JP2956644B2 - Printer memory distribution management system and method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a printer memory allocation management system and method, and more particularly to a printer memory allocation management system and method for allocating printer memory for various uses.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of printer memory distribution management system has a configuration as shown in FIG. 7, for example, in which a user manually sets beforehand by a memory distribution setting means of an operation panel before printing. (See, for example,
-238968). In this case, the user operates the operation key switch 30 on the operation panel 304 before printing.
6, the memory allocation is manually set, and the setting is confirmed on the liquid crystal display panel 305. Thereby, the RAM 31
The memory allocation change of 0 was realized.

In another conventional printer memory distribution management system, printer memory is allocated based on user's history information in accordance with the procedures shown in FIGS. Issue publication). In this case, the number of jobs and the average job size of each port (S80 to S80)
82), the number of simultaneous access users (S83), the average jump size (S84), the number of virtual memory failures (S85), and the number of cache reuse fonts (S86).

Subsequently, the receiving buffer size (S87),
Replication buffer (S88), re-allocation of recovered memory (S88)
89) is recommended. The user determines whether or not to perform the automatic change (S90), and if so, executes the change (S91). Display of change result (S9
3) can also be selected by the user (S92). If the automatic change is not to be performed, the change is performed in time with the user (S94 to S97).

[0005]

However, such a conventional printer memory distribution management system has the following problems. First, the first problem is that it cannot be used with an optimal memory allocation according to data. The reason is that the memory allocation is changed based on the history used by the user in the past. In addition, if the user changes the memory allocation by himself, it is necessary to know the optimum allocation method.

The second problem is that memory cannot be automatically allocated without the user's awareness. The reason is that the user must change the memory allocation using the operation panel of the printer. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer memory distribution management system capable of effectively utilizing the memory of a printer without being conscious of a user and performing high-speed printing.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a printer memory distribution management system according to the present invention uses an application running on a computer.
The various commands that make up the generated application data
Command number and data amount
Information collecting means for counting by type and this information collecting means
Number of commands for each command type obtained by
Data amount and storage for each preset command type
Command threshold value indicating the upper limit of the number of commands, and each command
Printer memos for each application based on the weight for each type
Memory allocation determining means for determining allocation of memory, and the memory
Based on the memory allocation determined by the allocation determination means,
Printer memory before printing application data.
With memory management means to allocate to each application
is there. Therefore, the application generated
Based on application data structure, for each purpose
The printer memory allocation is determined and the application
Before printing data, the printer memory is
Distributed.

In addition, on the computer, on the computer
Application generated by running application
Of the various commands that make up the
That aggregates data and data volume for each command type
Collection means and each command obtained by this information collection means
The number of commands and data amount of each
Command indicating the upper limit of the number of stored commands for each command type
Command threshold and the weight for each command type,
Memory allocation that determines printer memory allocation for each application
And a printer to notify the printer of print data.
Memory allocation previously notified by the memory allocation determining means
Based on the allocation information, the printer memory is allocated for each application.
It is provided with a memory management means for dividing the memory. Accordingly
The memory allocation decision means of the computer
Printers for various applications based on the configuration of application data
The memory allocation is determined and the memory management means of the printer is determined.
Memory allocation decision prior to print data notification.
Based on the memory allocation information notified from the stage,
The center memory is allocated to various uses.

[0009] Also, in the computer, on the computer
Application generated by running application
Of the various commands that make up the
That aggregates data and data volume for each command type
Equipped with a collection unit, which notifies the printer of print data
Command type notified by the information collection means
Number of commands and data amount, and each preset command type
Command threshold value indicating the upper limit of the number of storage commands for each
And the weight for each command type
Allocation determining means for determining the allocation of printer memory to the printer
And the memory allocation determined by the memory allocation determining means.
Allocate printer memory for various purposes based on minutes
And a memory management means. Therefore,
The application data collection means
Data indicating the data configuration is collected and stored in the printer memory.
Information collection prior to notification of print data
Based on the information notified from the collection means
Memory allocation is determined and this determined memory allocation
Based on the printer's memory management means
Memory is allocated for various uses.

[0010] Further, the memory allocation determination means may be configured to execute a command
Number of commands exceeding the command threshold for each type
, The amount of data, and the weight
Based on the product comparison for each command type, the printer
It is designed to determine the distribution of moly. Accordingly
Command types that make up the application data
For each command, the number of commands that exceed the command threshold,
The product of the data amount and the weight is calculated, and
Based on the product comparison for each command type,
The distribution of resources is determined.

[0011] A printer memory distribution management method according to the present invention.
Is dependent on the application running on the computer.
The various commands that make up the generated application data
Command number and data amount
Aggregated by type, each command obtained by this aggregation
The number of commands and data amount for each type, and
Command indicating the upper limit of the number of stored commands for each command type
Command threshold and the weight for each command type.
The printer memory allocation for each application
Application data based on the allocated memory allocation
Prior to printing, allocate printer memory for various purposes.
That's what I did. So on the computer
Applications output from applications running on
Printer data for each application based on the configuration of the application data
Memory allocation is determined and based on the determined memory allocation.
Before printing the application data.
Memory is allocated for each application.

[0012]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer memory distribution management system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
It comprises a computer 1 such as a host or a server and a printer 2 such as a page printer. The computer 1 includes an application 11, a printer driver 12, a memory allocation determining unit 13, a spooler 14,
And a higher-level communication unit 15.

The application 11 is a means for creating application data to be printed, which is composed of characters, figures, photographs, pictures, and the like. Specific examples include software such as a word processor, spreadsheet, draw drawing, and paint drawing. is there. The printer driver 12 is a means for converting application data created by the application 11 into print data composed of various commands to be executed by the printer 2. For example, in a Windows environment, the printer driver 12 is provided by a printer manufacturer or a Windows manufacturer.

The memory allocation determining means 13 determines the memory allocation of the printer 2, and determines the memory allocation based on the data configuration of the print data and the type information of the application. A spooler 14 for temporarily storing print data created by the printer driver 12;
The upper communication unit 15 is a unit that transmits and receives data to and from the lower communication unit 21 of the printer 2.

On the other hand, the printer 2
, A memory management means 22, a memory 23, and a program ROM 24. The lower communication means 21 is a means for transmitting and receiving data to and from the upper communication means 15, the memory management means 22 is a means for managing the memory allocation of the memory 23 based on the memory allocation information determined by the memory allocation determining means 13, a program ROM 24. Is means for performing print data analysis processing.

The memory 23 is a means for storing various types of data, and is used for purposes such as a purpose A memory 23A, a purpose B memory 23B, a purpose C memory 23C,..., And a purpose N memory 23N. The use-specific memories of the memory 23 are used, for example, as reception data memory, transmission data memory, character font memory, form memory, intermediate data memory, drawing data memory, and the like.

In each memory in the memory 23, a minimum required capacity is secured in advance, and other unsecured memory capacities are allocated to the memory in each application. Further, an upper limit of memory allocation may be set for each memory for each application. That is, the capacity of the memory for each application is represented by the basic memory capacity + the extended memory capacity, and the memory capacity is allocated based on the configuration of the application data and the type of the application. Note that it is not always necessary to secure the basic memory capacity for each application, and it is also possible to use all memories as extended memories.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention. First, the user instructs to start printing of application data created by the application 11 of the computer 1 (S21). In response, the application data is sequentially converted into print data via the printer driver 12 and stored in the spooler 14.

Upon completion of the conversion into the print data, the printer driver 12 analyzes the structure of the print data, for example, the structure of character data, graphic data, image data, and the like, and sends the information to the memory allocation determining means 13. Notification is made (S22). Subsequently, the memory allocation determining unit 13 determines the printer memory allocation based on the information (S2).
3). For example, when the total data amount is large, the memory for received data is increased, and when there are many characters, the memory for fonts is increased.

The memory distribution allocation information determined in this way is transmitted to the printer 2 first by the print data stored in the spooler 14 via the upper communication means 15 (S24). On the other hand, the printer 2 receives the memory allocation assignment information from the computer 1 by the lower-level communication unit 21,
The memory management unit 22 changes the memory distribution of the memory 23 (S25).

In response to the end of the change of the memory distribution, the memory management unit 22 sets the lower communication unit 21 and the computer 1
The memory allocation determining means 13 via the upper communication means 15
Is notified of the end of the memory distribution (S26). Subsequently, the memory allocation determination unit 13 notifies the printer driver 12 of a print data transmission start command, and the printer driver 12 notifies the spooler 14 of the end of the processing of the printer driver 12.

As a result, the print data stored in the spooler 14 is sent to the printer 2 via the upper communication means 15 (S27). In the printer 2, data is stored in the application A memory 23 </ b> A of the memory 23 via the lower communication unit 21. Therefore, the program ROM 24 obtains the memory allocation information from the memory management means 22, and optimizes the application B memory 23B, the application C memory 23C to the application N
The print data is analyzed using the memory 23N or the like, and printing is started in accordance with the completion of the drawing data (S2).
8).

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of memory allocation in the memory allocation determining means 13, and allocation is determined by a procedure as shown in FIG. First, based on the total data amount of the print data obtained through the printer driver 12, the expansion memory capacity of the reception data memory is calculated (S41). Print data consists of characters, figures, and images.
There are three main commands. First, the number of commands for each command is counted by counting the number of received data memories required (S42).

A basic memory capacity is set in the memory for each application, and the upper limit of the number of commands that can be accommodated is set in advance as a command threshold. Next, the data amount for each command is totaled (S43), the weighting set in advance by the printer characteristics, the number of commands exceeding the command threshold value, and the data amount are integrated (S44), and the calculation is performed. Compare the results. Now, based on the result of this comparison, memory allocation is performed within the range of the upper limit of the expanded memory capacity (S45).

As another example of the memory allocation in the memory allocation determining means 13, the memory allocation may be performed as follows. When the application data of the application 11 is converted into print data by the printer driver 12, the type information of the application is notified. From the application type information, determine whether the application that output the application data is a word processor, spreadsheet, draw-based software, paint-based software, etc., and determine the most suitable memory for each application used for that type of application data. It is also possible to perform memory allocation.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a printer memory distribution management system according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and the same or equivalent parts as those described above (see FIG. 1) are denoted by the same reference numerals. This embodiment is characterized in that the computer 1 is provided with a command / data information collecting unit 16 and the printer 2 is provided with a memory distribution determining unit 25 as compared with the first embodiment.

The command / data information collecting means 16 of the computer 1 is a means for collecting information necessary for determining the memory allocation of the printer, for example, information such as the configuration of application data and the type of application. The memory allocation determining unit 25 of the printer 2 is a unit that determines the memory allocation configuration of the printer 2 based on the information collected by the command / data information collecting unit 16 of the computer 1.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention. First, the user instructs to start printing of application data created by the application 11 of the computer 1 (S61). In response, the application data is sequentially converted into print data via the printer driver 12 and stored in the spooler 14.

In response to the completion of the conversion in the printer driver 12, the printer driver 12 analyzes the type of the application and the structure of the print data, for example, the structure of character data, graphic data, and image data. The information collection means 16 is notified (S
62). Subsequently, the collected data is transmitted to the printer 2 via the upper communication means 15 before the print data stored in the spooler 14 for use in memory allocation (S63).

In the printer 2, the collected data to be used for memory allocation is received from the computer 1 by the lower communication means 21, and the printer memory allocation is determined by the memory allocation determining means 25 (S64). Then, the memory management unit 22 changes the memory distribution of the memory 23 (S65).

In response to the end of the change of the memory allocation, the memory management means 22 sends the memory allocation to the command / data information collecting means 16 via the memory allocation determining means 25, the lower communication means 21 and the upper communication means 15 of the computer 1. The end is notified (S66). Further, the command / data information collecting unit 16 transmits a print data transmission start command to the printer driver 12, and the printer driver 12 notifies the spooler 14 of the end of the processing of the printer driver 12.

As a result, the print data stored in the spooler 14 is transmitted to the printer 2 via the upper communication means 15 (S67). In the printer 2, the lower communication means 21
The data is held in the application A memory 23A of the memory 23 via the. Accordingly, the program ROM 24 obtains the memory allocation information from the memory management unit 22, analyzes the print data using the optimized use B memory 23B, use C memory 23C to use N memory 23N, etc. Printing is started upon completion of the drawing data (S
68).

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the memory allocation determination for determining the allocation of the printer memory for each application on the basis of the type of the application running on the computer or the configuration of the application data output from the application. Means for allocating printer memories for various uses prior to printing of application data based on the memory allocation determined by the memory allocation determining means. Therefore, it is possible to perform an optimal memory allocation according to application data to be printed, as compared with a case where a memory allocation is determined based on a history of a user's use in the past as in the related art. Further, compared with the case where the user allocates memory by a predetermined operation as in the related art, the memory of the printer can be effectively utilized without requiring the user to be conscious without requiring the user to know the optimal allocation method. .

In the memory allocation determining means, the difference between the number of commands of various commands constituting the print data generated from the application data, the command threshold value set for each command, the data amount for each command, , Based on the product of the weights for each command,
Since the allocation of the printer memory is determined, the memory capacity required for each command can be accurately grasped, and the optimum allocation of the printer memory for the application data to be printed can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer memory distribution management system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of memory distribution.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a memory allocation determination procedure.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a printer memory distribution management system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional printer memory distribution management system.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing another conventional printer memory distribution management method.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Computer, 11 ... Application, 12 ... Printer driver, 13 Memory allocation determination means, 14 ... Spooler, 15 ... Upper communication means, 16 ... Command / data information collection means, 2 ... Printer, 21 ... Lower communication means, 22
... Memory management means, 23 ... Memory, 23A to 23N ...
Application A memory to Application N memory, 24 ... Program RO
M, 25: memory allocation determining means.

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-9-254458 (JP, A) JP-A-3-163621 (JP, A) JP-A-2-238968 (JP, A) JP-A-9-34658 (JP) JP-A-7-96637 (JP, A) JP-A-6-91951 (JP, A) JP-A-6-24054 (JP, A) JP-A-5-324220 (JP, A) 7-314800 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 5/30 G06F 3/12 G06F 12/02 510

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printer memory allocation management system for allocating printer memory according to various uses , which is generated by an application operating on a computer.
Commands that make up application data
Number of commands and data amount for each command type
And an information collection means for counting the command types obtained by the information collection means.
The number of commands and data amount, and each preset command
Command threshold that indicates the maximum number of stored commands for each command type
Memory allocation determining means for determining the allocation of the printer memory for each application based on the value and the weight for each command type; and based on the memory allocation determined by the memory allocation determining means, prior to printing the application data. And a memory management means for allocating the printer memory for each application. 2. A computer that generates and outputs print data composed of various commands from application data output from an application, and a printer that performs printing based on various commands of the print data notified from the computer. In a printer memory allocation management system that allocates printer memory according to various uses, the computer is generated by an application running on the computer
Commands that make up application data
Number of commands and data amount for each command type
Information collecting means for counting the number of commands, and commands of each command type obtained by the information collecting means.
Number of commands and data amount, and each preset command type
Command threshold value indicating the upper limit of the number of storage commands for each
And memory allocation determining means for determining the allocation of printer memory for each application based on the weight for each command type . The printer is provided with a memory allocation notified from the memory allocation determining means prior to notification of print data. A printer memory distribution management system, comprising: a memory management means for allocating printer memories for various uses based on allocation information. 3. A computer that generates and outputs print data composed of various commands from application data output from an application, and a printer that performs printing based on various commands of the print data notified from the computer. In a printer memory allocation management system that allocates printer memory according to various uses, the computer is generated by an application running on the computer
Commands that make up application data
Number of commands and data amount for each command type
The printer is notified by the information collection unit prior to the notification of the print data.
The number of commands and the amount of data for each command type
Set the upper limit of the number of stored commands for each set command type.
Command thresholds and weights for each command type
And a memory management means for allocating printer memory for each application based on the memory allocation determined by the memory allocation determination means. Characteristic printer memory distribution management system. 4. The printer memory distribution management system according to claim 1, wherein the memory distribution determining means exceeds a command threshold for each command type.
Calculate the product of the number of commands, data amount and weight
Then, based on the comparison of the products for each of these command types,
A printer memory distribution management system, which determines the distribution of printer memory. 5. A printer memory allocation management method for allocating printer memory for various uses, wherein the printer memory is generated by an application running on a computer.
Commands that make up application data
Command number and the amount of data you each command type of
And the command for each command type obtained by this aggregation.
Number and data amount , and preset command types
Command threshold value indicating the upper limit of the number of stored commands
A printer characterized by determining printer memory allocation for each application based on a weight for each command type, and allocating printer memory for each application prior to printing of application data based on the determined memory allocation. Memory allocation management method.