, it is lost by disconnection in the buffer. PC to reproduce the data
The data can be transmitted again on the I bus, and when a disconnection or a retry is continuously requested, the version is automatically switched to another version to be processed, so that useless transfer can be avoided.

According to the color image control device of the present invention, the ratio of the write data amount to the read data amount is varied, so that the PCI bus idle period (no data is transferred) State)
Since the transfer concentration is dispersed, transfer control in consideration of the priority order is realized, and occurrence of overrun can be avoided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a color image control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a read controller in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an image forming state by each color plate (drum).

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 PCI bus 2 Scanner 3 Printer engine 4 Speed absorption / exception processing buffer 5 Speed absorption buffer 6 Write controller 7 Read controller 8 Memory / image controller 9 Burst number control unit 10 Basic PCI transfer control unit 11 Automatic version switching control unit

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C061 AP01 AP04 AR01 HJ08 HK11 2C087 AA09 AA15 AB05 BA03 BA08 BB10 BC02 BC03 BD35 2C187 GA09 5B021 AA01 AA19 BB02 DD02 LG07 5B083 AA01 BB01 CC09 CD06 DD09 EE06 EF11

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A color image control device for controlling transfer of image data between a controller having a large capacity of memory and performing image processing and a printer engine for forming a color image, wherein the color image control device corresponds to each plate. A buffer for temporarily storing image data to be written to the controller; a buffer for temporarily storing image data to be read from the controller; a write control module for performing PCI bus control; a read control module for performing PCI bus control; And a write control module for controlling the PCI bus and P
The read control module that performs CI bus control handles exceptions during image data transfer (retry, disconnect)
A color image control apparatus which determines that the controller is not ready for transfer at the time of occurrence, and automatically switches to processing of another version to which a transfer instruction has been output. 2. When writing and reading are controlled simultaneously, the ratio between the amount of write data and the amount of read data is varied to reduce the idle period of the PCI bus (a state in which nothing is transferred) and to distribute the transfer concentration. 2. The color image control device according to claim 1, wherein: