JP2002287921A - Image output system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image output system for a printer to output data including link information in which the high-speed output is realized by reducing the number of times of data transfer, etc., from a host. SOLUTION: When the data (master data) input from the host 110 is interpreted, and the master data include the link to other data (slave data), transfer of the slave data is requested to the host 120 keeping the slave data, and the slave data are received from the host 120. A printer 100 to interpret and output the slave data comprises a cache memory 105 for keeping the slave data or the data interpreting the slave data and a means 103 for interpreting the master data from the host 110 and acquiring information on the link, and determining the use schedule of the cache memory 105 based on the information on the link.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image output system such as a printer, and more particularly to an image output system for outputting data including link information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image output system such as a printer for inputting, interpreting and outputting a file to be output from a host computer (host), the file is interpreted.
If the file (parent data) includes link information to another file (child data), the printer requests the host holding the child data to send the child data, and sends the child data from the host. It is necessary to receive and interpret the child data and output it, which is one of the factors that hinders speeding up.

[0003] Therefore, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-24861.
In the gazette, in a file data printing system having a file server, a file display device such as a personal computer, and a printer on the same network, the file server transfers files directly to the printer without passing through a file display device such as a personal computer, If the data to be printed in the file specified by the user has a link to another file, the printer directly reads the linked file to the file server to improve the file transfer efficiency. A technique for causing this to occur has been proposed.

[0004]

However, in the prior art, when a plurality of links to the same file are provided, it is necessary to read the linked file each time, and the transfer efficiency of the file is improved. However, there was a limit in increasing the output speed.

An object of the present invention is to reduce the number of times data is transferred from a personal computer or other host computer to a printer or the like and / or reduce the total amount of data to be transferred.
An object of the present invention is to provide an image output system that realizes higher-speed output.

[0006]

According to the present invention, data is inputted from a host computer (host), interpreted,
If the data (parent data) includes a link to another data (child data) and it is determined that the child data is necessary for output processing, the host that holds the child data sends the child data to the host. An image output system that requests data transmission, receives child data from the host, and interprets and outputs child data. In an image output system, a cache memory that caches child data or data obtained by interpreting child data, The main feature is to have a control means for interpreting and acquiring all the information about the link, and generating and determining the use schedule of the cache memory based on the information about the link.

When a plurality of links to the same file (child data) are provided, the control means stores the child data received from the host holding the child data in the cache memory and re-executes the output for the output processing. When the child data is required, a cache use schedule is generated so as to be read from the cache memory. As a result, the number of times data is transferred from the host to a printer or the like and / or the total amount of transferred data can be reduced, and high-speed output can be achieved.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, the image output system is a printer, but the present invention is not limited to a printer.

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of this embodiment. In FIG. 1, a printer 100 as an image output system includes host computers (hosts) 110 and 120.
Is connected to The connection form between the printer and the host is arbitrary. Also, although two hosts are shown here,
The number of hosts can generally be one or more. Printer 1
00 denotes a host input interface 101, a host output interface 102,
Control means (CPU) 103 for controlling, image output means 104, and cache means (cache memory)
105 and the like.

Assume that the host 110 sends a print command and a file to be printed to the printer 100. In the printer 100, the host input interface unit 101
Receives a print command and a file to be printed from the host 110 and sends them to the control unit 103. The control unit 103 interprets a file to be printed based on the print command input from the host input interface unit 101 to create output image data, and sends the output image data to the image output unit 104. The image output unit 104 prints on paper or the like according to the output image data input from the control unit 103.

The control means 103 sends necessary data to the cache means 105 based on a cache use schedule determined by a method described later, among the data input from the host input interface means 101. The cache unit 105 holds the data sent from the control unit 104. Further, the cache unit 105 performs an operation of sending data to the control unit 10 or discarding the held cache data in accordance with a control command from the control unit 103.

Here, when the file to be printed (parent data) includes a link to another file (child data), the control means 103 controls the host output interface means 10
2, the host (here, the host 120) holding the file (child data) of the link destination is requested to send the file. The host 12 responds to the request.
0 sends the file to the printer 100. In the printer 100, the host input interface unit 101 receives a file from the host 120, and
03, the control means 103 interprets the file, creates output image data, and sends it to the image output means 104. Further, the control unit 103 stores the data (child data) of the file in the cache unit 105 based on the cache use schedule determined by a method described later.

Thereafter, when the file is needed again for output processing and the data of the file is held in the cache means 105, the control means 103
0 is not requested for the file, but instead the cache unit 105 is requested to send the data of the file.

If the file includes a link to another file, the control means 103 requests the host holding the other file to send the file again, receives the file, and outputs the file. The image data is created and, if necessary, stored in the cache unit 105.

The same applies to the case where the host 110 and the host 120 are the same, and it can be seen that the host 120 can be read as the host 110 and processed.

FIG. 2 shows a processing flow from when the control unit 103 inputs a print command and a file to be printed from the host to the creation of a cache use schedule for determining the data to be held in the cache unit 105 and the period thereof.

The control means 103 inputs a print command and a file to be printed from the host input interface means 101 (step 201), interprets it (step 202), and outputs all information on the links included in the file to be printed. Obtain (step 203). Here, the information regarding the link includes a file name for specifying the file of the link destination, and may further include a file size of the file of the link destination, a data size when the interpretation of the file of the link destination is completed, and the like.

Next, based on the information on the link and the amount of data that can be simultaneously held in the cache unit 105, the control unit 103 uses the cache unit 105 to complete the process the earliest (cache use schedule). Is created (step 204).

In the cache use schedule, information for instructing which data should be cached and when the cached data should be discarded is described. Based on this cache usage schedule, cache 1
By writing, reading and discarding data to and from the host 105 without increasing the capacity of the cache 105,
The number of data transfers of the printer 100 and / or the total amount of transferred data can be reduced from 10, 120, and the like.

For example, when the total number of files that can be simultaneously held in the cache unit 105 is 25 KB, and when link destination data is acquired and used in the order shown in FIG. Thus, the file transfer from the host is 50 KB in total. For comparison, assuming that a file is received from the host every time without caching, the file transfer from the host is 90 KB in total.

FIG. 5 shows an LRU (Least Recent Used) system which is a general cache control system, that is,
An instruction to the cache unit 105 in the case of using a method of discarding the oldest used data and storing new data and a file existing in the cache as a result are shown below. In this case, a total of 70 file transfers from the host
KB.

In this embodiment, the link destination file is held in the cache unit 105, and the use schedule of the cache unit 105 is determined based on the size of the link destination file. The printer which holds the interpreted data in the cache unit 105 may determine the use schedule of the cache unit 105 based on the size of the interpreted data.

Also, for example, the total number of files that can be simultaneously stored in the cache unit 105 is 25 KB.
When the link destination data is acquired and used in the order shown in FIG. 7, the use schedule of the cache means 105 is created as shown in FIG. 7, so that the file transfer from the host is 60 KB in total, and the transfer time is The total is 110 seconds. Here, the time required to receive a file from each host is obtained by receiving a small amount of data from each host, obtaining the transfer speed from the transfer time, and multiplying the transfer speed by the size of the file. For comparison, if a file is received from the host every time without caching, the file transfer from the host is 90 KB in total, and the transfer time is 175 seconds in total.

FIG. 8 shows an LRU (Least Recent Use) which is a general cache control method similar to FIG.
d) Instructions to the cache means 105 when the method is used, and the files present in the cache as a result.
In this case, file transfer from host is 70K in total
B, the total transfer time is 145 seconds.

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment, a cache use schedule is created so that the processing can be completed first. In the present embodiment, the control means 103 receives an input from the host input interface means 101. After interpreting the print instruction and the file to be printed, and obtaining all the information about the links included in the file to be printed,
Information about this link and the cache means 105
The use schedule (cache use schedule) of the cache unit 105 is created based on the amount of data that can be simultaneously held in the cache unit 105 so that transfer and interpretation are completed first.

The cache use schedule describes information for instructing which data should be cached and when the cached data should be discarded. Here, the time required to receive a file from each host is obtained by receiving a small amount of data from each host, obtaining the transfer speed from the transfer time, and multiplying the transfer speed by the size of the file. The time required for the interpretation is obtained using a predicted value of the time required per unit size for each file format.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described here.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the number of times data is transferred from the host to an image output system such as a printer, and / or the total capacity of data to be transferred is reduced, high-speed output is realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a processing flow from input of an output target file from a host to creation of a cache use schedule.

FIG. 3 is an example of an interpretation result of an output target file.

FIG. 4 is an example of a cache use schedule generated from the interpretation result of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is another example of a cache use schedule generated from the interpretation result of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is another example of the interpretation result of the output target file.

FIG. 7 is an example of a cache use schedule generated from the interpretation result of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is another example of a cache use schedule generated from the interpretation result of FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 printer (image output system) 101 host input interface means 102 host output interface means 103 control means (CPU) 104 image output means 105 cache means 110, 120 host computer

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shogo Oneda 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Ricoh Co., Ltd. (reference) 2C087 AB05 BC07 BD01 BD41 BD46 BD53 5B021 AA02 BB01 DD05 EE05

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image output system for interpreting and outputting data input from a host computer (hereinafter, host), wherein the input data (hereinafter, parent data) is interpreted and the parent data is When a link to the data (hereinafter referred to as child data) is included, a request is made to the host holding the child data to send the child data, the child data is received from the host, and the child data is also In an image output system for interpreting and outputting, the child data, or a cache memory for holding data obtained by interpreting the child data, and acquiring information about a link by interpreting the parent data,
Means for determining a use schedule of the cache memory based on the information on the link. 2. The image output system according to claim 1, wherein a use schedule of a cache memory is determined based on a size of the child data or data obtained as a result of interpreting the child data. . 3. The image output system according to claim 1, wherein a use schedule of a cache memory is determined based on a time when said child data is received from a host holding said child data. . 4. The image output system according to claim 1, wherein a use schedule of the cache memory is determined based on a time at which the child data is received and interpreted from a host holding the child data. Image output system.