JP2828011B2 - Printer device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly, to a page printer connected to a plurality of higher-level devices and used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 shows a conventional printer having a plurality of input interfaces with a host device. Host device 5
The print data sent from 1A is input interface 5
2A, the central processing unit 55 stores the received print data in the reception buffer 54 according to the analysis program in the program ROM 53.

The print data stored in the receiving buffer 54 is converted into bit image data for each page by a central processing unit 55 and stored in an image buffer 56. The bit image data stored in the image buffer 56 is printed by the printer engine 58 via the engine interface 57.

[0004]

In such a conventional printer device, transmission from a higher-level device connected to another interface cannot be processed until printing of print data from one interface is completed.

Further, a printer having a plurality of interfaces with a higher-level device may receive a print request from a plurality of users. However, a printer device may have another interface until a certain interface finishes printing print data from the higher-level device. Data processing from the connected host device could not be performed.

Further, using one central processing means,
Since the process of performing bit image data conversion and printing for each page is repeated, if pages that require a long time for the conversion process are included, the engine performance of the printer cannot be fully exploited, and There was a problem that it took.

In addition, at the time of paper jam or warm-up of the engine, the printer cannot process the print data, so that there is a problem that the print data cannot be received.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the disadvantages of the prior art and, in particular, provides a printer capable of receiving and expanding print data from a plurality of higher-level devices regardless of the state of the printer engine. To do so.

[0009]

Therefore, according to the present invention, there are provided a plurality of input interfaces for receiving print data transmitted from a host device, and a plurality of input interfaces for expanding the print data input to the input interface into bit image data. A first central processing unit, an image buffer for storing the bit image data developed by the first central processing unit, and a printer engine for printing out the bit image data stored in the image buffer. I have.

In addition, the first central processing means has a bit
Number assigning unit that assigns an identification number to image data
It has. Then, this identification number assigning unit
With the job number indicating the order of the print data received in after turning
Job number assigning function and the pages in the print data
Numbering function for numbering pages and the end of print data
The plurality of input interfaces are added to the bit image data of the page.
Attach an input interface identification number to identify the interface
Input interface identification number assigning function
You.

In addition, the printer engine has a first central function.
The printer engine is driven asynchronously with the arithmetic processing means.
A second central processing means for controlling is also provided. this
The second central processing means is a first central processing means.
Therefore, based on the identification number given to the bit image data,
Bit image data output to the printer engine
A bit image data selection section for selecting
The input interface identification number from the page data
Specified by the input interface identification number
Completed printing on host device via input interface
A print completion message output section for outputting a message
I have. Moreover, this bit image data selection section
Is the bit image data stored in the image buffer.
Select the bit image data with the smaller job number
Bit image data with the same job number
If there is more than one, the bit
It is configured to select image data . This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

The present invention improves the performance of a printer by employing a multiprocessor system.
The feature here is that the printing and developing processing and the drive control of the printer engine (and the paper feed mechanism etc.) are controlled asynchronously by separate central processing means. In order to control the drive asynchronously, in the present invention, an identification number is assigned to the bit image data, and the two central processing units are coordinated by the identification number.

The present invention is based on the premise that it has a plurality of input interfaces. Therefore, the identification number is constituted not only by the page number but also by the job number and the input interface identification number. With this identification number,
The second central processing unit periodically monitors the accumulation state of the bit image data in the image buffer and the identification number thereof, and prints the bit image data selected based on the identification number, thereby performing reception processing and processing. Control is performed without being affected by the expansion processing.

On the other hand, the first central processing means performs exclusive control and the like at the time of reception, and performs expansion processing without being affected by the state of the printer engine. For this reason, even if the printer engine is warming up or an error is being displayed for a paper jam,
The first central processing unit receives the print data from the higher-level device, and further performs a developing process.

[0015]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer according to the present invention. The printer device 20 includes a plurality of input interfaces 2 for receiving print data transmitted from the host device 1, and a first interface that expands the print data input to the input interface 2 into bit image data.
A central processing unit 4, an image buffer 8 for storing the bit image data developed by the first central processing unit 4, and a printer engine 1 for printing out the bit image data stored in the image buffer 8.
8 is provided.

Further, the first central processing means 4 includes an identification number assigning section 6 for assigning an identification number to the bit image data. Further, the printer engine 18
A second central processing unit 12 for controlling the driving of the printer engine asynchronously with the first central processing unit 4 is provided.

The second central processing means 12
Has a bit image data selection unit 14 for selecting bit image data to be output to the printer engine 18 based on the identification number given to the bit image data by the first central processing unit 4.

By employing such a configuration, the performance of the printer device can be improved by the multiprocessor system.

The identification number assigning section 6 has a job number assigning function for assigning a job number indicating the order of print data received after the power is turned on, and a page number assigning function for assigning a page number in the print data. have.

The bit image data selection unit 14
Is to select bit image data with a small job number among the bit image data stored in the image buffer 8 and select the bit image data based on the page number when there are a plurality of bit image data with a small job number. It has a number order selection function.

With such a configuration of the identification numbers, the order of the bit image data to be printed out can be reliably managed while performing the parallel processing by the multiprocessor system.

The identification number assigning section 6 has an input interface identification number assigning function for assigning an input interface identification number for identifying a plurality of input interfaces 2 to the bit image data of the last page of the print data. Further, the second central processing unit 12 outputs a print completion message to the host device 1 via the input interface 2 specified by the input interface identification number when reading the input interface identification number from the bit image data. A completion message output unit 16 is provided.

By using this input interface identification number, even if there are a plurality of input interfaces and a method of controlling asynchronously using a plurality of central processing units, it is possible to notify the host device of the completion of printing. Can be.

As shown in FIG. 1, the image buffer is provided with a storage unit for storing bit image data having a capacity larger than the free space of the image buffer.

Further, the second central processing means 12, a bit image data deletion function for deleting the bit image data stored in the image buffer 8 when the output to the printer engine 18 is completed, A file for reading bit image data having an identification number with a smaller job number and page number out of the bit image data stored in the storage unit 10 in the empty area of the image buffer 8 caused by the deletion of the image data into the empty area of the image buffer Has management functions.

Even if an error process such as a paper jam is performed by the juxtaposition of the storage unit and the file management function and the expansion process by the first central processing unit precedes,
Bit image data can be stored in advance.

The second central processing means 12 reads out the bit image data from the storage unit 10 and writes the bit image data with a small identification number to the image buffer 8 every time a free space is generated in the image buffer 8. Even when the printer engine 18 needs the next bit image data, the image buffer 8
, The bit image data with the smaller identification number is stored.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of hardware resources according to an embodiment of the present invention. The host device 1A and the printer device 20 are connected via the input interface 2A. The host device 1B is connected to the printer device 20 via the input interface 2B.
The number of the input interfaces 2 may be any number.

When print data is sent from the host device 1A, the input interface 2A receives the print data under the control of the first central processing unit 4, and stores the print data in the reception buffer 34 sequentially.

The first central processing means 4 uses the analysis program stored in the program ROM 32 and
4 is converted into bit image data for each page. The converted bit image data is stored in the image buffer 8.

At this time, each bit image data includes
Information (identification information) for identifying the order of the print data, the page of the data, and the data received by which input interface after the power is turned on is added.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of bit image data stored in the image buffer. As shown in FIG. 3, the content of the identification information is constituted by a job identification number page number input interface identification number. However, the input interface identification number is
As shown in (C), only the last page of the bit image data is added.

On the other hand, when the second central processing means 12 detects that the bit image data has been stored in the image buffer 8, it uses the engine control program in the program ROM 36 to store the bit image data stored in the image buffer 8. The data with the smallest number and the first page number in the job identification number added to the data is searched. Further, the second central processing unit outputs the bit image data having the same print data identification number in the order of the page number through the engine interface 42 to the printer engine 18.
Send to

When the second central processing unit 12 detects the input interface identification number, it sends a print completion message via the transmission / reception interface 40 and
Host device 1 through identified input interface 2
Transfer to During this time, the analysis processing performed by the first central processing unit 4 and the printing processing performed by the second central processing unit 12 are performed asynchronously. Therefore, even if the printing process cannot be performed due to engine warm-up or paper jam, etc.
The analysis processing performed by the first central processing unit 4 can be performed.

If the analysis processing proceeds faster than the printing processing due to a paper jam or the like, and the capacity of the expanded bitmap image data exceeds the capacity of the image buffer 8, it is connected to the printer device through the disk interface 26 as a save area. Is stored in the external storage device 27. When the printing process progresses and the image buffer 8 has a sufficient capacity, the bit image data stored in the save area of the external storage device 27 is sequentially transferred to the image buffer 8 and printed.

As described above, according to the present invention, the central processing means for performing the bit image data conversion processing and the central processing means for controlling the printing processing are separated and processed asynchronously, whereby Even if the printing of the print data from the apparatus is not completed, if the conversion processing to the bit image data is completed, the print data can be received from another higher-level apparatus. In addition, since the bit image data conversion process can be performed even during a paper jam or when the engine warms up, printing after recovery can be performed at a higher speed.

[0038]

According to the present invention, the identification number assigning section assigns an identification number to bit image data, and the bit image data selecting section assigns an identification number based on the identification number. The first central processing unit and the second central processing unit can control the bit image data to be output to the printer engine asynchronously, and the first central processing unit receives Since the second central processing unit controls the driving of the printer engine, the first central processing unit performs the reception and expansion processing of the print data from the plurality of higher-level devices and the processing of the printer engine. This can be performed without being affected by the state. Therefore, even during the warm-up of the printer engine or the error processing for a paper jam, the first Processing means receives the print data from the host device, it is possible to perform further expansion processing.
Further, since the first central processing means can perform processing independent of the state of the printer engine, when the expansion processing of the last page of the print data is completed, the printing is performed regardless of the output by the printer engine. Since the processing is released from the data processing, the receiving and developing processing of the next print data can be started immediately, so that the printing speed is increased. As described above, it is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent printer device that can receive and develop print data from a plurality of higher-level devices regardless of the state of the printer engine.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of hardware resources of the printer shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of bit image data stored in the image buffer shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3B is a diagram showing an example of the bit image data of the job identification number 1 and the page number 1, and FIG.
FIG. 3C is a diagram showing an example of bit image data of page number 2 and FIG. 3C is a diagram showing an example of bit image data of the last page with job identification number 1.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional printer having a plurality of input interfaces.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 High-order apparatus 2 Input interface 4 First central processing unit 6 Identification number assigning unit 8 Image buffer 10 Storage unit 12 Second central processing unit 14 Bit image data selecting unit 16 Print completion message output unit 18 Printer engine

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A plurality of input interfaces for receiving print data transmitted from a higher-level device; a first central processing unit for expanding the print data input to the input interface into bit image data; in the printer device including an image buffer for storing bit image data expanded by the first central processing unit, and a printer engine for printing out bit image data stored in the image buffer, said first central Processing means for processing the bit image data;
An identification number assigning unit for assigning an identification number to data is provided, and the identification number assigning unit receives the print data received after the power is turned on.
Job number assigning function that assigns job numbers indicating the order of data
And the page number to which the page number in the print data is attached
Addition function and bit image of the last page of print data
Input identifying the plurality of input interfaces to data
Input interface identifier with interface identification number
A different number assigning function, wherein the printer engine is provided with the first central processing means
Control the driving of the printer engine asynchronously with the
Two central processing units are provided, and the second central processing unit is provided with the first central processing unit.
Number assigned to bit image data by logical means
Image output to the printer engine based on the
A bit image data selection section for selecting
From the bit image data, the input interface
Input interface identification when reading another number
Via the input interface identified by the number
Print completion message that outputs a print completion message to the host
A message output unit , wherein the bit image data selection unit
Of the bit image data stored in the
Select bit image data with a small
If there is more than one bit image data with a smaller job number
The bit image data based on the page number.
Printer device for selecting data. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second central processing means includes an
The bit image data stored in the image buffer is
Bit image to delete at the end of output to the linter engine
Data deletion function and this bit image data deletion unit
Caused by the deletion of bit image data by
Stored in the storage unit in a free area of the image buffer
Job number and page number of bit image data
Bit image data having a small identification number of
File management function to read out to the free area of the image buffer
The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising: