JP3061402B2 - Data transfer control method and device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] The present invention relates to a data transfer control method and apparatus in a device including a plurality of control processing units for handling image data, wherein image data is transferred between control processing units in an apparatus including two or more control processing units. It is intended to provide a data transfer control method and apparatus capable of reducing the number of transfers between control processing units when handling a large amount of data as described above, and provided with a data storage unit for receiving and storing data. One of the control processing units transfers the data to the other control processing unit for recognizing data in one or more times in accordance with the total amount of data to be transferred. The other control processing unit that determines an optimum one from a plurality of fixed transfer unit amounts that can be transferred at one time, notifies a transmission command including the transfer unit amount, and recognizes the data, Self control for command Determine the state of the processing section, and informs the control processor of one of the receiving state as a response signal including a reception possibility, the one of the control processing unit for configured to perform the transfer of data in response to the response signal.

The present invention relates to a data transfer control method and apparatus in an apparatus including a plurality of control processing units that handle image data.

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for a process of outputting multimedia data in a computer to a terminal, and conversely, a process of inputting multimedia data from a terminal into a computer. In particular, in the case of a system connected to various terminals using communication lines instead of terminals in the computer center, multimedia data should be output directly from the computer to the terminal or directly input from the terminal to the computer. Is almost impossible due to differences in interfaces, data formats, and the like, and increases the load on the host device.

For this purpose, a conversion device is provided at the back end or at an intermediate position.

[Prior Art] FIG. 5 shows a conventional system configuration example.

In A. of FIG. 5, 50 is a host device, 51 is a facsimile connection processing device, 52 is a public network, and 53 is a facsimile terminal.

In this system, a host device 50 processes data of code information, and a facsimile connection processing device 51 shown in the figure.
It inputs and outputs data based on the code information, and inputs various data from various terminals (not shown) and input / output devices, and outputs a processing result.

The facsimile connection processing device 51 transmits and receives image data to and from a terminal via a public network 52 and transmits and receives code data to and from the host device 50. The facsimile connection processing device 51 has a function of converting image data and code data to each other. Prepare.

In this system, when a form or the like in which characters or figures are written by the facsimile terminal 53 is input to the facsimile connection processing device 51 as image data, the written characters and symbols in the image data are recognized, and the recognition result is obtained. It is supplied to the host device 50 as code data. The host device 50 processes the input data and stores the data. Also, when necessary, for example, to request data, the stored data is taken out and output to the facsimile connection processing unit 51. Here, processing for creating image data based on the code information is performed. The image data is transmitted to the facsimile terminal 53 via the public network 52, and the facsimile terminal 53 receives the image data and can see it.

The contents of the facsimile connection processing device 51 are shown in the block configuration of B in FIG. System control unit 51 in it
0 controls the operation of each unit, a drawing processing unit 511 performs a drawing process based on code data to create image data, 512 denotes a data storage unit for storing image data and code data, and 513 denotes a public storage unit. A facsimile communication processing unit which is connected to a line and controls transmission and reception of image data to and from the terminal 53. Although not shown, a plurality of facsimile communication processing units are provided for a plurality of lines. Further, the facsimile connection processing device 51 is provided with a character recognition unit 514. This recognition unit includes a control processing unit such as a CPU and a memory. This character recognition unit 514 is a facsimile connection processing device 5
1 shows a case where the device is located outside, but belongs to the facsimile connection processing device 51.

In the facsimile connection processing device 51, the facsimile communication processing unit 513 controls the facsimile terminal 5 via a public line.
Receive image data from 3. The received image data is stored in the data storage unit 512. The stored image data is transferred to the character recognizing unit 514, and the characters in the image data are subjected to character recognition by the character recognizing unit 514, and the recognition result is used as code information in the system control unit.
Sent to 510. This code information is stored in the host device shown in A.
Sent to 50 for processing.

When the image data sent from the facsimile terminal is stored in the data storage unit 512 and then transmitted from the system control unit 510 to the character recognition unit 514 to execute character type recognition, the system control unit 510 and the character recognition unit 514 According to the protocol control between the host and the host device 50, only one fixed rate of 1 KB (kilobyte) or 4 KB adopted in the data transfer control of the communication between the system control unit 510 and the host device 50 can be used. Did not. Since code data is transferred between the host device 50 and the facsimile connection processing device 51, the code data is transferred at this rate. Also,
The code data of the recognition result is transferred from character recognition section 514 to system control section 510).

The protocol between the system control unit 510 and the character recognition unit 514 is such that when a transmission request (command) is issued from the system control unit 510 and a response indicating ready is returned from the character recognition unit 514, the system control unit The image data is transmitted from the 510 by a fixed length of 1 KB or 4 KB. In response,
A response indicating whether or not the reception has been successfully performed is returned from the character recognition unit 514. Then, subsequent data is sequentially transmitted from the system control unit 510 in the same procedure.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, in a device such as a facsimile connection processing device having two or more control processing units, a device that handles a large amount of image data (data that can be understood by humans) Fixed 1 in a form restricted by communication with the host device
An interface with a small number of transfers results in a reduction in processing speed. In particular, as the communication speed between host devices increases, the data transmission speed within the device has become a bottleneck in the overall processing capacity.

In other words, the image data received by the facsimile communication receives a large amount of data when data from a plurality of terminals are received at the same time. If the procedure according to the protocol is repeatedly executed each time the transfer is performed, the transfer time becomes longer than the processing speed.

The present invention provides a data transfer control method capable of reducing the number of transfers between control processing units when handling a large amount of data such as image data between control processing units in an apparatus having two or more control processing units. It is intended to provide a device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the principle of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes the first transmitting image data.
The control processing unit 11 receives image data to perform processing (for example, character recognition), and transmits a processing result as code data. The second control processing unit 12 represents a transfer path.

According to the present invention, when image data is transmitted, one data transfer amount corresponding to the amount of data to be transmitted is determined in advance, the amount is instructed to the other party, and a response including a preparation state for the same is received from the other party. Then, the image data is transmitted.

[Operation] When transferring image data to be processed by the second control processing unit 11, the first control processing unit 10 determines the amount of transfer data (transfer rate) at one time based on the amount of image data to be transferred. I do. In this case, the data amount is set to be suitable for effective use (use without waste) of the memory in the second control processing unit 11 and to reduce the number of transfers.

Transfer rates are 1KB, 2KB, 4KB, 8KB, 16KB, 32KB, 64KB,
There are 128KB etc. When the transfer rate is determined, the control data (used for the control of the second control processing unit) is transmitted as a transmission command from the first control processing unit 10 and includes the data indicating the transfer amount.
The data is transmitted to the second control processing unit 11 via the control unit 12. Upon receiving this, the second control processing unit 11 determines whether reception at the specified transfer rate is possible (for example, there is a memory capacity), and
A response signal including whether or not it is possible is returned.

When the first control processing unit 10 receives this and detects that reception is possible with the specified transfer amount, it extracts image data corresponding to the transfer rate notified in advance from the image data memory and transfers it. This is received by the second control processing unit 11, and if the data is successfully received, a response including the state is transmitted to the first control processing unit 10. The first control unit 10 similarly transmits the subsequent image data.

Transfer of other image data, other control data, and the like with different transfer amounts can be realized by transmitting a command specifying a transfer amount corresponding to the data amount and exchanging responses.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a transfer format of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is a transfer sequence diagram, and FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an apparatus in which the present invention is implemented.

In FIG. 2, A. represents a format of a transmission command (a command to receive the image data from the transmitting side) transmitted from the transmitting side of the image data to the other side. In this format, control data is stored in bytes 0 to 7, CONT is a counter value (representing data in a command), C is control (up / down command type), and CM is a control message (CM). : F: first, M: middle, L: last, O: only when command is sent in split
), CMD is a command indicating a command to the other party, RSV
Has a meaning of reserved (unused), and instruction data is stored after the last eighth byte. This includes a transfer amount instruction command, and the transfer amount is represented by “NN” (in each case of 4 bits in hexadecimal) of the ninth byte in the instruction. That
The amount of transfer is determined by which bit position in the 8 bits that make up the NN has a "1", and the most significant bit is 128 KB, the next bit position is 64 KB, meaning as shown in the figure. have.

If the transfer amount instruction command is not included in the transmission command, it is assumed that the transfer is 256B (byte).

When receiving the transmission command as shown in A., the other control processing device responds by creating a reception command including status data corresponding to the status of its own device.

 FIG. 2B shows the format.

The 0th, 1st, 3rd, and 3rd bytes of this reception command are COUNT, C, and CM, as in the transmission command.
(Answer) indicates response data, and state data is stored after the eighth. In this status data, status data including whether data of the transfer amount specified by the transfer amount instruction command can be accepted or not can be set.

Next, an example of a specific transfer sequence will be described with reference to FIG.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, when the control processing unit that holds the image data is the transmission side 30 and the control processing unit that receives the image data and performs character recognition and the like is the reception side 31, the image data is transmitted from the transmission side 30 to the transmission side 30. This is a sequence for transmitting 60 KB of data to the receiving side.

First, the transmitting side 30 selects a single transfer amount suitable for transferring a data amount of 60 KB. In this case, the transfer amount is 64
If it is set to KB, if the receiving side secures 64 KB as the memory capacity, 4 KB will be wasted (it cannot be used for other purposes), so the transmission instruction a instructing 32 KB as the transfer amount is transmitted.

On the other hand, the receiving instruction “b” including the status data indicating that the receiving side 31 is ready to receive (OK) is transmitted from the receiving side 31.
Sent to In response, the transmitting side 30 transmits the first data c in an amount of 32 KB. This data is
If 1 is received, reception was successful (reception OK)
And a response (reception command) d including status data indicating that the next data is ready to be received (NEXT-ready).
Upon receiving this, the calling party 30 then receives the remaining 28 KB of data e
Send Upon receiving this, the receiving side 30 returns a reception OK response f.

Next, after the transmission of the image data is completed,
If there is "command data" (data to be used for processing on the receiving side) to be transmitted next in the calling side 30, transmission instructing the receiving side 31 to set the transfer amount per transfer to 4KB Send command g. On the other hand, a response (receiving instruction) containing data corresponding to the command from the receiving side
When h returns, command data i is transmitted, and a response (+) returns. This “+” means “normal end of processing, permitting transition to next operation”. Hereinafter, transfer control is performed in a similar procedure.

Next, a specific configuration example in which the present invention is implemented is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 40 denotes a main unit, 41 denotes a character recognition unit, and both constitute a facsimile connection processing unit (corresponding to 51 in FIG. 5). Reference numeral 42 denotes a transfer path connecting them. It consists of a transfer path of 1 byte width.

The main device 40 performs facsimile communication by connecting to an interface with a host device (50 in FIG. 5) or a line, and transmits image data to the character recognition device 41 to receive the result. The character recognition device 41 receives image data and data necessary for character recognition, performs character recognition, and sends the result as code information.

In the main device 40, an interface 400 with the character recognition device 41 includes a driver and a receiver for mutually transferring signals via a transfer path 42 for transferring data and addresses. The main control unit 401 performs overall control, 402 is a processing unit for supporting the operation of the character recognition device 41, 403 is a memory for storing data including image data, and 404 is an image from code data (drawing) 405 for processing unit
A facsimile communication unit connected to a plurality of lines and communicating with a facsimile terminal, and a facsimile processing unit 406 processes facsimile image data to be transmitted and received. In the character recognition device 41, reference numeral 410 denotes an interface having functions similar to those of the above 400, 411 denotes a main control unit, 412 denotes a character recognition processing unit, 413 denotes a memory, and 414 denotes image data to be recognized from the main device 40. When data is received, reference data (a reference pattern or the like) for recognizing a character or the like corresponding to the image data is sent as a definition body, and is a definition body storage unit for storing it.

In operation, when the result of processing the received facsimile signal by the facsimile processing unit 406 is stored in the memory 403, the character recognition support processing unit 402 operates under the control of the main control unit 401, and the processing for the character recognition device 41 is performed. To start. In this case, the amount of image data to be subjected to character recognition is determined. This amount is known from the difference between the addresses of the memories.

When the amount of image data stored in the memory 403 is known, a transmission command (A in FIG. 2) including a transfer amount instruction is created in the main control unit 401, and the character recognition support processing unit 40
2 transmitted from the interface 400.

In response to this, the main control unit 411 of the character recognition device 41 determines the use state of the memory 413, the state of the character recognition processing unit 412, and creates a reception command (B in FIG. 2). Sent from the interface 410.

In response to the transmission command, if the reception command indicates that the status information indicates that reception preparation is OK, under the control of the main control unit 401, the image data of one transfer amount selected as described above is continuously transmitted from the memory 403, and the character In the recognition device 41, these are sequentially stored in the memory.
Store it in 413. When the image data transfer is completed,
The character recognition support processing unit 402 of the main device 40 performs transfer of a definition required for character recognition, transfer of command data, and the like. The result of recognition by the character recognition device 41 is transmitted in response to a command from the main device.

According to the present invention, in an apparatus having two or more control processing units, when image data having a large data amount and different sizes is transferred between the control processing units, the total amount of data is reduced. By arbitrarily changing the value, the number of transfers can be reduced to shorten the transfer control time, and as a result, the data transmission speed can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a transfer format of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is a transfer sequence diagram, FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an apparatus in which the present invention is implemented, and FIG. It is a system configuration example. In FIG. 1, 10: first control processing unit 11: second control processing unit 12: transfer path

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 13/38-13/42 G06F 13/12 340

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] In a data transfer control method for an apparatus including a plurality of control processing units for handling data, one control processing unit having a data storage unit for receiving and storing data is used for the other control processing unit for recognizing data. Since the data is transferred to the control processing unit in one or more times corresponding to the total amount of data to be transferred, the transfer amount to be transferred at one time is
The other control processing unit that determines the optimum one from a plurality of fixed transfer unit amounts that can be transferred at one time, notifies a transmission command including the transfer unit amount, and recognizes the data, In response to the command, the state of the self-control processing unit is determined, and the reception state including whether or not reception is possible is notified to the one control processing unit as a response signal, and the one control processing unit transfers data according to the response signal. A data transfer control method characterized by performing. 2. A data transfer control device for performing data transfer with another device, comprising: a data storage unit for storing transmission / reception data at the time of data transfer; According to the data amount, an optimum one is selected from a plurality of fixed transfer unit amounts that can be transferred at one time, a transmission command including the transfer unit amount is notified, and a response from the transfer partner is sent. The subsequent transfer is controlled in accordance with the reception availability information included in the signal, and when data is received, the reception status including the reception availability information is notified as a response signal to the transmission command based on the status of the data storage unit. A data transfer control device, comprising: