JP2009302809A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To optimally attain integration of non-volatile memories which are distributed into a plurality of control substrates. <P>SOLUTION: Programs and various kinds of setting data to be used in the CPU 11 of an operation part 10, the CPU 21 of a CTL 20 and the CPU 31 of an engine control part 30 are integrated into and stored in the Flash_ROM 26 of the CTL 20. Thus, it is facilitated to perform replacement after mass production, and cost is reduced. A storage medium which appears on a market a lot is used by constituting the Flash_ROM 26 of a NAND type flash memory which is superior also in terms of cost. In addition, the operation part 10, the CTL 20, and the engine control part 30 are provided with small-capacity NVRAMs 13, 23, 33 for storing minimum required programs in starting respective parts. Thus, minimum required starting is performed and this enables notification of an abnormality being produced, even when any one of the parts does not start up. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printing apparatus or a copying apparatus.

In recent years, composite printers (MFPs) that integrate a copying function, a scanner function, a facsimile function, and the like have become widespread.
Such an MFP includes a plurality of control boards inside the apparatus. For example, a plurality of control boards such as a controller unit, an operation unit, and an engine unit are incorporated.
In addition, these control boards are provided with a CPU (Central Processing Unit) for executing arithmetic processing on each control board. In order for the CPU to perform arithmetic processing, a dedicated program and setting data are required. Therefore, it is necessary to mount a nonvolatile memory for storing these data on each control board.

As the nonvolatile memory mounted on each control board of the MFP, a small-capacity NAND flash memory is sufficient. However, since there are few manufacturers handling such a small-capacity nonvolatile memory, it is not so popular in the market. Not.
In addition, since such a small-capacity NAND flash memory has a fast generation change of parts, it is very difficult to set a substitute part after mass production of the MFP is started.

In view of this, a technique for aggregating such nonvolatile memories distributed over a plurality of control boards is proposed in the following patent document.
JP2007-011731A

  Patent Document 1 proposes a technique for selecting whether a data storage destination is a serial EEPROM or a flash ROM in accordance with the number of data updates, and not using a plurality of serial EEPROMs. .

However, as described above, since the MFP is equipped with a plurality of control boards, it is not possible to optimize the aggregation of the nonvolatile memory more than the technique described in Patent Document 1. Therefore, as a result, a flash memory having a capacity not so large is distributed on each control board.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to more optimally realize aggregation of nonvolatile memories distributed over a plurality of control boards.

The invention according to claim 1 is an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of control boards are mounted, and each of the plurality of control boards is provided with a central processing unit that executes arithmetic processing in the control boards. A program showing a procedure of arithmetic processing of the central processing unit provided on the plurality of control boards, which is arranged on any one of the plurality of control boards, and various setting data are collectively stored. An image forming apparatus comprising the first non-volatile storage medium is provided.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the first nonvolatile storage medium is constituted by a NAND flash memory.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, each of the plurality of control boards includes a small-capacity second non-volatile storage medium that stores a minimum program necessary for starting up the control board. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 is provided.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, each of the plurality of control boards includes a small-capacity third nonvolatile storage medium that stores data with high rewrite frequency. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3 is provided.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, only a control board on which the first nonvolatile storage medium is provided is provided with a small-capacity fourth nonvolatile storage medium that stores data with high rewrite frequency. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3 is provided.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, an interface is connected between the plurality of control boards via USB (Universal Serial Bus), and the control board provided with the first nonvolatile storage medium is connected to another control board. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the image forming apparatus functions as a host-side control board.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the arithmetic processing of the central processing unit provided on the plurality of control boards is performed on the first non-volatile storage medium provided on any one of the plurality of control boards. By collecting and storing the program showing the above procedure and various setting data, it is possible to use a large-capacity non-volatile storage medium that is widely available in the market (following the trend). Thereby, it is easy to perform substitution after mass production, and the cost of the apparatus can be reduced.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first non-volatile storage medium is composed of a NAND flash memory that is advantageous in terms of cost, and thus has a large capacity on the market (following the trend). Non-volatile storage media can be used.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, even when an abnormality occurs at the time of startup (for example, when data in the first nonvolatile storage medium is destroyed), the control board is connected to each control board. By providing a small-capacity second non-volatile storage medium that stores the minimum program necessary for starting up, the minimum operation becomes possible, so that the abnormality is grasped and the information is presented to the user (notification) ) Can be easily configured.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, each control board is provided with a small-capacity third non-volatile storage medium that stores data having a high rewrite frequency, so that the first non-volatile storage medium can be cut off by power-off. It is possible to reduce the possibility of data corruption.
According to the invention described in claim 5, by providing only a control board provided with the first nonvolatile storage medium with a small-capacity fourth nonvolatile storage medium that stores data with high rewrite frequency, The possibility of data destruction of the first nonvolatile storage medium can be reduced by shutting off the power. In addition, cost reduction can be achieved by not placing non-volatile storage media at a plurality of locations.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the USB is used as the interface of each control board, the first nonvolatile storage medium is provided on the host side, and the data is collected, thereby starting the first nonvolatile storage medium The time loading work can be performed smoothly.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the part related to the control device of the image forming apparatus will be described, and the detailed operation of other functions (printing function, scanner function, etc.) will be omitted.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus includes an operation unit 10, a CTL (system controller unit) 20, an engine control unit 30, and a main power supply unit that includes a main switch 41 that switches power supply to the image forming apparatus. 40 is provided.
The operation unit 10, the CTL 20, and the engine control unit 30 are configured by independent print control boards (PCBs), and their interfaces are connected by a USB (Universal Serial Bus) having a Plug & Play function.
Note that the method of connecting each interface is not limited to this, and for example, connection may be performed using a general-purpose interface such as PCI or PCI Express.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the operation unit 10, the CTL 20, and the engine control unit 30.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the operation unit 10 includes a CPU 11, a RAM 12, an NVRAM (small capacity nonvolatile memory) 13, and a panel 17.
The CPU 11 is a central processing unit that executes various arithmetic processes for causing the operation unit 10 to function as a data input device.
The RAM 12 is a memory capable of storing data, and the contents of the stored data can be freely changed. The RAM 12 is used as an operation area of the CPU 11.
An NVRAM (Nonvolatile RAM) 13 is a small-capacity nonvolatile memory that retains memory without supplying power. The NVRAM 13 stores a program and various data that are at least necessary when the operation unit 10 is activated.
The panel 17 is an operation panel that accepts input of various types of information by the user, and includes various function keys and numeric keys.

The CTL 20 includes a CPU 21, a RAM 22, an NVRAM 23, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 24, an HDD 25, and a Flash_ROM 26.
The CPU 21 is a central processing unit that executes various arithmetic processes for causing the CTL 20 to function as a main control device in the image forming apparatus.
The RAM 22 is a memory capable of storing data, and the contents of the stored data can be freely changed. The RAM 22 is used as an operation area for the CPU 21.
The NVRAM 23 is a small-capacity nonvolatile memory that retains memory even when power is not supplied. The NVRAM 23 stores a minimum program and various data necessary for starting up the CTL 20.
The ASIC 24 is an integrated circuit in which a system control circuit dedicated to image forming processing is formed.
The HDD 25 is a storage that stores image data, programs, font data, forms, and documents.
The Flash_ROM 26 is a large-capacity NAND flash memory, and collectively stores a program showing a procedure of arithmetic processing in the CPU 11 of the operation unit 10, the CPU 21 of the CTL 20, and the CPU 31 of the engine control unit 30, and various setting data. It functions as a first nonvolatile storage medium.

The engine control unit 30 includes a CPU 31, a RAM 32, an NVRAM 33, and an ASIC 34.
The CPU 31 is a central processing unit that executes various arithmetic processes for causing the engine control unit 30 to function as a device that controls an engine that drives various functions in the image forming apparatus. The engine control unit 30 controls, for example, the scanner engine 50 that drives the scanner device and the printer engine 60 that drives the printer device.
The RAM 32 is a memory capable of storing data, and the contents of the stored data can be freely changed. The RAM 32 is used as an operation area for the CPU 31.
The NVRAM 33 is a small-capacity nonvolatile memory that retains memory even when power is not supplied. The NVRAM 33 stores a program and various data that are at least necessary when the engine control unit 30 is started.
The ASIC 34 is an integrated circuit in which an engine control circuit dedicated to image forming processing is formed.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment, the programs and various setting data used by the CPU 11 of the operation unit 10, the CPU 21 of the CTL 20, and the CPU 31 of the engine control unit 30 are collectively stored in the Flash_ROM 26 of the CTL 20. It is configured as follows. Therefore, a large-capacity nonvolatile storage medium can be used effectively.
In addition, the operation unit 10, the CTL 20, and the engine control unit 30 in the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment are provided with small-capacity NVRAMs 13, 23, and 33 for storing a program necessary at the time of starting each unit. Yes. As a result, even if any part does not start, it is possible to perform a minimum start and notify that an abnormality has occurred.
For example, when there is an abnormality in the operation unit 10, a message indicating that the operation unit 10 has been activated halfway can be displayed on the panel. In addition, when there is an abnormality in the CTL 20 or the engine control unit 30, error contents are recorded in the internal NVRAMs 23 and 33, respectively.

Note that the distribution method of each program and data is not limited to that described above.
For example, data with a high rewrite frequency such as a counter of the number of times of copying with a large number of updates and address book setting data may be stored in the NVRAMs 13, 23, and 33 of each unit without being stored in the Flash_ROM 26. In this way, by not placing frequently rewritten data in the Flash_ROM 26 that is vulnerable to power interruption during writing, the number of times of writing to the Flash_ROM 26 itself can be reduced, and the risk of data corruption can be reduced.

In the present embodiment described above, the NVRAMs 13, 23, and 33 storing the programs and various data necessary at the time of starting each unit are provided in the operation unit 10, the CTL 20, and the engine control unit 30, respectively. The programs and various data necessary at the time of starting up each unit may also be collected in one place of the NVRAM 23 provided in the CTL 20, for example. In this case, the NVRAMs 13 and 33 are not necessary.
As described above, the cost of the image forming apparatus can be reduced by consolidating the storage locations of the setting data having a large number of rewrites on one substrate.

Next, a procedure of operation processing at the time of starting in the image forming apparatus configured as described above will be described. Here, a case where each control board is connected by USB will be described.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure of operation processing at the time of startup in the CTL 20.
When the main switch 41 of the main power supply unit 40 is turned on, that is, when power supply to the image forming apparatus is started, the CPU 21 of the CTL 20 causes the CTL 20 to function as a main control device in the image forming apparatus from the Flash_ROM 26. The program is read out (step 11).
The CPU 21 activates the CTL program and completes the activation operation (step 12).

Next, the CPU 21 executes recognition processing of the operation unit 10 by using the Plug & Play function of the USB used for connecting each control board.
The plug & play function is a function that automatically incorporates and sets a device driver when a peripheral device, an expansion card, or the like is connected to a computer.
Then, the CPU 21 determines whether or not a Plug & Play notification transmitted at the time of recognition is received from the operation unit 10 (Step 13). That is, here, it is determined whether or not the operation unit 10 is properly recognized by the CTL 20.

When the Plug & Play notification is received (step 13; Y), the CPU 21 reads from the Flash_ROM 26 an operation unit program for causing the operation unit 10 to function as a data input device (step 14).
Then, the CPU 21 transmits the operation unit program to the CPU 11 of the operation unit 10 via the USB, that is, through the interface (step 15), and ends the activation process.
On the other hand, when the Plug & Play notification cannot be received within a predetermined time (step 13; N), the CPU 21 records in the NVRAM 23 that the operation unit 10 does not start, that is, an abnormality (error) has occurred in the operation unit 10 ( Step 16), the activation process is terminated.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of operation processing at the time of activation in the operation unit 10.
When the main switch 41 of the main power supply unit 40 is turned on, that is, when power supply to the image forming apparatus is started, the CPU 11 of the operation unit 10 reads a program for starting the operation unit 10 from the NVRAM 13 (step 21). .
Then, the CPU 11 starts up the operation unit 10 with a minimum function (step 22), and transmits a Plug & Play notification functioning as a recognition signal of the operation unit 10 to the CTL 20 by using the plug & play function of the USB (step 23). .

Thereafter, the CPU 11 determines whether or not the operation unit program is transmitted from the CTL 20 (step 24).
When the operation unit program is transmitted from the CTL 20 (step 24; Y), that is, when the operation unit program is received, the CPU 11 activates the received operation unit program (step 25) and ends the activation process. To do.
On the other hand, when the operation unit program is not transmitted from the CTL 20 within a predetermined time (step 24; N), the CPU 11 displays a message on the display panel that the CTL 20 does not start, that is, an abnormality (error) has occurred in the CTL 20. This is displayed (step 26), and the activation process is terminated.
When the operation unit program is not transmitted from the CTL 20 within a predetermined time, the fact that the CTL 20 is not started, that is, that an abnormality (error) has occurred in the CTL 20 is recorded in the NVRAM 13 together with a message display process. desirable.

  In the description of the procedure of the operation process at the time of start-up in the image forming apparatus described above, the processing method at the time of start-up between the CTL 20 and the operation unit 10 has been described as an example, but the CTL 20 and the engine control unit 30 are performed in the same procedure. It is also possible to execute processing at the time of startup.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. It is the figure which showed schematic structure of the operation part, CTL, and an engine control part. It is the flowchart which showed the procedure of the operation | movement process at the time of starting in CTL. It is the flowchart which showed the procedure of the operation process at the time of starting in an operation part.

Explanation of symbols

10 Operation unit 11 CPU
12 RAM
13 NVRAM
17 Panel 20 CTL
21 CPU
22 RAM
23 NVRAM
24 ASIC
25 HDD
26 Flash_ROM
30 Engine control unit 31 CPU
32 RAM
33 NVRAM
34 ASIC
40 Main power source 41 Main switch 50 Scanner engine 60 Printer engine

Claims (6)

An image forming apparatus including a plurality of control boards, each of the plurality of control boards being provided with a central processing unit that executes arithmetic processing in the control board,
A program that shows the procedure of the arithmetic processing of the central processing unit provided on the plurality of control boards disposed on any one of the plurality of control boards, and various setting data are aggregated. An image forming apparatus comprising a first nonvolatile storage medium for storing.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first nonvolatile storage medium includes a NAND flash memory.
The plurality of control boards each include a small-capacity second non-volatile storage medium that stores a minimum program necessary for starting up the control boards. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2.
The plurality of control boards are provided with a small-capacity third non-volatile storage medium for storing data with a high rewrite frequency in each of the control boards. The image forming apparatus described in 1.
3. A small-capacity fourth non-volatile storage medium for storing data with high rewrite frequency is provided only on a control board on which the first non-volatile storage medium is provided. Alternatively, the image forming apparatus according to claim 3.
Between the plurality of control boards, the interface is connected by USB (Universal Serial Bus),
6. The control board according to claim 1, wherein the control board provided with the first nonvolatile storage medium functions as a host-side control board with respect to another control board. The image forming apparatus described in 1.

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