JP2742073B2 - Print control method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing system in which a plurality of host computers (hereinafter, simply referred to as hosts) share one printing apparatus, and in particular, such a system. The present invention relates to a print control method and apparatus in the above.

[Related Art] Conventionally, a laser printer is known as a printing device capable of high-speed and high-definition printing. However, laser printers are generally expensive, so in applications where the ratio of the printing time to the usage time of the entire document creation device is small, such as document printing of a document creation device such as a word processor,
In order to improve the cost performance of the entire system, one printing apparatus is shared by a plurality of document creation apparatuses, that is, one printing apparatus is changed to a shared printer.

As a conventional example in which one host is shared by a plurality of hosts as described above, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-242231 discloses a single printer provided with two input ports and two input ports connected to two input ports. A printer connected to one host and sharing one printer in a time-sharing manner is disclosed.

JP-A-61-282921 discloses that a single printer is shared by a plurality of personal computers, print information from each personal computer is stored in a temporary buffer, and each time printing of one document is completed, The document describes that print data of another document is sequentially taken out and continuously printed.

Further, a host computer such as a plurality of document creating apparatuses and a printing apparatus are connected to an LA such as Ethernet.
There is also conventionally known an example in which a plurality of host computers are connected by an N (local area network) and one printing apparatus is shared as a printer server.

Other techniques for sharing a single printing device with a plurality of hosts are disclosed in JP-A-61-42026, JP-A-61-103237, and JP-A-62-126.
No. 432 and the like.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] The above-described conventional printer sharing control is one of the following two methods. That is, one printer simply switches and connects one printer to each host. Second, print data from each host is stored in a large-capacity buffer, and the stored data is sequentially stored. It is taken out and printed.

In the first method, there is an inconvenience that another host cannot issue a print instruction while printing is performed for one host. On the other hand, in the second method, print data can be stored in the buffer even during printing, so that unless the buffer is full,
The host can accept a print instruction even during printing.
However, in the second method, since a large-capacity print buffer is required in the print control device, the print control device is expensive, and a print instruction for a large number of documents exceeding the capacity of the print buffer is still required. There was a problem that it could not be handled.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a system having a printing device shared by a plurality of hosts, and accepting a print instruction for a large number of other documents during printing of a document without requiring a large printing buffer in the printing device. Is to be able to It is another object of the present invention to enable the host to confirm or change the order of accepted print instructions.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, a print control method according to the present invention is a print control method in a system in which a plurality of host computers share a printing device, and a print request from a host computer. Is received as a reservation without waiting for the completion of the printing process currently being executed, and when the reservation can be printed, the host computer is requested to send print data. In this case, preferably, the host computer is notified that the reservation has been accepted. In the case where only one print request from one host computer is allowed to make a reservation,
The reservation may be made not for the print request but for the host itself.

According to another aspect, a print control method according to the present invention is a print control method in a system in which a plurality of host computers share a printing apparatus, and a print request from a host computer is transmitted to a completion of a currently executed print process. Without waiting for a print request, each print request is assigned a reservation order number in the order in which it was received, and each time one print process is completed, the reservation order is updated and printed to the next host computer. The print data is requested, the print data is received, and print processing is performed. in this case,
Preferably, when the reservation is accepted, the reservation order number is notified to the host computer.

It is also preferable that the reservation order can be changed by a command from the host computer, and the reservation order is changed according to the change command.

When the reservation order is updated or changed, it is preferable to notify at least the corresponding host computer of the current reservation status.

According to still another aspect, a print control method according to the present invention is a print control method in a system in which a plurality of host computers and a printing apparatus are connected by a network capable of two-way communication. A print request packet for making a print request to the printing apparatus, a print data transmission request packet for requesting the host apparatus that has issued the print request the print apparatus to transmit print data, and a host computer for receiving the print data transmission request Prepares a print data packet for transmitting print data to a printing apparatus, and prints print data from a plurality of host computers with the printing apparatus by exchanging these packets. In this print control method,
Preferably, furthermore, a reservation acceptance notification packet for notifying the host computer that the reservation has been accepted from the printing apparatus, and when the reservation order has been updated due to the completion of the printing process, at least the update reservation status of at least the corresponding host computer is updated. And a reservation status notification packet which is broadcast from the printer simultaneously. In this case, the host can be notified of the reservation status at the host by a request from the operator or automatically displayed on the display screen. Further, the host computer may prepare a reservation order change packet for issuing a command to change its own reservation order to the printing apparatus.

