JP2005157540A - Print protocol converting apparatus and data storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To directly control a print device connected in one-to-multiple topology connection configurations from a print data input device to be connected by one-to-one topology. <P>SOLUTION: The communication of devices with different topology is realized through a print protocol converting apparatus 100. Devices (printers 119 to 121) which should carry out print are uniquely determined according to a specific selection method by arranging a print device selecting part 107. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a data storage device such as a digital still camera and a print protocol conversion apparatus capable of directly controlling a print device having a different communication protocol from the data storage device.

  With the recent spread of digital still cameras (hereinafter referred to as DSC) and consumer printers, a form of printing photographic images taken by the photographer is becoming common. Conventionally, image capturing from a DSC and printing to a printer are mostly operated via a personal computer (PC). Recently, however, a so-called direct printing method in which a DSC and a printer are directly connected and printed using a high-speed serial bus such as a USB interface has been put into practical use. Thus, DSCs and printers compatible with the direct printing method have also appeared.

  On the other hand, the use of home LAN is also progressing, and it is considered that the use form such as connecting a plurality of printers on the network will progress in the future. Several types of direct printing methods for DSCs and printers have been proposed. A typical example is “PictBridge”, which is a camera video equipment industry association (CIPA) standard of a limited liability intermediate corporation. (See Non-Patent Document 1)

  In “PictBridge”, two client-server models of “print” and “storage” are constructed between a DSC and a printer connected via peer-to-peer (PeerToPeer) via an interface. Specifically, the DSC is a print client and a storage server. The printer becomes a print server and a storage client.

An outline of the operation of PictBridge is as follows.
(1) Mutual confirmation of whether or not the device has a DPS function.
(2) Build client / server models for print and storage.
(3) Queries the capability that the printer can set (DSC → printer).
(4) A print start request is made based on a user operation (DSC → printer).
(5) Acquire a file to be printed (printer → DSC).
(6) Execute printing (printer).
(7) A print completion notification is made (printer → DSC).

“PictBridge” can be said to be a very useful system in that it provides a function of directly controlling a printer by an operation from a DSC without using a PC. However, “PictBridge” is a protocol premised on peer-to-peer connection, and a similar service cannot be provided to a plurality of network printers connected to a home LAN.
"White Paper of CIPA DC-001-2003 Digital Photo Solutions for Imaging Devices" by the Camera & Imaging Products Association of Japan, February 3, 2003

  When considering a PictBridge compatible DSC as one of the data storage devices, the problem to be solved by the present invention is that the data storage device based on the peer-to-peer connection with the print server device has a one-to-many topology. The print server device based on the connection form cannot be directly controlled. This problem occurs when a print client device such as a network printer connected to the home LAN is selected and used.

  The invention of claim 1 of the present application provides a first interface unit for connecting and communicating with a data storage device in a one-to-one topology, and a first interface unit from the data storage device via the first interface unit. A first print protocol processing unit that responds to the print processing request, a data transfer protocol processing unit that obtains data requested by the first print processing request from the data storage device, and n (n is 1) The above-mentioned integer) second printing unit for connecting and communicating with one printing device in a one-to-n topology, and the second printing unit via the second interface unit for each of the n printing devices. A second print protocol processing unit that issues a second print processing request, and a specific print device that is to issue the second print processing request out of the n print devices. A printing device selection unit to select, and a printing protocol conversion unit that converts the printing protocol of the first printing protocol and the printing protocol of the second printing, the printing protocol conversion unit from the data storage device The first print processing request is converted into the second print processing request, and the second print processing request is executed for the specific printing device selected by the printing device selection unit. To do.

  The invention according to claim 2 of the present application is the printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein all the printing devices connected via the second interface unit have at least one of a unique exclusive physical address and logical address. The printing device selection unit is preset with at least one of a physical address and a logical address of the printing device to be selected.

  A third aspect of the present invention is the printing protocol conversion apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the printing protocol conversion apparatus is connected to the second interface unit via the second printing protocol processing unit. At least one of the vendor name and the device name is acquired, and at least one of the vendor name and the device name of the printing device to be selected is preset in the printing device selection unit.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the printing protocol conversion apparatus according to the first aspect, all the printing devices connected via the second interface unit have at least one of a unique exclusive physical address and logical address. The printing protocol conversion apparatus acquires at least one of a physical address and a logical address of a printing device connected to the second interface unit, and receives the data via the first interface unit. Notifying the storage device of at least one of the physical address and the logical address, and further receiving and selecting at least one of the physical address and the logical address selected from the data storage device via the first interface unit. The mark is indicated by at least one of the physical address and the logical address. And controlling the device selection section.

  The invention according to claim 5 of the present application is the printing protocol conversion device according to claim 1, wherein the printing protocol conversion device is a printing device connected to the second interface unit via the second printing protocol processing unit. At least one of a vendor name and a device name is acquired, and at least one of the vendor name and the device name is notified to the data storage device via the first interface unit. Receiving at least one of the vendor name and device name selected via one interface unit, and controlling the printing device selection unit according to at least one of the selected vendor name and device name.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the print protocol conversion apparatus according to the first aspect, the print protocol conversion apparatus receives a print format acquisition command issued from the data storage device via the first interface unit. And a response to obtain a print format required by the data storage device, and further obtain a print format supported by each of the n print devices via the second interface unit, and the data The printing device selection unit is controlled according to a comparison result with a printing format required by the storage device.

  The invention according to claim 7 of the present application is the printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing protocol conversion apparatus receives a print format acquisition command issued from the data storage device via the first interface unit. The printing format supported by each of the n printing devices is acquired via the second interface unit, and the logical sum of the printing formats supported by each of the n printing devices is obtained as a response result. The notification is made via the interface unit.

  The invention of claim 8 of the present application is an interface unit for connecting and communicating with a printing device in a one-to-one topology, and a printing protocol processing unit for issuing a printing process request to the printing device via the interface unit. A data transfer protocol processing unit that transfers data requested by the print processing request of the printing protocol processing unit to the printing device, and a user interface for displaying and selecting a list of printing devices to be connected The printing protocol processing unit obtains a list of at least one of physical addresses and logical addresses of printing devices to be connected from the printing device, and lists at least one of the physical addresses and logical addresses. Is notified to the user interface unit.

  The invention of claim 9 of the present application includes an interface unit for connecting and communicating with a printing device in a one-to-one topology, and a printing protocol processing unit for issuing a printing process request to the printing device via the interface. A data transfer protocol processing unit that transfers data requested by the print processing request to the printing device, and a user interface unit that displays and selects a list of printing devices to be connected. The printing protocol processing unit acquires a list of at least one of a vendor name and a device name of a printing device to be connected from the printing device, and stores the list of at least one of the vendor name and the device name in the user interface unit. It is characterized by notifying.

  According to the above configuration, by providing the print protocol conversion device, it is possible to realize communication between a print client device premised on peer-to-peer connection and a print server device premised on a connection form in a one-to-many topology. it can. In addition, by providing the print protocol conversion apparatus with the print device selection unit, it is possible to uniquely determine the print server device to which a session is to be established according to a specific selection method.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a connection relationship among a print protocol conversion apparatus 100, a DSC 101 that is a data storage device, and printers 119, 120, and 121 that are print server devices according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 includes a USB / A / receptacle 103, a USB host controller 104, a PictBridge protocol engine 105, a PictBridge-IPP protocol mutual conversion unit 106, a printing device selection unit 107, an IPP (Internet Printing). Protocol) protocol engine 108, IEEE 802.3 I / F controller 113, 100Base-TX receptacle 114, and system controller 115.

  The IPP protocol engine 108 includes an IPP protocol common processing unit 109, a first print driver 110, a second print driver 111, and an nth (n is an integer of 1 or more) print driver 112. The print protocol conversion apparatus 100 is provided with a system controller 115 having a CPU 116 and a memory 117 and a CPU bus 118.

  The USB A receptacle 103 functions as an interface (I / F) for communicating with the PictBridge compatible DSC 101 via the USB bus 102. The 100Base-TX receptacle 114 functions as an interface for communicating with the first printer 119 for the network, the second printer 120 for the network, and the third printer 121 for the network via the IEEE 802.3 network 122.

  Now, the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 is connected to the IEEE 802.3 network 122 via the 100Base-TX receptacle 114, and the printer 119, the printer 120, and the printer 121 are also connected to the IEEE 802.3 network 122. The print protocol conversion apparatus 100 is connected to the DSC 101 via the USB / A / receptacle 103 and the USB bus 102.

  The print protocol conversion apparatus 100 connected to the DSC 101 via USB first enters the USB connection establishment operation. At this time, the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 operates as a USB host, and the DSC 101 operates as a USB device. The USB host controller 104 controls the USB physical layer communication at this time.

  When communication of the USB physical layer is established, communication of the transport layer, which is an upper protocol, is started using a logical communication path (pipe) established in the USB physical layer. The required pipe configuration and transport layer protocol are applied from the USB device, that is, the DSC 101 to the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 that is a USB host when the USB physical layer is connected.

  The printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 configures a pipe based on an application from the USB device side, and constructs a transport layer host protocol stack to be communicated through the pipe. In addition to the control pipe, the DSC 101 uses three pipes, a bulk pipe (IN / OUT) and an interrupt pipe (IN). The transport layer protocol is PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol).

  When the transport layer (PTP) communication is established, the communication of the PictBridge layer, which is a higher protocol, is started via the PTP. First, a negotiation is performed between the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 and the DSC 101 as to whether or not the apparatuses have the PictBridge function. This is called DPS Discovery.

  When the DPS discovery is completed and it is confirmed that both the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 (host) and the DSC 101 (device) and the other is a device having a PictBridge function, both the DSC 101 and the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 An operation (Operation) for confirming what service function the PictBridge device has is issued.

  The printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 interprets the operation and returns a necessary response (Response). This is called DPS_ConfigurePrintService. It is confirmed by DPS_ConfigurePrintService that the DSC 101 has a print client function and a storage server function, and the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 has a print server function and a storage client function. Next, a client-server model of a print server / client and a storage server / client is established, and all operations / event communication (Operation / Event communication) of the PictBridge protocol becomes possible. In the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100, the PictBridge protocol engine 105 controls communication of the transport (PTP) layer and the PictBridge layer.

  Here, the USB host controller 104 has a function of a first interface unit that communicates with a data storage device connected in a one-to-one topology. Also, the PictBridge protocol engine 105 is requested to print via the first interface unit, the function of the first print protocol processing unit responding to the first print processing request from the data storage device, and the first print processing request. It has a function of a data transfer protocol processing unit that obtains the received data from the data storage device. The IEEE 802.3 I / F controller 113 has a function of a second interface unit for connecting and communicating with n (n is an integer of 1 or more) printing devices in a 1: n topology. The IPP protocol engine 108 has a function of a second print protocol processing unit that issues a second print processing request to each of the n printing devices via the second interface unit.

  The printing device selection unit 107 has a function of selecting a specific printing device that should issue the second printing processing request from the n printing devices. The PictBridge-IPP protocol mutual conversion unit 106 has a function of a print protocol conversion unit that performs conversion between the first print protocol and the second print protocol. That is, the print protocol conversion unit converts the first print processing request from the data storage device into the second print processing request, and sends the second print processing request to the specific print device selected by the print device selection unit. And execute.

  Next, the printing operation in the first embodiment will be described. First, the DSC 101 inquires of the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 about a print capability that can be set. This inquiry is called DPS_GetCapability. In the print protocol conversion apparatus 100, the PictBridge protocol engine 105 interprets the command and confirms reception of DPS_GetCapability. The DPS_GetCapability command is passed to the PictBridge-IPP mutual conversion unit 106 and converted into an IPP protocol command (Get-Printer-Attributes). The converted command is issued from the IPP protocol engine 108 to the printer selected by the printing device selection unit 107. The IPP standard command processing such as Get-Printer-Attributes is performed by the IPP protocol common processing unit 109. If there is a command specific to each printer, it is stored in one of the print drivers 110 to 112 prepared for each printer. Processing is passed.

  The Get-Printer-Attributes command issued from the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 is passed to the printer selected by the printing device selection unit 107 via the IEEE 802.3 network 122. The printer that receives this command returns a response. The returned response passes through IPP protocol engine 108 → PictBridge-IPP protocol interconversion unit 106 → Pictbridge protocol engine 105 through a path reverse to the command, and is converted into a DPS_GetCapability response. Then, a response is returned to the DSC 101 via the USB bus 102. In this way, the DSC 101 acquires the printing capability of the printer.

  After acquiring the printing capability of the printer, the DSC 101 issues a print execution command (DPS_StartJob). The print protocol conversion apparatus 100 interprets the print job requested by the PictBridge protocol engine 105 and requests the DSC 101 to acquire a file to be printed (DPS_GetFile). After obtaining the print target file from the DSC 101, the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 passes the print request command and the print target file to the PictBridge-IPP mutual conversion unit 106, and generates an IPP print command (Print-Job). The generated command is issued from the IPP protocol engine 108 to the printer selected by the printing device selection unit 107, and as a result, a print job is executed on the printer.

  Here, attention is focused on the protocol topology of both PictBridge and IPP. PictBridge is a one-to-one topology, and IPP is a one-to-many topology. Therefore, in the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 of the present embodiment, it is necessary to uniquely determine a printer that should execute printing by some means. Hereinafter, some examples of the printing device determination operation in the printing device selection unit 107 will be described.

  The first example is a case where a physical address (MAC address) of a printer to be selected is set in advance in the printing device selection unit 107.

  In the second example, the printer name is acquired via the IPP protocol, and the printer name of the printer to be selected is set in advance in the printing device selection unit 107. In the above two examples, the printer to be selected is statically determined before printing is performed.

  The third example is a method of notifying the DSC 101 of the acquired MAC address or printer name as a vendor unique event of the PictBridge protocol and prompting the user to make a decision.

  The fourth example compares the contents of the DPS_GetCapability command issued from the DSC 101 before execution of printing with the execution results of the Get-Printer-Attributes command issued from the printing protocol converter 100 to n printers. In this method, the printing device selection unit 107 dynamically switches the printer to be connected.

  In the fifth example, as the response result of the DPS_GetCapability command issued from the DSC 101, the logical sum of the execution results of the Get-Printer-Attributes command issued from the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 to n printers is returned to the DSC 101. This is a method for prompting the user to make a decision.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, the PictBridge protocol and the IPP protocol have been described. However, the present invention is effective if the connection interface has a one-to-one topology and a one-to-many topology. For example, the present invention can be applied to a combination such as a vendor-specific direct print protocol and an LPD (Line Printer Daemon) protocol. Further, the present invention is effective not only for a printing device but also for a display device that displays a print image on a display or the like, for example.

(Embodiment 2)
Next, a data storage device will be described as a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the data storage device 200 according to the second embodiment of the present invention and the connection relationship between the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 and n (n is an integer of 1 or more) printers 119 to 121. . The data storage device 200 of this figure is a case where it is generalized as a data storage device in place of the DSC 101 of FIG. 1, and the feature of this embodiment is that its internal configuration is embodied.

  First, each component shown in FIG. 2 is listed below. The data storage device 200 is connected to the print protocol conversion apparatus 100 via the USB BUS 202. The printing protocol conversion apparatus 201 is substantially the same as the printing protocol conversion apparatus 100 shown in FIG. The data storage device 200 includes a USB / B / receptacle 203, a USB device controller 204, a PictBridge device protocol engine 205, a printing device information acquisition / selection unit 206, an SD card controller 207, an SD bus 208, an SD memory card I / F 209, an LCD. A controller 211, an LCD 212, a key input I / F 213, an input key 214, a system controller 215, and a CPU bus 218 are configured. The SD memory card 210 can be attached to and detached from the data storage device 200 via the SD memory card I / F 209. The system controller 215 has a CPU 216 and a memory 217.

  The USB / B / receptacle 203 functions as an interface for communicating with the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 or the PictBridge compatible printer via the USB bus 202. Consider a case where the data storage device 200 of the present embodiment is connected to the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 via the USB / B / receptacle 203 and the USB bus 202. The print protocol conversion apparatus 201 is connected in advance to the first printer 119 for the network, the second printer 120 for the network, and the nth printer 121 for the network on the IEEE 802.3 network 122. .

  The data storage device 200 connected by USB to the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 first enters the USB connection establishment operation. At this time, the data storage device 200 operates as a USB device, and the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 also operates as a USB host. The USB device controller 204 controls the USB physical layer communication at this time. When communication of the USB physical layer is established, communication of the transport layer, which is an upper protocol, is started using a logical communication path (pipe) established in the USB physical layer. Necessary pipe configurations and transport layer protocols are applied from the USB device, that is, the data storage device 200 to the USB host, that is, the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 when the USB physical layer is connected.

  The print protocol conversion apparatus 201 configures a pipe based on an application from the data storage device 200 and constructs a transport layer host protocol stack to communicate via the pipe. In addition to the control pipe, the data storage device 200 uses three pipes, a bulk pipe (IN / OUT) and an interrupt pipe (IN). The transport layer protocol is PTP.

  When the transport layer (PTP) communication is established, the communication of the PictBridge layer, which is a higher protocol, is started via the PTP. First, the data storage device 200 and the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 negotiate with each other whether or not they are devices having a PictBridge function (DPS discovery). When the DPS discovery is completed and it is confirmed that both the data storage device 200 (device) and the print protocol converter 201 (host) are the other devices having the PictBridge function, the data storage device 200 changes the print protocol converter. For 201, an operation for confirming what service function both PictBridge devices have is issued.

  The printing protocol conversion apparatus 201 interprets this operation and returns a necessary response (DPS_ConfigurePrintService). When DPS_ConfigurePrintService confirms that the data storage device 200 has the print client function and the storage server function and the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 has the print server function and the storage client function, the print server / client and the storage server / client A client-server model is established, allowing full operation / event communication of the PictBridge protocol. In the data storage device 200, the transport (PTP) layer and the PictBridge layer communication are controlled by the PictBridge device protocol engine 205.

  Here, the USB device controller 204 has a function of an interface unit for connecting and communicating with a printing device in a one-to-one topology. The PictBridge device protocol engine 205 has a function of a print protocol processing unit for issuing a print processing request to the print device via the interface unit, and data requested to be printed by the print processing request of the print protocol processing unit to the print device. It has a function of a data transfer protocol processing unit for transferring.

  The printing protocol processing unit acquires a list of at least one of physical addresses and logical addresses of printing devices to be connected from the printing device, and notifies the user interface unit of at least one list of physical addresses and logical addresses. The print protocol processing unit acquires a list of at least one of the vendor name and the device name of the printing device to be connected from the printing device, and notifies the user interface unit of the list of at least one of the vendor name and the device name.

  The key input I / F 213 and the input key 214 have a function of a user interface unit for displaying and selecting a list of printing devices to be connected.

  Next, the printing device information acquisition operation in the present embodiment will be described. The print device information acquisition / selection unit 206 instructs the PictBridge device protocol engine 205 to issue a MAC address acquisition command for the connected printer. Since this command is not a standard command of the PictBridge protocol, it should be implemented as an extended vendor unique command in the PictBridge protocol. That is, when connected to a general PictBridge printer that does not support this command, this command returns an error response as an uninterpretable command. On the other hand, the print protocol conversion apparatus 201 interprets this command as a valid command. The printing protocol conversion apparatus 201 acquires a list of MAC addresses of printers connected via the IEEE 802.3 network 122, and uses the acquired result as a response to the MAC address acquisition command as a response to the data storage device 200 via the USB bus 202. To return.

  The response returned to the data storage device 200 is analyzed by the USB device controller 204 and the PictBridge device protocol engine 205, and the acquired MAC address list is passed to the printing device information acquisition / selection unit 206. Upon receiving notification of completion of acquisition of the MAC address list from the printing device information acquisition / selection unit 206, the system controller 215 displays the acquired MAC address list on the LCD 212 via the LCD controller 211 so as to notify the user as GUI information. To do.

  The user operates the input key 214 from the list of MAC addresses displayed on the LCD 212 to select the desired printer MAC address. The user selection result is notified to the system controller 215 from the key input I / F 213. Then, the system controller 215 sets the selection result to the printing device information acquisition / selection unit 206. When the selection result is set, the printing device information acquisition / selection unit 206 issues a printer selection command to the PictBridge device protocol engine 205 using the selected MAC address as a parameter. Since this command is also not a standard command of the PictBridge protocol, it should be implemented as an extended vendor unique command in the PictBridge protocol. The printing protocol conversion apparatus 201 interprets the printer selection command as a valid command, and sets a printer to communicate according to the selection information.

  In the above, the operation when the MAC address is used as a parameter has been described. However, the parameter for selection may be an IP address, a vendor name, or a device name.

  The print protocol conversion apparatus according to the present invention is configured to print a print client device based on a peer-to-peer connection and a print server device based on a one-to-many topology using a print protocol conversion unit and a print device selection unit. Without adding a special function, one print client device can directly control any one of the n print server devices. Therefore, the present invention can be applied to a case where printing is performed by direct operation from the DSC with respect to a printer connected to a network and installed at a physically separated distance.

It is a block diagram centering on the printing protocol converter in Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a block diagram centering on the data storage device in Embodiment 2 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100, 201 Printing protocol converter 101 Digital still camera (DSC)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 102,202 USB bus 103 USB * A * receptacle 104 USB host controller 105 PicBridge host protocol engine 106 PicBridge-IPP protocol mutual conversion part 107 Print device selection part 108 IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) protocol engine 109 IPP protocol common process part 110- 112 Print Driver 113 IEEE802.3 I / F Controller 114 100Base-TX Receptacle 115,215 System Controller 116,216 CPU
117, 217 Memory 118 218 CPU bus 200 Data storage device 203 USB / B / receptacle 204 USB device controller 205 PictBridge device protocol engine 206 Print device information acquisition / selection unit 207 SD card controller 208 SD bus 209 SD memory card I / F
210 SD card memory 211 LCD controller 212 LCD
213 Key input I / F
214 Input key

Claims (9)

A first interface unit for connecting and communicating with the data storage device in a one-to-one topology;
A first print protocol processing unit responding to a first print processing request from the data storage device via the first interface unit;
A data transfer protocol processing unit for acquiring data requested for printing in the first print processing request from the data storage device;
a second interface unit for connecting and communicating with n (n is an integer of 1 or more) printing devices in a 1: n topology;
A second print protocol processing unit that issues a second print processing request to each of the n printing devices via the second interface unit;
A printing device selection unit that selects a specific printing device from which the second printing processing request is to be issued from among the n printing devices;
A printing protocol conversion unit that converts the printing protocol of the first printing protocol and the printing protocol of the second printing;
The printing protocol conversion unit
The first print processing request from the data storage device is converted into the second print processing request, and the second print processing request is sent to the specific printing device selected by the printing device selection unit. A printing protocol conversion apparatus that executes the printing protocol conversion apparatus.   All printing devices connected via the second interface unit have at least one of a unique exclusive physical address and logical address, and the printing device to be selected is selected in the printing device selection unit The printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the physical address and the logical address is preset. The printing protocol conversion device includes:
Via the second printing protocol processing unit, obtain at least one of a vendor name and a device name of a printing device connected to the second interface unit, and select the printing device to be selected by the printing device selection unit. The printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of a vendor name and a device name is preset. All the printing devices connected via the second interface unit have at least one of a unique exclusive physical address and logical address,
The printing protocol conversion device includes:
At least one of a physical address and a logical address of a printing device connected to the second interface unit is acquired, and at least one of the physical address and the logical address is supplied to the data storage device via the first interface unit. And at least one of the selected physical address and logical address is received from the data storage device via the first interface unit, and the printing is performed by at least one of the selected physical address and logical address. The printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the device selection unit is controlled. The printing protocol conversion device includes:
Obtaining at least one of a vendor name and a device name of a printing device connected to the second interface unit via the second printing protocol processing unit, and storing the data via the first interface unit; Notifying the device of at least one of the vendor name and the device name, and further receiving and selecting at least one of the vendor name and the device name selected from the data storage device via the first interface unit The printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing device selection unit is controlled by at least one of the vendor name and the device name. The printing protocol conversion device includes:
By receiving and responding to the print format acquisition command issued from the data storage device via the first interface unit, the print format required by the data storage device is acquired, and further the second interface A printing format supported by each of the n printing devices via the printing unit, and controlling the printing device selection unit according to a comparison result with a printing format required by the data storage device. The printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1. The printing protocol conversion device includes:
When a print format acquisition command issued from the data storage device is received via the first interface unit, a print format supported by each of the n printing devices is acquired via the second interface unit. 2. The printing protocol conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a logical sum of printing formats supported by each of the n printing devices is notified as a response result via the first interface unit. An interface unit for connecting and communicating with a printing device in a one-to-one topology;
A print protocol processing unit that issues a print processing request to the printing device via the interface unit;
A data transfer protocol processing unit for transferring data requested to be printed by the print processing request of the print protocol processing unit to the printing device;
A user interface unit for displaying and selecting a list of printing devices to be connected,
The print protocol processing unit
Data that acquires a list of at least one of a physical address and a logical address of a printing device to be connected from the printing device, and notifies the user interface unit of the list of at least one of the physical address and the logical address. Storage device. An interface unit for connecting and communicating with a printing device in a one-to-one topology;
A print protocol processing unit that issues a print processing request to the printing device via the interface;
A data transfer protocol processing unit that transfers data requested to be printed by the print processing request to the printing device;
A user interface unit for displaying and selecting a list of printing devices to be connected,
The print protocol processing unit
Data obtained by acquiring a list of at least one of a vendor name and a device name of a printing device to be connected from the printing device, and notifying the user interface unit of the list of at least one of the vendor name and the device name. Storage device.

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