JP3264408B2 - 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 for forming an image in accordance with print data received from a host computer, and more particularly to print control for a printer having a plurality of different interfaces such as a network, a serial port, and a parallel port. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There has been proposed a printer device having a plurality of interfaces for communicating with a host computer, and controlling print contention requested by these interfaces to perform print processing. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-1133
Japanese Patent Publication No. 27 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-225067 disclose an image forming apparatus or a page printer that sets and stores the priority of data processing of an interface and performs a printing process in accordance with the priority. Further, in the image forming apparatus or the page printer described in the above publication, the data of a specific interface can be interrupt-printed by switching the priority order by the operator.

The interface includes, for example, a printer that receives print data in a buffer by handshaking, such as Centronics and RS232C, and a printer that spools print data as file data, such as lpd (line printer daemon) or NetWare (Novell). , Ap
In some printers, such as pleTalk (Apple Computer), a host computer establishes a connection with a printer and interactively generates and transmits print data while inquiring for resources such as fonts of the printer. In an interface such as lpd or NetWare in which print data is spooled as file data, delay in print processing of print data does not cause a serious problem. In an interface such as Centronics or RS232C that receives print data in a buffer by handshaking, the delay is not a problem if the print processing delay of the received print data is within a finite time smaller than the timeout value of the host computer. Since the delay does not matter in these interfaces, the priority of the interface may be set and stored, and the data processing of the interface may be executed according to the priority, like the image forming apparatus or the page printer described in the above-mentioned publication. However, in an interface such as AppleTalk that interactively generates print data, if the execution of data processing is delayed after the connection is opened,
Since the host computer keeps waiting for a response from the printer device to the inquiry about resources such as fonts, it is difficult for the host computer to generate print data and terminate the connection. In order not to wastefully hold the connection, it is necessary to open the connection only when the data processing can be executed immediately when the interface receives the connection opening request from the host computer. In an image forming apparatus or a page printer, Appl
If an interactive interface such as eTalk is set as an interrupt interface and interrupt data processing is performed after a connection is established, data processing can be performed immediately. However, in the image forming apparatus or the page printer described in the above-described prior art, since only one interrupt interface can be set, it is not possible to have a plurality of interactive interfaces that require immediate execution of data processing. Even if a plurality of interfaces are set as the interrupt interface, interrupt data processing competes and one data processing is interrupted. Also, utilizing the fact that the host computer sends a connection opening request at a fixed time interval until a connection is opened, when a connection opening request is received, a print job request is queued with a certain priority. If it is not possible to register and execute the data processing during the immediate execution determination time, it is possible to respond by deleting the print job request from the queue and rejecting the connection request. Is registered in the queue, if the immediate execution determination time of the data processing is the same, the data processing success rate of the interface becomes uneven according to the queue registration order or timing.
Further, when the immediate execution determination time of the data processing is different, the data processing success rate of the interface, that is, the connection establishment success rate becomes uneven according to the determination time.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a problem in that, when there are a plurality of interfaces that require immediate execution of data processing in an interactive manner, the same priority is set for these interfaces. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer device that accepts an opening request and uniformly executes a printing process.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer apparatus having a plurality of interfaces for communicating with a host apparatus, and sequentially performing print processing of print jobs requested from the interfaces set in priority order according to the priority order. A time setting means for setting and storing a timeout time T of the print processing for each print job requested from the interface, and rejecting the print job requested from the interface when the print processing cannot be executed after the timeout time T Rejecting means, measuring means for measuring and storing the number of rejections and the number of times the rejecting means has rejected the specific print job requested from the interface, and the rejection continuation time, and each print job requested from the interface The rejection continuation count measured and stored by A printer and control means for executing a print job to favor large print job of absolute duration. Further, the above-mentioned control means is a printer apparatus having means for rearranging the registration order of the queue of the print job in accordance with the measurement value measured and stored by the measurement means for the print job requested from the interface. Further, the control unit registers, in a queue, a print job with a larger measured value measured and stored by the measuring unit for the print job requested from the interface, and registers a print job with a smaller measured value. Is deleted from the queue.

[0006]

In the printer device according to the present invention, when the print processing cannot be executed after the timeout time T set and stored by the time setting storage means after the print job is requested from the interface, the rejection means rejects the print processing and specifies this. The measurement means measures and stores the number of rejections or the rejection continuation time for the print job, and the control means controls the print job with the larger number of rejections or the rejection continuation time to give priority to the print job. Even when there are a plurality of interfaces that need to be executed immediately, it is possible to equally accept a connection opening request in those interfaces that have been set to the same priority and execute print processing uniformly among the interfaces.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer device of the present invention. Host computers 23 to 27
Communicates with the printer via the interfaces 2 to 4. Print job management unit 5 corresponding to the interface
7 manage the communication data of the interface in print job units, and the priority order setting units 8 to 10 set the priority order for each print job. The time setting units 11 to 13 set the rejection determination timeout time T for each print job. The measurement units 14 to 16 measure the number of times or the number of times a print job requested by the interface is continuously rejected. When a print job is requested from the interface, the control unit 18 registers the job request in the queue 19 in the order of reception according to the set priority. The timer unit 17 measures the time by the timer after the job request is registered in the queue 19, and notifies the control unit 18 when the timer is activated when the rejection determination time-out time T is reached. The control unit 18 changes or deletes the job registration order in the queue 19 according to the rejection continuation number or the rejection continuation time measured by the measurement units 14 to 16. If a job whose time has been measured by the timer unit remains in the queue unit 19 without executing the printing process, the control unit 18 rejects the job, removes the job from the queue unit 19, and rejects the job. To the measuring units 14 to 16. Print processing control unit 20
When a print process becomes executable, a job request registered in the queue unit 19 is taken out from the head, and a decoder 21 that decodes data to generate an image and a printing unit 22 that forms the image are provided. The print job is controlled to execute the print processing of this job.

Next, the job request operation of the interfaces 2 to 4 will be described. In each of the interfaces 2 to 4, the print job unit differs depending on the communication protocol. For example, when the interface is RS-232C or Centronics, since the print job is not divided as a file, it is detected as a time-out that no unit time data is received after the data is first received from the host computer. Until the received data is treated as a print job. When the interface is lpd or NetWare, the data file is a unit of one print job. When the interface is AppleTalk, the period from the establishment of a connection to the end of the connection is a print job unit. The print job management units 5 to 7 detect the start of the job and the end of the job, and manage the data received by the interface in job units. For example, RS-23
In 2C or Centronics, a job request is made when the first 1-byte data is received. Also lpd, NetW
In are and AppleTalk, a job request is made when job request data regulated by a protocol is received.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining an example of the hardware configuration of the printer of the present invention. The CPU 31 has interfaces 2 to 4 having different functions connected to the host computers 23 to 27. The CPU 31 is a device that controls the printer device 1 based on an instruction from the ROM 32 in which the control means is stored. A memory for the operation of the CPU, a memory for the queuing unit, and the like are configured. The operation unit 34 is a part for performing various settings and instructions to the printer device 1. The timer 35 has a function of measuring the time from when a print job is requested to when the print job is registered in a queue. The printing unit 22 is a device that forms an image, and the printing unit 22 is a device that executes a printing process.

[0010] The job request is accompanied by data as shown in FIG. 3 and a message is sent to the control unit 18 for controlling the queue. In the figure, a message ID 100 is for identifying the content of a message, and in this case, is a message identification number of a job request. The interface identification number 101 indicates the identification number of the interface that has issued the job request. The interface job identification number 102 is a job identification number unique to the interface for distinguishing the job requested by each interface. When the control unit 18 rejects the job, the interface job identification number in the job request rejection message The interface manages jobs in the interface based on the number 102.

The priority 103 is determined by the priority setting units 8 to 1
The priority of the job set by 0. The priority order setting units 8 to 10 set the priority order for the job when the priority order is set by the host according to the protocol of the interface 2 to 4, but otherwise set the priority order to the interface 2 to 4 in advance. Set the assigned priority to the job. The timeout time 104 is
This is a timeout time for rejection determination of a job set by the time setting units 11 to 13, and is specified in seconds. Here, when the value is 0 second, it is defined as an infinite time. For example, in lpd or NetWare, the value is set to 0 second. In the case of RS232C or Centronics, the value is set to 0 second or a value corresponding to the timeout period of the host computer. If the interface is AppleTalk, it is set to 2 seconds. The rejection continuation parameter 105 includes the measurement unit 14
The number of times of continuous rejection or the time of continuous rejection of the job request in the interface measured and stored by .about.16 is set.

Next, the operation of the control unit 18 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The control unit 18 is in a message reception waiting state in S1, and upon receiving a message, proceeds to S2. S2 is the message I of the received message
Identify from D that it is a job request message. If it is determined in S2 that the received message is a job request message, it is checked in S3 whether the value of the timeout time 104 of the job request message is 0. Since the value 0 of the timeout time 104 indicates an infinite time, if the value is 0, the process proceeds to S6 without activating the timer of the timer unit 17, and the job request is registered in the queue unit 19. If the timeout time 104 is not the value 0, the process proceeds to S4, and the timer of the timer unit 17 is started with the value of the timeout time 104. At this time, since the identification number of the timer of the activated timer unit 17 is returned from the timer unit, the timer ID is obtained. Timer ID = 0 means that there is no start timer, and the timeout time 1
If the value of 04 is 0, timer ID = 0.
In S6, the job request is registered in the queue unit 19. At this time, the control unit 18 allocates the job management numbers to the registered job requests so that the job management numbers are measured in the order of registration.

As shown in FIG. 5, job requests are registered in the queuing section 19 in the order of smaller priority values (1 to 15). FIG. 5 shows a queued job request registration model. Here, the reception time is the time at which the job request is registered, and is the time in the printer. The next step S7 is a step of rearranging the registration order of the job requests in the queues according to the value of the rejection continuation parameter 104 in the same priority order queue. For example, a job request 204 is newly registered as in the queue model 300 (S6).
However, since the rejection continuation parameter of the job request 204 is larger than that of the job request 202, the job request 204 is rearranged before the job request 202 like the queue model 301 (S7). As another operation, the smaller rejection continuation parameter can be deleted in S7. In this case, the new job request 204 (job management number = 4) has a rejection continuation parameter larger than the rejection continuation parameter of the job request 202 having the same priority, so that the job request 202 with the smaller rejection continuation parameter is deleted. Thus, the queue model 302 can be used. After S7 ends, the process returns to S1. S8 is a step of identifying whether the received message is a job request deletion message. If the received message is a job request deletion message, the process proceeds to S9; otherwise, the process proceeds to S1.

When the timer of the timer section 17 operates, FIG.
Is transmitted to the control unit 18. S9 is the timer ID 40 of the job request deletion message
From queue 1, queue the job request with that timer ID.
9 to delete. In S10, a job request rejection message as shown in FIG. 7 is issued to the interface that issued the deleted job request. Measuring units 14-16
Measures the rejection continuation count or rejection continuation time of the rejected job request by using the job request rejection message. The timer unit 17 assigns a unique timer ID to the timer started by the control unit 18 and returns the timer ID to the control unit. When the started timer operates, a job request deletion message as shown in FIG.

When the print processing of the print job becomes possible, the print processing control section 20 controls the decoder 21 and the print section 22 to execute the print processing of the job relating to the job request registered at the head of the queue section 19. . At this time, the interface of the interface identification number of the job request registered in the queue unit 19 is connected to the decoder 21.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the measurement units 14 to 16 measure and store the number of rejection continuations or the rejection continuation time of a job request. It is also possible to substitute the time with the print request waiting time of the host computer.

[0017]

As described above, the printer device of the present invention is
Even if there are multiple interfaces that require immediate execution of data processing in an interactive manner, it is possible to receive a connection opening request equally on those interfaces with the same priority and to execute print processing evenly between the interfaces. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the printer device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a job request message.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a control unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a registration state of a job request in a queue.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a job request rejection message.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a job request rejection message.

[Description of Signs] 1 ... Printer device, 2-4 ... Interface, 5-7 ...
Mark 10: priority setting section, 11 to 13: time setting section, 1
4 to 16: measuring unit, 17: timer unit, 18: control unit, 1
9 queue, 20 print processing control unit, 21 decoder, 22 printing unit, 23-27 host computer,
31 CPU, 32 ROM, 33 RAM, 34 operation unit, 35 timer

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printer device having a plurality of interfaces for communicating with a host device, and sequentially performing print processing of print jobs requested from the interfaces whose priorities have been set in accordance with the priorities. Time setting means for setting and storing for each print job requested from the interface, rejection means for rejecting the print job requested from the interface when the print job cannot be executed after the timeout time T, A measurement unit that measures and stores the number of rejections and the rejection duration, which are the number and time of rejection by the rejection unit for a specific print job, and a measurement unit that measures each print job requested from the interface. Remember the number of rejections or the rejection duration Printer apparatus characterized by comprising: a control means for executing a print job to favor listening print job, the.