A printing request method according to the present invention is a printing request method from a host computer in a system in which a plurality of host computers share a printing device, wherein the host computer issues only a printing request to the printing device when a printing request is made, After requesting print data transmission from
It sends out print data.

Further, a print control device according to the present invention is a print control device in a system in which a plurality of host computers share a printer, wherein the print control device receives a print request from a host computer, and receives a print request during execution of a print process. A print reservation information management unit that registers and manages the request as a reservation, a print data transmission request unit that issues a print data transmission request to the host computer in the order of reservation according to the print reservation information, and a reservation every time one print process is completed. And a reservation order updating means for updating the order.

The print control apparatus further includes a reservation reception notifying unit that notifies the host computer that the print request has been accepted as a reservation, and a reservation status notification that notifies all the host computers that the reservation order has been updated. Preferably, the method further comprises means. Also,
A reservation order changing means for changing the reservation order according to a command from the host computer may be further provided.

The information processing system according to the present invention receives the print request signal from the print request source, accepts the print request as a reservation without waiting for the completion of the currently executed print processing, and performs the time when the print request can be printed. A printing device that issues a signal requesting transmission of print data to the print request source, and when each of the printing devices requests printing, a print request signal is issued without sending print data. After receiving a print data transmission request signal from the printing apparatus, a plurality of host computers transmitting print data are connected by a network capable of two-way communication.

In this specification, "host computer"
Exchanges control information for printing with the printing device,
And any information processing device capable of transmitting print data.

[Operation] Hereinafter, a typical operation of the present invention will be described.

When the host in the system according to the present invention issues a print request for its own document, it issues only a print request to the print control device for the time being. The print control device that has received the print request accepts the print request issued from the host as a reservation even during the execution of the print process. For example, for print requests from a plurality of hosts, a unique print reservation code and a reservation order number are assigned to the requests in the order in which the requests are received, and the registration is managed together with the host numbers. By reserving the print request itself, it is possible to output a plurality of print requests continuously from one host.

By notifying the host that has received the reservation (preferably a reservation code and a reservation order number), the operator of the host receives the reservation as a reservation instead of immediately executing printing. You can recognize that it was done. In addition, it is possible to know the order of the self from the reservation order number. By associating the received reservation code with the print data, the host can specify the corresponding print data to be transmitted later according to the reservation code received from the print control device.

The registered reservation order is updated each time one print process is completed, that is, the reservation order number of each print request is reduced by 1, and this new reservation order is reserved and registered as the latest reservation information. Be notified to each host. Thus, the operator who has requested the printing can recognize the change in the reservation status due to the progress of the printing process.

When the order of each of the print requests registered for reservation changes, the print control device requests the host that issued the print request to transmit print data. The host sends print data corresponding to the print request to the print control device for the first time in this step. If the host that received the print data transmission request was performing work such as document creation at that time, if the print data is transmitted as background processing by multitasking processing, etc. No problem. Further, even if the temporary work is interrupted in the host that cannot perform the background processing, the time required for the print data transfer is short, so there is no significant problem.

As described above, according to the present invention, in response to a print request for a large number of documents, the print control device does not store all the print data but accepts only the print request as a reservation. It is possible to accept a large number of print requests even during the execution of the print processing without requiring them. Conversely, from the perspective of the host, the printing device issues a print request at any time without considering whether or not the printing process is in progress. If the printing is in progress, the reservation order number is returned. The number can be used to estimate the approximate time until the start of printing of the document.

Immediate printing can be dealt with by changing the host's own reservation number from the host. In this case, at least the print requester is notified of the changed print order number to the host that issued the print request for which the print order is changed due to this change, thereby recognizing that the print requester has moved down. it can.

Example An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an information processing system sharing an optical printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1A, a plurality of (n) hosts 1-1 to 1-n and a printer controller 2 (hereinafter abbreviated as controller 2) are connected by a network 101 capable of bidirectional communication. The optical printer engine 3 is connected to the optical printer engine 3 by a video I / F 103 which is a high-speed serial I / F. Here, the controller 2 and the optical printer engine 3 constitute a printing device as a shared printer. Printer controller 2 has a print density of 300D
PI (Dot Per Inch), R compatible with A3 size printing paper
Bitmap memory 10 consisting of AM and 2 MB memory capacity
A work memory 15 composed of a RAM, a character font ROM 16 storing dot data of print characters, and a host I / F for communicating with a host via a network 101.
A circuit 17 and a DMA (Direct
Memory Access) A CPU 18 with a built-in function circuit, an expansion processing circuit 19 that expands characters, graphics, and image data into dots in the bitmap memory 10, and reads dot data from the bitmap memory 10 in parallel and converts it to serial data A video I / F circuit 20 for transmission to the optical printer engine 3; and a program ROM 21 in which a program for operating the CPU 18 is stored.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of six types of data packets communicated between the hosts 1-1 to 1-n and the controller 2.
Each data packet has a packet start code 201 at the beginning and a packet end code 202 at the end in order to define the range of the data packet. In the meantime, according to the ID No. 205 indicating the type of the data packet and other types according to the type Information. ID No. 205 corresponds to the second data packet.
It is set as shown in the figure. The data packet 1 is a print request command issued from the host to the controller 2, and includes a packet start code 201 and a packet end code 202.
In addition, the host number 203 and the ID No. indicating the type of packet
Consists of "1". The ID No. 205 is an identification number indicating the type of the data packet, and is set as shown in FIG. 2 corresponding to the data packet. The host number 203 is a number for defining with which host the controller 2 communicates a data packet, and is used when individually communicating with each host. In this embodiment, the host number 20 is assigned to all data packets except the data packet 5.
3 is used. The data packet 2 is for notifying the host that has issued the print request from the controller 2 that the reservation of the print request has been accepted, and includes a print reservation code 206 and a reservation order number 207. Data packet 3
Is for requesting the host to which the controller 2 has issued the print request to transmit print data, and includes a print reservation code 206 for specifying the print request.
The data packet 4 is for transmitting print data from the host to the controller 2, and includes a print reservation code 206 and print data 208. Data packet 5
Is for notifying each reservation host of the latest reservation status when the reservation order is updated or changed. Each print reservation code 206-a to 206-m and the corresponding print reservation order number 207-a to 207-m. Broadcast number
Reference numeral 204 is used to notify the same data packet from the controller 2 to all the hosts at once. The data packet 6 is a print order change command issued when the host changes the print reservation order, and includes a print reservation code 206 and a new reservation order number 207 of the print request specified by this code.

FIG. 1B mainly shows the CPU 1 in the controller 2 of FIG.
8 shows a functional block diagram of the present invention, such as print request reception and reservation information management, achieved by the program ROM 21. The main functions of the controller 2 according to the present invention include a print request receiving unit 61 that receives a packet 1 as a print request command from a host, and a print reservation information management unit that creates and manages print reservation information in response to the reception of the receiving unit 61. Means 62, a print completion judging means 63 for judging the completion of printing by the printer, and a reservation order updating (changing) means for updating the reservation order by the output of this judgment means 63 or changing the reservation order by a packet 6 from the host. 64, reservation reception notifying means 65 for generating a packet 2 for notifying the host that the reservation has been received,
It comprises print data transmission request means 66 for generating a packet 3 requesting the host to transmit print data, and reservation status notifying means 67 for generating a packet 5 for simultaneously broadcasting the reservation status to each reservation host.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a document printing process in the information processing system shown in FIG. 1A;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing on the controller 2 side for realizing the printing processing shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a print management table created on the work memory 15 of FIG. 1A by the processing of FIG.

Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 5.

The controller 2 from any of the hosts 1-1 to 1-n
The data packet transmitted to the CPU 18 is DMA-transferred to the reception buffer area on the work memory 15 via the host I / F circuit 17 by the DMA function of the CPU 18, and thereafter, the packet reception interrupt processing shown in FIG. Starts. In this process, first, when the packet 1 is transmitted from the host 1 to the controller 2 (step 301), first, the CPU 18
The ID number of the data packet is determined according to the program stored in the ROM 21 (step 401). In the case of step 301, since it is a print request from the host 1 and ID No. = 1, it is next determined whether or not another print reservation has already been made (step 402). In this case, since this is the first print request, the process proceeds to step 405, and a print management table as shown in FIG.
In FIG. 5A, reference numeral 510 denotes a host number that has issued a print request, which is “1” in this case. Reference numeral 511 denotes a print reservation code uniquely assigned to the above-described print request, which is “PR001” in this case. Reference numeral 512 denotes a print reservation order number, and “0” is assigned to a document whose printing is to be started immediately as in this case. Also,
The reservation order number “1” is assigned to a document that is already being printed and the document assigned printing next, and the reservation order number “2” is assigned to the document assigned printing next. Assigned, and the reservation order number is increased in order.
It is controlled by the CPU 18. The reservation order number is transmitted to the corresponding host by the data packet 2.

As described above, after the CPU 18 creates the print management table shown in FIG. 5A (step 405), the CPU 18 sends the data packet 3 meaning the print data transmission request shown in FIG. Send (Step 406, Step 30)
2). In this case, the CPU 18 sets the host number 203 to "1" and the print reservation code 206 to "PR001", as shown in FIG.
This data packet is formed with reference to the print management table of FIG.

Host 1 for data packet 3 (step 302)
Sends a data packet 4 containing the data of the print document to the controller 2 (step 303). The data packet 4 is transferred to the host I / F circuit 17 by the DMA function of the CPU 18.
When the packet reception interrupt process shown in FIG. 4A is started after the data packet is transferred to the reception buffer area on the work memory 15 through the data memory, the data packet ID No. = 4. Set the print start flag to ON (step
407). The print start flag is periodically determined by the print processing program in the main routine shown in FIG. 4 (b) (step 420). When the flag changes to ON, the print processing after step 421 is executed.

The printing process is performed as follows. First, the CPU 18 develops characters, graphics, and image data as dot data in the bitmap memory 10 according to the print data 208 stored in the work memory 15 using the development processing circuit 19 (step 421). When dot data development for one page is completed, the CPU 18 issues a print start command to the optical printer engine 3. In synchronization with the operation of the activated optical printer engine 3, the video I / F circuit 20 sequentially reads dot data from the bitmap memory 10 and transmits the dot data to the optical printer engine 3 to perform printing (step 422). When printing is completely completed, the CPU 18 turns off the print start flag (step 423), and deletes the corresponding print reservation code from the print management table shown in FIG. 5 (step 424). Thereafter, it is determined from the print management table whether there is any other document reserved for printing (step 42).
5) If there is nothing else, the process ends. If there is another document reserved for printing, the data packet 5 is first broadcast to a plurality of hosts (step 31).
3) Inform the reservation order (step 426). Thereafter, a data packet 3 meaning a print data transmission request is transmitted to the host having the document to be printed next (step 427), and the printing process is terminated (step 315). As described above, in the printing process, the data packet and the data packet 3 are transmitted each time the printing of the print-reserved document is completed (steps 318, 320, 323, 325). (Step 328).

In step 402 of the processing flow of FIG.
If another print reservation has already been made, the next step 403 is executed. Explaining in a specific example, when data packet 1 is received in step 305 in FIG.
As a result, the host number “2” 530, the print reservation code “PR002” 531 and the reservation order number “1” 532 in the print management table of FIG. 5B are newly registered, and FIG. Is transmitted to the host (steps 404 and 306) to notify the print reservation code and the reservation order number. Similarly, when receiving the data packet 1 in step 307 in FIG. 3, the host number “3” 540, the print reservation code “PR003” 541, and the reservation order number “2” 542 in FIG. 5B are newly registered. . In this way, every time the data packet 1 indicating a print request is transmitted from the host to the controller 2, a new print reservation code and a new reservation number are registered and notified to the host.

Finally, the change of the order of the print reservation by the data packet 6 will be described. As described above, the print reservation code “PR003” and the reservation order number “2” are notified to the host 3 as the data packet 2 for the data packet 1 in step 307 in FIG. 3 (step 308). To change the reservation order number to "1" on the third side, step 309 in FIG.
Print reservation code 206 to "PR003" and the reservation order number
Data packet 6 with 207 set to “1” is sent to controller 2
Send to The transmission of this data packet 6 causes the CPU 18
Starts the packet reception interrupt processing of FIG. 4 (a). In this process, first, the ID number of the data packet is determined (step 401). In this case, since ID No. = 6,
Next, the print management data is changed to the reservation order number designated by the data packet 6 (step 408), and the new print reservation order number is broadcast to the plurality of hosts by the data packet 5 (steps 409 and 310). By the processing in step 408, the print management data is changed from FIG. 5 (b) to (c). Therefore, after the change, the reservation order number 550 of the document with the print reservation code “PR003” 541 becomes “1”, and the reservation order number 560 of the document with the print reservation code “PR002” 531 becomes “2”. You can change the print reservation order number from.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, while a certain host is using a printing apparatus as in the related art, there is no inconvenience that another host cannot issue a printing instruction, and the printing apparatus side It is not necessary to have a large-capacity print buffer, so that a system with good cost performance can be constructed. Further, since the printing order of the print document which has already been reserved for printing can be changed from the host, a print document having a high priority can be printed first, thereby improving the usability of the user. Can be built.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a hardware configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 1B is a functional block diagram of the main functions of the printer controller in FIG. 1A according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of data packets transmitted and received between the host and the printer controller, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an example of processing, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing on the printer controller side, and FIG. 5 is a print management table in the processing flow shown in FIG. 1-1 to 1-n Host 2, Printer controller 3, Optical printer engine 18, CPU 17, Host I / F circuit 21, Program ROM 15, Work memory 15, 61 print request receiving means, 62 print reservation information managing means, 63 print completion determining means, 64 reservation order updating (change) means, 65 reservation receiving notification means, 66 print data transmission Requesting means, 67 ... Reservation status notifying means.

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print control method in a system in which a printing device is shared by a plurality of host computers, wherein a process for accepting a print request from the host computer as a reservation is executed as an interrupt process for a print process, and each print request is executed. , A reservation order number is assigned in the order of acceptance, the reservation order is updated each time one print process is completed, and print data is requested to the next host computer, and the print data is received. A print control method comprising: 2. A print control method in a system in which a plurality of host computers share a printing apparatus, wherein a print request from a host computer is received as a reservation, and a reservation order number is assigned to each print request in the order of reception. Then, the reservation order number is notified to the host computer, and each time one print process is completed, the reservation order number of each print request is reduced by 1 to update the reservation order, and the next host computer is notified. Request print data,
A print control method comprising receiving the print data and performing a print process. 3. The print control method according to claim 2, wherein the reservation order can be changed by a command from a host computer, and the reservation order is changed in accordance with the change command. 4. A print order number for each print request which can be changed by a command from a host computer, information specifying a print request whose print order should be changed, and a new print order specified by the information. 3. The print control method according to claim 2, wherein the reservation order is changed by reassigning the reservation order number of each print request in response to a command including a number from the host computer. 5. The print control method according to claim 2, wherein the process of accepting a print request from the host computer as a reservation is executed as an interrupt process for a print process. 6. A print control device in a system in which a printer is shared by a plurality of host computers, the print request receiving means receiving a print request from the host computer, and the print request received during execution of the print processing is registered as a reservation. Print reservation information management means for managing, print data transmission request means for issuing a print data transmission request to the host computer in the order of reservation according to the print reservation information, and reservation for updating the reservation order each time one print process is completed A print control device, comprising: a sequence update unit; and wherein the print request receiving unit and the print reservation information managing unit execute processing in each unit as an interruption process for the print process. 7. A print control device in a system in which a printer is shared by a plurality of host computers, wherein the print request receiving means receives a print request from the host computer, and registers the print request received during execution of the printing process as a reservation. Print reservation information management means for managing, print data transmission request means for issuing a print data transmission request to the host computer in the order of reservation according to the print reservation information, and reservation for updating the reservation order each time one print process is completed Order updating means, a reservation reception notifying means for notifying the host computer that the print request has been accepted as a reservation, and a reservation status notifying means for notifying all the host computers that the reservation order has been updated. At least one of the above-mentioned reservation reception notifying means and the reservation status notifying means. The print control apparatus characterized by notifying together the information indicating the reserved order of the emitted print request from the notification destination host computer. 8. The print control apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a reservation order changing means for changing the reservation order in accordance with a command from the host computer. 9. The reservation order of each print request in response to a command from the host computer including information designating a print request whose reservation order is to be changed and a new reservation order number of the print request specified by the information. 8. The printing control apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a reservation order changing unit that changes a reservation order by renumbering. 10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said print request receiving means and print reservation information managing means execute processing in each means as an interrupt processing for print processing. Print control device.