JP2002297391A - Method and device for starting computer and control program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform job input processing in an early stage while reducing cost and making the processing faster. SOLUTION: When power is supplied in a state where a compressed main body program and a boot program including an expansion routine for expanding the compressed main body program and developing it on a RAM and an input signal reception routine for inputting a supplied job are stored into ROM, a CPU executes the boot program. Consequently, the job input routine is started before the expansion routine is started.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a technique for activating a computer function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Most of recent electronic devices have a computer function. Such a computer function generally employs a program built-in method using a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM.
It is configured to start the above program (boot program).

In an electronic device such as a copying machine without an auxiliary storage device, a boot program and a main body program are integrated and stored in a ROM, and these programs are stored in a ROM without being expanded in the RAM. It is executed as it is, and the RAM is mainly used as a work area.

In recent years, the capacity and price of RAMs have been rapidly increasing, and furthermore, SDRAMs (synchronous DRAMs) and RDRAMs (Rambus DRAMs) have been developed.
For example, a RAM that can be accessed at a higher speed has been realized.

[0005] On the other hand, the ROM is a UV-EPROM (U-ROM) rather than an unrewritable ROM such as a mask ROM.
ltraViolet Erasable Progr
amenable ROM), EEPROM (Elect
Rially Erasable Programm
A rewritable ROM such as an abbreviated ROM has been increasingly used.

[0006] However, these EPROMs have the disadvantage that the price per capacity is higher, the capacity is smaller, and the access speed is slower than the RAM. In recent years, programs have become large-scale, and storing such a large-scale program as it is in a ROM would increase the cost of electronic equipment.

Therefore, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-217005, the main body program is compressed and stored in the ROM, and the compressed program is decompressed by a boot program and R
A system that achieves both low cost and high-speed processing by developing and executing the AM is realized.

[0008]

Conventionally, in an electronic device such as a copying machine, which requires a long time for hardware initialization and warm-up, a job is received in advance before the initialization or warm-up is completed.
A reservation function for executing a job after initialization or warm-up is completed is realized. This reservation function allows the user to perform other operations during the period of initialization and warm-up.

However, in the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-217005, it is necessary to expand the compressed program on the ROM and expand it on the RAM even after the initialization and the warm-up of the hardware are completed. During development processing, reservation input (job input) could not be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such problems of the prior art, and has as its object to enable early input processing of a job while reducing costs and increasing processing speed. .

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a computer starting method according to the present invention comprises a compression program, a decompression routine for decompressing the compression program and decompressing the compressed program into a volatile storage medium, and an input method. A boot program including a job input routine for inputting a job is stored in a non-volatile storage medium, and the computer function is activated by executing the boot program when power is turned on.

[0012] Also, a computer starting apparatus according to the present invention is a boot that includes a compression program, a decompression routine for decompressing the compression program and expanding it on a volatile storage medium, and a job input routine for input-processing input jobs. It has a non-volatile storage medium storing a program and start-up means for starting the computer function by executing the boot program when power is turned on.

Further, a control program according to the present invention is a boot program including a compression program, a decompression routine for decompressing the compression program and expanding it on a volatile storage medium, and a job input routine for input-processing the input job. When the power is turned on in a state where are stored in the nonvolatile storage medium, the computer function is activated by executing the boot program.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image input / output system to which the present invention is applied.

The image input / output system (copier) includes a reader unit (image input device) 200, a controller unit (control device) 110, an operation unit 150, and a printer unit (image output device) 300. The part 110 is L
It is connected to a plurality of host computers 401 and 402 via a network 400 such as an AN.

The reader unit 200 has a scanner unit 210 for optically reading a document image and converting it into electronic image data, and a document feeding unit 250 for feeding a document to be read one by one. .

The printer unit 300 includes a paper feeding unit 310 having a plurality of types of recording paper cassettes, a marking unit 320 for printing image data input from the reader unit 200 on recording paper by, for example, an electrophotographic system, and a printed recording paper. And a paper discharge unit 330 that discharges paper outside the apparatus after sorting, stapling, or the like.

The controller unit 110 includes the reader unit 20
0, which is electrically connected to the operation unit 150 and the printer unit 300, and an operation signal (job signal) from the operation unit 150
A series of image input / output processing is performed by controlling the reader unit 200 and the printer unit 300 based on the data. Further, the controller unit 110 converts the image data of the document read by the reader unit 200 into code data, and converts the image data into code data via the network 400.
Scanner function for transmitting to 402 and network 40
The printer unit 3 converts the code data received from the host computers 401 and 402 through the printer unit 3 into image data.
Also, a printer function for printing by the "00" is realized.

The operation unit 150 is constituted by, for example, a liquid crystal touch panel, and provides a user I / F for a user to operate the image input / output system.

FIG. 2 shows a reader unit 200 and a printer unit 30.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a schematic configuration of a zero. The document feeding unit 250 of the reader unit 200 feeds the documents one by one onto the platen glass 211 and discharges them to the discharge tray 219 after the reading operation of the documents is completed. The original reading process is performed with the optical unit 213 while the lamp 212 is turned on.
The scanning is performed by exposing and scanning the original.
The reflected light (image light) from the original at the time of the exposure scanning is incident on the CCD image sensor 218 via the mirrors 214, 215, 216 and the lens 217. The CCD image sensor 218 photoelectrically converts the incident image light and outputs the image light as image data. The image data is subjected to predetermined processing, and then transferred to the controller unit 110.

The laser driver 321 of the printer unit 300
Drives and controls the laser emitting unit 322 to emit laser light according to the image data from the controller unit 110. The laser beam is applied to the photosensitive drum 323 to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 323. A developer is attached to the portion of the electrostatic latent image by the developing device 324.

A recording sheet is fed from one of the cassettes 311, 312, 313, 314, and the manual paper feed stage 315 at a timing synchronized with the start of laser beam irradiation, and is fed to the transfer unit 325 via the transport path 331. The developer is conveyed to transfer the developer on the photosensitive drum 323 onto recording paper. Then, the recording paper onto which the developer has been transferred is conveyed to a fixing unit 327 by a conveyance belt 326 and subjected to a fixing process.

In the case of single-sided printing, the recording paper on which the fixing process has been performed is discharged to the paper discharge bin 328 with the print side up via the transport paths 335 and 334, or the transport path 336.
After being conveyed to the conveyance path 338 through the conveyance path 338, the sheet is reversely fed, and is discharged to the paper discharge bin 328 via the conveyance paths 337 and 334 with the printing surface down.

In the case of double-sided printing, a recording sheet having one side subjected to a fixing process is transported by the flapper 329 to the transport path 3.
From 36, the paper is conveyed to the conveyance path 333. Then, the sheet is conveyed in the opposite direction, and is conveyed by the flapper 329 to the re-feeding conveyance path 332 via the conveyance path 338. The recording paper conveyed to the re-feeding conveyance path 332 is
The sheet is conveyed to the transfer unit 325 via the conveyance path 331 in a state where it is turned upside down.

[Description of Controller Unit 110] FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a controller unit 110.
The main controller 111 has various I / F controller circuits in addition to the CPU 112 and the bus controller 113.

CPU 112 and bus controller 113
Controls the controller unit 110. The CPU 112 operates based on a program read from the ROM 114 via the ROM I / F 115. This program is executed by the host computer 401,
It also includes a process of interpreting PDL (page description language) code data received from 402 and converting it into raster image data. Further, the bus controller 113 controls each I / O
F to control the transfer of data input from F,
It also performs arbitration processing and DMA data transfer processing at the time of bus contention.

The DRAM 116 has a DRAM I / F 11
7 and is used as a work area for the CPU 112 to operate and a storage area for image data. network·
The controller 121 is connected to the main controller 111 via the I / F 123, and is connected to an external network via the connector 122. The external network includes, for example, Ethernet (registered trademark).

An extension connector 124 for connecting an extension board and an I / O control unit 126 are connected to the general-purpose high-speed bus 125.
And are connected. The general-purpose high-speed bus 125 is, for example, a PCI bus. I / O control unit 12
6 is equipped with two channels of an asynchronous serial communication controller 127 for transmitting and receiving control commands to and from the reader unit 200 and the printer unit 300. The external I / O bus 128 provides an external I / O bus 128. F circuit 140,
145.

A panel I / F 132 is connected to the LCD controller 131, and is an I / F for displaying data and the like on a liquid crystal display screen on the operation unit 150, and a key input I / O for inputting hard keys and liquid crystal touch panel keys. / F130
have.

The operation section 150 has a liquid crystal display section, a touch panel attached to the liquid crystal display section, and a plurality of hard keys. The operation signals of these touch panels and hard keys are input to the CPU 112 via the panel I / F 132. Functions and image data corresponding to the key operation signals are displayed on the liquid crystal display unit. The real-time clock module 133 is a module that updates and saves the date and time, and the power supply is backed up by the backup battery 134.

The E-IDE connector 161 is a connector for connecting an external storage device such as a hard disk device or a CD-ROM drive. The E-IDE connector 161 can load a program from these external storage devices or store image data. Can be. The connectors 142 and 147 are connectors for connecting the reader unit 200 and the printer unit 300, respectively. The connector 142 is a serial I / F
Scanner I / F via the I / F 143 and the video I / F 144
140, and the connector 147 is connected to the serial I / F
148 and the printer I / F via the video I / F 149
145.

The scanner I / F 140 has a connector 142
And a main controller 111 via a scanner bus 141. The image data received from the reader unit 200 is binarized, and main scanning and sub-scanning are performed. I do. Also,
The scanner I / F 140 transmits a control signal generated based on a video control signal from the reader unit 200 to the scanner bus 1.
41 is also provided. Scanner bus 141
The data transfer from the to the DRAM 116 is controlled by the bus controller 113.

The printer I / F 145 has a connector 147
Is connected to the printer 300 via the printer bus 146, and is connected to the main controller 111 via the printer bus 146.
Output function. Also, the printer I / F1
Reference numeral 45 also has a function of outputting a control signal generated based on a video control signal from the printer unit 300 to the printer bus 146.

The raster image data developed on the DRAM 116 is controlled by the bus controller 113 to
The data is transferred to the printer unit 300 via the printer bus 146, the printer I / F 145, and the like, and is printed on recording paper.

[Description of Main Controller 111] FIG.
3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a main controller 111. FIG. The processor core 401 is the CPU shown in FIG.
112 and is connected to a 64-bit system bus bridge (SBB) 402. The system bus bridge (SBB) 402 is configured by a 4 × 4 64-bit crossbar switch, and
SDRAM with cache memory and RO
The memory controller 403 for controlling M is connected to a dedicated local bus (MC bus), and further connected to a G bus 404 as a graphic bus and a B bus 405 as an I / O bus. Connected to the bus.

System bus bridge (SBB) 40
2 is configured so as to connect the above four modules as simultaneously as possible in parallel with the above configuration. The SBB 402 is also connected to a codec 418 that compresses / decompresses various data (including a main body program described later).

The G bus 404 is a G bus arbiter (GB
A) 406 is cooperatively controlled, and a scanner / printer controller (SPC) 408 for controlling a scanner and a printer is connected.

The B bus 405 is cooperatively controlled by a B bus arbiter (BBA) 407. The B bus 405 has a system bus bridge (SBB) 4
02, B bus arbiter (BBA) 407, power management unit (PMU) 409, interrupter controller (IC) 410, serial interface controller (SIC) 411 using UART, US
B controller 412, parallel interface controller (PIC) 413 using IEEE1284, LAN controller (LANC) 4 using Ethernet
14. General-purpose input / output controller (MISC) 415, P
A CI bus controller (PCIC) 416 and the like are also connected. The general-purpose input / output controller (MISC) 4
An operation panel 417 including a touch panel, hard keys, and the like is connected to 15.

The interrupt controller 410 integrates each device in the main controller 111 and interrupts from the outside, and regenerates them into six levels of external interrupts supported by the processor core 401 and non-maskable interrupts (NMI) having the highest priority. Distribute. Here, each device in the main controller 111 includes a power management unit 409, a serial interface controller (SIC) 411, and a USB.
Controller 412, parallel interface controller (PIC) 413, LAN controller (LAN
C) 414, General-purpose input / output controller (MISC) 41
5, a PCI bus controller (PCIC) 416, a scanner / printer controller (SPC) 408, and the like.

The memory controller 403 is connected to an MC bus which is a dedicated bus for the memory controller 403, and has a DRAM 116, a synchronous DRAM (SDRA).
M) and the like, ROM 114, flash ROM
, Etc., is controlled.

System bus bridge (SBB) 40
Reference numeral 2 denotes a B bus (input / output bus) 405, a G bus (graphic bus) 404, and an SC
The bus functions as a multi-channel bidirectional bus bridge for interconnecting the bus (processor local bus) and the MC bus. This system bus bridge (SBB) 4
In No. 02, two systems can be simultaneously connected by a crossbar switch, and two systems of data transfer can be performed in parallel.

FIG. 5 shows a system bus bridge (SB)
FIG. 4B is a block diagram showing the configuration of 402).

System bus bridge (SBB) 40
Reference numeral 2 denotes a B bus interface 2009 for connecting to the B bus 405, a G bus interface 2006 for connecting to the G bus 404, and a CPU interface slave port 200 for connecting to the processor core 401.
2. It has a memory interface master port 2001 for connecting to the memory controller 403.

Also, the system bus bridge (SB
B) 402 is an address switch 2003 for switching connection of each address bus, a data switch 2004 for switching connection of each data bus, and a processor core 4
No. 01 has a cache invalidation unit 2005 for invalidating the cache memory.

The PCI bus controller 41 shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 6 denotes a controller that interfaces between a B bus 405, which is a general-purpose IO bus inside the main controller 111, and a PCI bus, which is an IO bus outside the main controller 111.

The G bus arbiter 406 manages and arbitrates the use of the G bus 404 by a central arbitration method using a dedicated request signal and a grant signal corresponding to each bus master. Also, the G bus 404 to the bus master
A right arbitration mode in which all bus masters are given a right to use the bus, a priority is given to one of the bus masters, and the right to use the bus is given priority to this bus master. May be configured to specify any of the priority arbitration modes in which the priority arbitration mode is assigned.

The B bus arbiter 407 receives a request to use the B bus 405, which is an IO general-purpose bus, arbitrates when there is a conflict between bus use requests, and gives a bus use permission to one bus master, thereby providing a plurality of bus masters. To access the B bus 405 at the same time.

Regarding the right to use the bus 405, one of three levels of priority is assigned to each bus master. Further, the G bus arbiter 406 and the B bus arbiter 407 can also perform the above management / arbitration processing based on a program.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the scanner / printer controller 408. The scanner / printer controller 408 is connected to a scanner and a printer by a video I / F, and has an internal bus, a G bus 40
4, for controlling the connection with the B bus 405, the scanner controller 4302, the printer controller 43,
03, two G bus / B bus I / F units 4301
A, 4301B.

The scanner controller 4302 is connected to the scanner by a video I / F, and the G bus / B bus I / F unit 4301A is connected to the scanner by an I / F bus. Controls data transfer with the device. A printer controller 4303 is connected to the printer by a video I / F, a G bus / B bus I / F unit 4301B is connected to the printer by an I / F bus, and controls the operation of the printer and the printer and devices in the main controller 111. And performs data transfer control.

G bus / B bus I / F unit 4301
A and 4301B are scanner controllers 43, respectively.
02, the printer controller 4303 is connected to the G bus 404,
And a unit for connecting to the B bus 405, and both are connected to both the G bus 404 and the B bus 405.

The CP bus is a bus for directly connecting image data of the scanner and the printer and a synchronization signal for horizontal / vertical synchronization.

The main controller 111 is a large-scale ASIC (Application S
Specified IC) and a plurality of PLDs (Pl
ogrammable Logic Device:
Random logic) is realized in a regular structure. Therefore, if all the internal logics operate simultaneously, a large amount of heat is generated, and the chip itself may be destroyed. To prevent this, the main controller 11
1 performs power management for each block and further monitors the power consumption of the entire chip.

At this time, each block performs power management individually. Information on the power consumption of each block is
Collected in a power management unit (PMU) 409. Power management unit (PMU) 40
Reference numeral 9 denotes the total of the power consumption of each block, and the main controller 1 controls the total value so as not to exceed the limit power consumption.
The power consumption of each of the 11 blocks is managed collectively.

Next, the features of the present invention will be described. FIG.
4 shows a memory map of a ROM 114 and a DRAM 116 when the conventional method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-217005) starts up.

The ROM 114 stores a boot program 601 started when the system is started and a compressed main program 605. Boot program 601
Is a decompression routine 6 for decompressing a compressed main body program, separately from a routine for performing device initialization processing.
02 is included. Various compression methods can be used as the compression method of the main program 605, but the condition is that the compression is lossless.

In the DRAM 116, an expansion area 621 for expanding the expanded main program and a work area 622 for operating the main program are formed.

FIG. 8 shows a memory map of the ROM 114 and the DRAM 116 in the case of starting by the starting method according to the present invention.

The ROM 114 stores a boot program 601 to be started when the system is started and a compressed main program 605. Boot program 601
Is a decompression routine 6 for decompressing a compressed main body program, separately from a routine for performing device initialization processing.
02, and an input signal receiving routine 603 for receiving an input signal (job) from the operation unit 150. The main program 605 is compressed in a decompressible compression format by a decompression routine 602 and stored in the ROM 114. As a compression method of the main program 605,
Various compression methods can be used, provided that they are compressed by a reversible compression method.

In the DRAM 116, a storage area 620 for storing the input signal received and processed by the input signal reception routine 603 and a development area 62 for developing the main program expanded by the expansion routine 602.
1 and work area 6 for running the main program
22 are formed.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing from the start of the boot program 601 to the operation of the main program 605.

When the power is turned on, the CPU 112
The boot program 601 in the OM 114 is started, and first, the device is initialized based on the boot program 601 (step S801). Next, the input signal receiving routine 603 included in the boot program 601 is started (step S802). The input signal receiving routine 603 generally operates by an interrupt process. When an operation signal (a job signal or the like) is input from the operation unit 150, the CPU 112 converts the operation signal into the DRAM 116 by the interrupt process. Is stored in the storage area 620.

Next, the CPU 112 starts the decompression routine 602 included in the boot program 601 and, based on the decompression routine 602, stores the ROM 1 in the compressed state.
The main program 605 stored in 14 is expanded and expanded in the DRAM 116 (step S803).

Then, it is determined whether or not the expansion / decompression processing of the main program 605 has been completed (step S80).
4) If not completed, return to step S803,
Continue expansion / decompression processing. On the other hand, the main program 60
5, the expansion area 62 of the DRAM 116 is determined based on the boot program 601.
In step S805, the main body program expanded in the state 1 is started.

Next, the CPU 112 transmits an operation signal (input signal) from the operation section 150 to the DRAM 1 based on the activated main body program by an input signal reception routine 603.
It is determined whether the data is stored in the 16 storage areas 620 (step S806). As a result, if the operation signal is not stored, if the operation signal is not stored,
The input status of the operation signal is monitored (step S807), and the process returns to step S806.

On the other hand, if the operation signal is stored, the job corresponding to the operation signal is executed, and job data (for example, a command such as a print command, data such as the number of prints) related to the operation signal is deleted. (Step S80)
8), and proceed to step S807. The processing in steps S806 to S808 is repeated until the power is turned off.

Next, the processing contents of FIG. 9 will be supplementarily described based on the time chart of FIG.

FIG. 10A shows a conventional starting method, and FIG. 10B shows a starting method according to the present invention.

Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 10A, after power is turned on, the CPU 112 activates the boot program 601 and the expansion routine 60 in the boot program 601.
2, the main program 605 is expanded and the DRAM 1
16 (710). When the decompression / expansion processing is completed (711), the decompressed main program on the DRAM 116 is started (712). Conventionally, since the input signal reception routine is included in the main body program, the user cannot submit a job until the main body program expanded and expanded in the DRAM 116 is started.

On the other hand, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 10B, after the power is turned on, the CPU 112 starts the boot program 601 so that the input signal receiving routine 603 in the boot program 601 can operate. The device is initialized, and the input signal receiving routine 603 is started (721). Therefore, it is possible to submit a job immediately after this.

Then, in accordance with the decompression routine 602 in the boot program 601, the main program 605 is decompressed and started to be loaded on the DRAM 116 (722). If a job is input during the expansion / decompression processing of the main program 605, the input signal receiving routine 603 stores the input job in the storage area 620 of the DRAM 116 by interrupt processing.

When the expansion / decompression processing of the main program 605 is completed (723), the CPU 112
6 is started (72).
4).

As described above, according to the present invention, the input signal receiving routine 6 is performed immediately after the power is turned on and the equipment is initialized.
03 is activated, the job input waiting time is reduced by the time indicated by 701 in FIG. 10A compared with the conventional case where the input signal receiving routine cannot be activated until the main program is activated. It can be shortened.

In other words, in this embodiment, by compressing the main body program and storing it in the ROM, the capacity of the ROM is reduced to reduce the price, and when the main body program is executed, high-speed access is required. By expanding the main program into a possible DRAM and expanding it, accessing the main program on the DRAM to speed up the processing, and further activating the input signal receiving routine before activating the decompression routine , Enabling early submission of jobs.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but may be applied to, for example, electronic devices other than copiers that realize specific functions by computer functions, and general-purpose computers that can execute various application programs. It is also possible to apply.

Further, the input signal receiving routine may be configured so that the job relating to the input is stored in a memory such as a cache memory which can be accessed at a higher speed than the RAM for expanding the expanded main program.

Further, without starting the input signal receiving routine before starting the decompression routine, the input signal receiving routine is started immediately after the decompression routine is started. It is also possible to activate a signal reception routine.

[0079]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to input a job early while reducing the cost and speeding up the processing. Therefore, for the user, a job is input before the start-up processing of the computer function is completed, and other operations can be performed until the start-up processing is completed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an image input / output system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a schematic configuration of a reader unit and a printer unit in the image input / output system illustrated in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a controller unit in the image input / output system shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a main controller in the controller unit illustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system bus bridge in the main controller shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a scanner / printer controller in the main controller shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a memory map of a conventional ROM and DRAM.

FIG. 8 is a memory map of a ROM and a DRAM according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a startup process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a time chart for supplementarily explaining the activation process of FIG. 9;

[Explanation of symbols]

 110: Controller unit 112: CPU 114: ROM 116: DRAM 402: System bus bridge 601: Boot program 602: Decompression routine 603: Input signal reception routine 605: Main program (compression)

Claims (30)

[Claims] 1. A non-volatile storage medium storing a compression program, a decompression routine for decompressing the compression program and expanding it on a volatile storage medium, and a boot program including a job input routine for input processing an input job. A computer boot method, wherein the boot function is stored and the computer function is started by executing the boot program when the power is turned on. 2. The computer starting method according to claim 1, wherein the job input routine is started at least before the processing by the decompression routine is completed. 3. The job input routine is started before starting the decompression routine.
Or the computer activation method according to 2. 4. The volatile storage medium is a RAM,
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the non-volatile storage medium is a ROM. 5. The job input routine according to claim 1, wherein, when a job is input during execution of the processing by the decompression routine, the job input processing is performed by interrupt processing. A computer activation method according to any one of the above. 6. The job input routine according to claim 1, wherein the job relating to the input is stored in a predetermined area of the volatile storage medium in which the program expanded by the expansion routine is expanded. A method for activating a computer according to any one of the above. 7. The job input routine stores the job relating to the input in a storage medium that can be accessed at a higher speed than the volatile storage medium on which the program decompressed by the decompression routine is expanded. A computer starting method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: 8. The computer starting method according to claim 1, wherein the computer starting method is applied to a general-purpose computer.
A method for activating a computer according to any one of the above. 9. The computer starting method according to claim 1, wherein the computer starting method is applied to an electronic device for realizing a specific function having a computer function. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the electronic device is an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine. 11. A non-volatile storage device storing a compression program, a boot program including a decompression routine for decompressing the compression program and expanding it on a volatile storage medium, and a job input routine for input processing of an input job. A computer activation device comprising: a medium; and activation means for activating a computer function by executing the boot program at power-on. 12. The computer activation device according to claim 11, wherein said activation means activates said job input routine at least before processing by said decompression routine is completed. 13. The computer activation device according to claim 11, wherein the activation unit activates the job input routine before activating the decompression routine. 14. The computer boot device according to claim 11, wherein the volatile storage medium is a RAM, and the nonvolatile storage medium is a ROM. 15. The job processing system according to claim 15, wherein said activation unit causes an input process of said job to be executed by said job input routine by an interruption process when a job is input during execution of said process by said decompression routine. Item 15. A computer activation device according to any one of Items 11 to 14. 16. The job input routine according to claim 11, wherein the job relating to the input is stored in a predetermined area of the volatile storage medium in which the program expanded by the expansion routine is expanded. A computer activation device according to any one of the above. 17. The job input routine stores the job to be submitted in a storage medium that can be accessed at a higher speed than the volatile storage medium on which the program expanded by the expansion routine is expanded. The computer activation device according to any one of claims 11 to 15, wherein: 18. The computer activation device according to claim 11, wherein the computer activation device is mounted on a general-purpose computer.
18. The computer activation device according to any one of claims 17 to 17. 19. The computer activation device according to claim 11, wherein the computer activation device is mounted on an electronic device for realizing a specific function having a computer function. 20. The computer starting method according to claim 19, wherein said electronic apparatus is an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine. 21. A non-volatile storage medium comprising: a compression program; a decompression routine for decompressing the compression program and expanding it on a volatile storage medium; and a boot program including a job input routine for input processing of an input job. A control program having contents for starting a computer function by executing the boot program when power is turned on in a stored state. 22. The control program according to claim 21, wherein the control program activates the job input routine at least before the processing by the decompression routine is completed. 23. The control program according to claim 21, wherein the control program activates the job input routine before activating the decompression routine. 24. The control program according to claim 21, wherein the volatile storage medium is a RAM, and the nonvolatile storage medium is a ROM. 25. The control program, when a job is input during execution of the processing by the decompression routine,
The job input routine of the job is executed by the job input routine by an interruption process.
24. The control program according to any one of 24. 26. The job input routine according to claim 21, wherein the job related to the input is stored in a predetermined area of the volatile storage medium in which the program expanded by the expansion routine is expanded. The control program according to any one of the above. 27. The job input routine stores the job relating to the input in a storage medium that can be accessed at a higher speed than the volatile storage medium on which the program expanded by the expansion routine is expanded. The control program according to any one of claims 21 to 25, characterized in that: 28. The control program according to claim 11, wherein the control program is executed by a general-purpose computer.
18. The control program according to any one of 17. 29. The control program according to claim 21, wherein the control program is executed by an electronic device for realizing a specific function having a computer function. 30. The control program according to claim 29, wherein said electronic device is an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine.