JP3304073B2 - PRINT CONTROL METHOD, PRINT CONTROL DEVICE, AND PRINT SYSTEM - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control method and a printing method.
The present invention relates to a printing control device and a printing system , and particularly to a laser printer, an LED (light emitting diode) printer, and an LCS.
(Liquid crystal shutter) a page printer and a shuttle printer such as a printer, a printing control method for printing high-speed and
The present invention relates to a printing control device and a printing system .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a print control apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 63-158481 and 1-282747, a print command string is received from a host computer, drawing is performed on a page buffer, and drawing is performed. The printing of the completed page buffer is performed in parallel, thereby increasing the printing throughput to the maximum performance of the printer. The highest performance of this printer has been achieved if the drawing time per page is approximately equal to or less than the printer mechanism printing time per page (the shortest printing time for one page).

In the print control apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-263055, one page is divided into a plurality of areas.
A dedicated drawing processor is prepared for each area, and each independently draws each area to improve the drawing performance.
You were trying to speed up page printing. With this device, even if the drawing time per page exceeds the printer mechanism printing time per page, printing performance can be improved by printing only one page (first print).

In the print control apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-263051, one page is divided into a plurality of areas.
Either a character drawing processor or a graphic drawing processor is assigned to each area, and each processor independently draws each area to improve drawing performance and speed up printing of one page.

[0005] In addition, as a conventional technique for performing print control using a plurality of processors, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-263051 has been disclosed.
JP-A-1-263055, JP-A-2-63852
And Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-108567.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The aforementioned Japanese Patent Application No. 63-15 / 1988
No. 8481 and Japanese Patent Application No. 1-282747 have a problem that when the drawing time per page generally exceeds the printing time of the printer mechanism per page, the print throughput is lower than the maximum performance of the printer.

Further, in the above-mentioned JP-A 1-263055 and JP-A 1-263051, although the drawing performance of only one page is high, the printing contents of each page are different because the drawing and printing are not performed in parallel. When printing a document composed of a plurality of pages continuously (hereinafter, simply referred to as continuous printing), there is a problem that the maximum performance of the printer cannot be obtained.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 1-263051, when each page is composed of only characters or figures, the graphic drawing processor or the character drawing processor is useless, so that the drawing performance cannot be improved and the printing of one page is sufficiently fast. There was a problem that can not be converted.

Further, in any of the above-mentioned prior arts using a plurality of processors, there is no description about a technique in which a plurality of processors draw different pages in parallel when a document including a plurality of pages having different print contents is continuously printed. There was a problem that was not mentioned.

An object of the present invention, a printing control method and printing control apparatus and printing system can be improved printing performance when printing continuously document consisting of several pages
It is to provide a beam.

[0011]

According to the present invention, a printing method is provided.
Print information based on command sequence to print engine
The print control method to be output, and the format information of each page
To the format information of the page before the page or the
Obtaining from the print command, the command sequence and the previous
The format information of each page obtained in the step
Assigned to each processor
, The print command sequence and the format information of each page
Bitmaps are developed in parallel based on the
Generating print information for each page;
Each of the processors finishes expanding to a bitmap
And receiving the deployment completion notification,
Print information is output to the print engine in a predetermined order
Printing control method, comprising the steps of:
A law is provided. Also, according to the present invention, a print command
Output print information based on columns to the print engine
A first processor and one
The first processor comprising the second processor described above.
Indicates the format information of each page
The print information obtained from the formula information or the print command of the page.
The command string and the format information of each page are converted into page units.
And assigning each of the second processors.
End of print information generation from the second processor
Receive notification on a page-by-page basis and store print information for the page.
Output to the print engine in a predetermined order,
Sessas are each assigned from the first processor.
Based on the specified page unit format information and the print command string.
And develop bitmaps in parallel in page units
Generate print information and indicate the end of bitmap development
A printing apparatus for notifying a first processor
Is provided. Further, according to the present invention, a print command
Printing system that prints print information based on columns
And a first processor unit and one or more second processors.
A print engine unit, and a print engine unit.
The processor unit converts the format information of each page into a format before the page.
From the page format information or the print command of the page
The print command sequence and the format information of each page,
For each second processor unit in page units.
, And from the second processor unit,
Receiving the end notification of the generation of the
Print information to the print engine in a predetermined order
And the second processor units each include the first processor.
Format information and marks for each page assigned by the processor
Based on the printing command sequence
Generate print information by expanding the map, and
Notifying the first processor unit of the end of the map deployment,
The print engine unit is provided by the first processor unit.
Print the print information output in a predetermined order
Is provided.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A print control method according to the present invention is a print control method in which a print command over a plurality of pages is stored in a command buffer, and a plurality of processors perform drawing processing and print processing of each page in accordance with the print command. When sequentially assigning the page drawing process to different processors, a print command sequence over a plurality of pages in the command buffer is read, and a blank drawing for setting the drawing attribute parameter of each page without performing actual drawing (actual drawing) is performed. The actual drawing is executed by each processor based on the print command sequence in accordance with the set drawing attribute parameter for the page on which the blank drawing has been completed. In addition,
In this specification, the drawing attribute parameters include font type and size, character pitch, line pitch, inversion, underline, italic, and other various drawing attributes, as well as paper size, number of copies, printing direction (portrait / Paper control information such as landscape).

A print control apparatus according to the present invention includes a master processor, a plurality of slave processors operating according to instructions from the master processor, a host communication controller for communicating with a host computer, and input / output between a printer engine unit. And a command buffer unit for storing a print command sequence received from a host computer via the host communication controller, a shared memory accessible by all the processors, and an access only to individual processors. And a local memory for each processor that cannot read the print command string in the command buffer unit while reading and interpreting the print command string in the command buffer unit. Minutes, then the next page And sky drawing function for obtaining a page delimiter address head, a function of acquiring the slave processor idle after the air drawing, after the acquisition of the slave processor,
A function of acquiring an empty page buffer memory having a size corresponding to the paper size determined by the empty drawing, and acquiring by the acquisition slave processor the page for which empty drawing has been completed after the acquisition of the page buffer memory. A function of sequentially starting the actual drawing in the page buffer memory using the page break address of the beginning of the page and the drawing attribute parameter as input parameters is provided, and the slave processor performs the actual drawing as the actual drawing by the blank drawing. It has a function of drawing one page in accordance with the attribute parameter, and a function of reporting the end of the actual drawing to the master processor after the actual drawing and requesting the master processor to perform a printing process on the drawn page buffer. Further receiving the actual drawing completion report from the master processor. A function of updating the end page and releasing the report source slave processor, a function of executing a print process for the drawn page buffer when a print process is requested, and a process of starting a drawn process started by the print process. When the end of reading from the page buffer is recognized from the printer engine adapter or the slave processor, a function of releasing the page buffer is provided, and the blank rendering process and the printing process by the master processor are performed in parallel. The processing by the processor and the processing by each slave processor are performed in parallel.

Another printing control apparatus according to the present invention includes a master processor, a plurality of slave processors operating according to instructions from the master processor, a host communication controller for communicating with a host computer, and a printer engine unit. A printer engine adapter for performing input / output, a command buffer unit for storing a print command sequence received from a host computer via the host communication controller, a shared memory accessible by all processors, and individual processors With local memory for each processor that can only be accessed,
The master processor has a function of activating any one of M individual drawing tasks for a plurality of slave processors, and the individual drawing task 1 assigned to the first slave processor has a fixed size (printer A function of requesting the master processor to acquire an empty page buffer memory (corresponding to the size of the maximum paper size that can be printed by the engine unit), and then, as the actual rendering in the acquired page buffer memory, the rendering attribute parameter A function of performing setting processing and drawing until a page break is detected and drawing one page, and after the actual drawing, reporting the end of the actual drawing from the slave processor to the master processor;
A function for requesting a print process for the rendered page buffer, and, after the request for the print process, reading and interpreting a print command sequence in the command buffer unit, and setting a rendering attribute parameter without rendering while performing page processing. A function of repeatedly executing a function of executing blank drawing for one page until a break is detected by M-1 times is provided. A function to execute once, a function to request the master processor to acquire the fixed-size empty page buffer memory, and then, to set a drawing attribute parameter and draw as a real drawing in the acquired page buffer memory, page separation. A function of drawing until one page is detected, and drawing the actual drawing from the slave processor to the master processor after the actual drawing. And a function of requesting a print process for the drawn page buffer and a function of executing the empty drawing M-m times after the request for the print process. To
A function of updating the actual drawing end page when the actual drawing end report is received, a function of executing a print process for the drawn page buffer when a print process is requested, and a drawn page activated by the print process When the end of reading from the buffer is recognized from the printer engine adapter or the slave processor, a function of releasing the page buffer and a function of executing acquisition of the page buffer when requesting acquisition of the page buffer are provided. A blank drawing process and a printing process are performed in parallel, and a process by the master processor and a process by each of the slave processors are performed in parallel.

[0014] In a multiprocessor-type printing controller having a master processor and a plurality of slave processors, under the control of the master processor, it is possible to a plurality of slave processors to parallel processing process drawing such In addition, the processing capability of the print control device can be improved. In particular, the adoption of the empty drawing facilitates the parallel execution of the drawing process by a plurality of processors.

In a print control apparatus using a blank drawing centralized processing system (paper size fixed type blank drawing centralized processing system or paper size assumed blank drawing centralized processing system), a drawing management task performs blank drawing, The individual drawing task executes the actual drawing in parallel on another processor. In addition, the printing process for each page buffer that has been drawn by the actual drawing can be executed in parallel with the blank drawing and in parallel with the real drawing. In this specification, “parallel” execution means that a plurality of processors execute a plurality of processes at the same time, and “parallel” execution means that one processor processes a plurality of processes in a pipeline. Means to do.

Also in the blank drawing distributed processing method, a plurality of individual drawing tasks execute real drawing in parallel on another processor, and print processing for each page buffer that has been drawn by the real drawing is referred to as real drawing. Execute in parallel.

Therefore, in the blank drawing centralized processing method and the blank drawing distributed processing method, since the actual drawing processing is executed in parallel, even if the drawing time per page exceeds the printer mechanism printing time per page, the printing is performed. The highest performance of the printer can be achieved as the throughput. In addition, since drawing and printing are performed in parallel, the highest performance of the printer can be achieved even in continuous printing of a document including a plurality of pages in which the print content of each page is different. In addition, by using a general-purpose processor as the plurality of processors, it is possible to improve the drawing performance even for a document in which each page includes only characters or graphics, and to improve the printing performance.

In the case of using the variable length page buffer control among the blank drawing centralized processing system and the blank drawing distributed processing system, only a page buffer of a required size is obtained according to the paper size. Printing can be realized with a small total page buffer capacity. Furthermore, when printing on small paper sizes, a large number of page buffers can be arranged, so even if printing of pages with a large drawing load is mixed, the average print throughput will not be reduced and the printer engine will operate at the highest performance. Can be realized.

In the blank drawing distributed processing system, unlike the blank drawing centralized processing system, blank drawing is performed by an individual drawing task. Therefore, when the load of the empty drawing is small, the number M of individual drawing tasks is equal to the total number K or K + 1 of the slave processors, and each individual drawing task m is assigned to any one of the slave processors and the master processor, so that the printing throughput is reduced. This can be improved over the blank drawing centralized processing method.

In addition to supporting the constraint command, in the print control process corresponding to the constraint command, only a clear page break is detected in the blank rendering process, and the rendering attribute parameter setting process is not performed. I'm done. Therefore, by providing a constraint command and a print control method corresponding to the constraint command, the blank drawing process in the blank drawing concentrated processing method and the blank drawing distributed processing method can be simplified and accelerated in the case of the constraint command.

Therefore, with respect to the constraint command, in addition to the effects shown in the blank drawing concentrated processing method and the blank drawing distributed processing, a drawing performance improvement effect almost proportional to the number of processors can be obtained.

In a print control device of the intra-page parallel processing system, drawing for each page is divided into a plurality of regions, and another processor executes each region in parallel.
Further, the printing process for each page buffer after the drawing is executed in parallel with the drawing.

Therefore, in the print control apparatus of the intra-page parallel processing system, not only the continuous printing is executed at high speed, but also
Documents consisting of one page and first print can be printed at high speed.

[0024] Next, a description will be given of a first embodiment of the present invention. First, the basic configuration of the hardware of the print control apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the basic configuration diagrams of the hardware illustrated in FIGS. 2 to 5.

FIG. 2 shows a first basic configuration of hardware. In the figure, the print control device 11 includes a master processor module 100, a slave processor module 1
(110),..., Slave processor module k (omitted from this drawing),.
(120), system bus arbitration unit 130, system bus 12, shared memory 141, host communication controller 15
1-a, secondary storage device 161, file controller 1
62-a, Printer Engine Adapter 1 (171-
a).

The master processor module 100 comprises a master processor (hereinafter also referred to as MPU) 101, an internal bus 102, a local memory 103, and a bus interface (hereinafter also referred to as I / F) 104. The internal bus 102 includes various input / output signals (address signals, data signals, and other control signals) of the MPU 101.

When the MPU 101 generates an address signal, the bus I / F 104 directly generates an address on the internal bus 102 in accordance with the generated address signal, and performs input / output with the local memory 103 on the internal bus 102. After the address is converted to an address on the system bus 12, the input / output to / from the shared memory 141 on the system bus 12 and various peripheral controllers is performed.

The slave processor module 1 (11
0) is a slave processor 1 (hereinafter also referred to as SPU1) (111), an internal bus 112, a local memory 11
And 3, a bus I / F 114. The internal bus 112
Various input / output signals of the SPU1 (111) (address signals,
Data signals and other control signals). SPU1
When (111) generates an address signal, the bus I / F1
14 generates an address on the internal bus 112 as it is in response to the generated address signal, performs input / output with the local memory 113 on the internal bus 112, converts the address to an address on the system bus 12, For example, input / output to / from the shared memory 141 on the device 12 and various peripheral controllers is performed.

Hereinafter, the slave processor module 2,
, K,..., K are slave processor modules 1 (1
The configuration is the same as 10). For example, the slave processor module K (120) is a slave processor K (hereinafter S
PUK) (121), an internal bus 122, a local memory 123, and a bus I / F 124, and each functions in the same manner as the slave processor module 1 (110).

The system bus 12 includes the above-mentioned processor modules, that is, the master processor module 100, the slave processor modules 1 (110),..., The slave processor module K (120), and the shared memory 141 and various peripheral controllers, that is, the host communication controller 151. -A and file controller 162-a
Input / output signals for inputting / outputting to / from the printer engine adapter unit 1 (171-a) (address signals,
Data signals and other control signals).

The system bus arbitration unit 130 sends the master processor module 100, the slave processor module 1 (110),..., The slave processor module k,. 12
0), host communication controller 151-a, file controller 162-a, printer engine adapter unit 1
When (171-a) or the like validates the request signal for the right to use the system bus, it determines which master is given the right to use the system bus. Usage rights are determined on a first-come, first-served basis, centralized control priority system, daisy-chain system,
Any of the cyclic method and the like may be used.

The shared memory 141 includes the MPU 101, the SP
, SPUK, ..., SPUK (12
This is a memory accessible from all of 1). The shared memory 141 is constituted by a multi-port memory, one port is used as a port for access by peripheral controllers such as the host communication controller 151-a and the file controller 162-a, and another port is used as a master processor or a slave processor. May be used as a port for access.

The host communication controller 151-a is a controller for the print control device 11 to communicate with the host computer 10, and is one peripheral controller of the system bus 12.

The physical I / F of this communication (called host I / F)
F is SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
e), RS232C, RS422, GP-IB (General Purpose Interface Bu
s), Centronics, HDLC (High-Level Data Li
nk Control), ISDN (Integrated Services Degita)
Network), Ethernet, etc., and appropriate hardware logic of the controller 151-a is mounted according to the type of physical I / F used.

The secondary storage device 161 stores font data,
It is used to store format data, programs, and the like, and is connected to the system bus 12 via a file controller 162-a, which is one peripheral controller of the system bus 12.

The printer engine adapter unit 1 (171-171)
a) is a controller for the print control device 11 to perform input / output with the printer engine unit 18, which is also a peripheral controller of the system bus 12.

Next, various signals in the first basic configuration of the hardware (FIG. 2) will be described.

The signal line 12-a is a group of input / output signals for connecting the master processor module and the system bus, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a bus arbitration signal, a control signal of the MPU 101, and a control of the shared memory 141. It consists of signals and the like.

The signal line 12-b is a group of input / output signals for connecting the slave processor module 1 and the system bus, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a bus arbitration signal, a control signal for the SPU1 (101), and a common signal. Memory 1
It consists of 41 control signals and the like.

The other slave processor modules 2 to K also use the same signal lines as the slave processor module 1 to transmit and receive input / output signals to and from the system bus.

The signal line 12-c is a group of input / output signals for connecting the shared memory and the system bus, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a control signal for the shared memory 141, and the like.

The signal line 12-d is a group of input / output signals for connecting the host communication controller 151-a and the shared memory 141, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a control signal for the shared memory 141, and the like.

The signal line 12-e is a group of input / output signals for connecting the host communication controller 151-a to the system bus, and includes a bus arbitration signal, a host communication controller control signal (an interrupt signal to the MPU). Including). The interrupt signal to each SPU is further transmitted to the signal line 12.
It can be added to -d.

The signal line 12-f is a group of input / output signals for connecting the file controller 162-a and the shared memory 141, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a control signal for the shared memory 141, and the like.

The signal line 12-g is a group of input / output signals for connecting the file controller 162-a to the system bus, and includes a bus arbitration signal, a file controller control signal (including an interrupt signal to the MPU), and the like. Consists of The interrupt signal to each SPU is further transmitted to the signal line 12-g.
Can also be added.

The signal line 12-h is a group of input / output signals for connecting the printer engine adapter unit 1 (171-a) and the system bus, and includes a bus arbitration signal and a control signal for the printer engine adapter unit 1 (171-a). (Including an interrupt signal to the MPU and an interrupt signal to each SPU), an address signal, a data signal, a control signal for the shared memory 141, and the like. An interrupt signal to each SPU may be omitted.

The signal line 12-i is a group of input / output signals for connecting the printer engine adapter 1 (171-a) and the printer engine 18, and is composed of various interface signals defined by the printer engine 18.

FIG. 3 shows a second basic configuration of the hardware. This figure shows that the printer engine adapter unit 1 (171-a) in FIG.
71-b). The printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b) is connected to the system bus 12 in the same manner, but reads out print data to the printer engine unit 18 instead of the system bus 12 and the newly provided video bus 1. This is performed using (13).

Therefore, an interface with the video bus 1 (13) is established by using the signal line 12-j, the signal line 12-k, and the signal line 12-1.

A signal line 12-j is a group of input / output signals for connecting the master processor module and the video bus, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a bus arbitration signal, a control signal of the MPU 101, and a printer engine adapter unit 2. (171-b) includes a control signal for accessing a memory (not shown in the figure).

The signal line 12-k is a group of input / output signals for connecting the slave processor module 1 and the video bus 1 (13), and includes an address signal, a data signal,
It comprises a bus arbitration signal, a control signal for the SPU1 (111), a control signal for accessing a memory (not shown in the figure) in the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b), and the like.

The other slave processor modules 2 to K also transmit and receive input / output signals to and from the video bus 1 (13) using the same signal lines as the slave processor module 1.

The signal line 12-1 is a group of input / output signals for connecting the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b) and the video bus 1 (13).
It comprises a data signal, a bus arbitration signal, a control signal for the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b), an interrupt signal to the MPU and each SPU, and the like.

FIG. 4 shows a third basic configuration of the hardware. This figure shows the host communication controller 15 in FIG.
1-a and the file controller 162-a are replaced with a host communication controller 151-b and a file controller 162-b, respectively, and the direct connection to the shared memory is stopped and only the system bus is connected. Since the interface around the shared memory is different from that in FIG. 2, 142 is used as a reference number of the shared memory in this figure.

The signal line 12-c 'is a group of input / output signals for connecting the shared memory and the system bus 12, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a control signal for the shared memory 142, and the like.

The signal line 12-e 'is a group of input / output signals for connecting the host communication controller 151-b and the system bus 12, and includes an address signal, a data signal,
It comprises a bus arbitration signal, a control signal of the host communication controller (including an interrupt signal to the MPU), a control signal of the shared memory 142, and the like.

The signal line 12-g 'is a group of input / output signals for connecting the file controller 162-b and the system bus 12, and includes an address signal, a data signal, a bus arbitration signal, and a file controller control signal (MPU).
And an interrupt signal to the shared memory 142).

The signal lines 12-e 'and 12-g'
, An interrupt signal to each SPU can be added.

FIG. 5 shows a fourth basic configuration of the hardware. This figure shows the host communication controller 15 in FIG.
1-a and the file controller 162-a are replaced by a host communication controller 151-b and a file controller 162-b, respectively, and the direct connection to the shared memory is stopped and only the system bus is connected. . The content of the change is the same as that of changing FIG. 2 to FIG. Also in this figure, the reference number of the shared memory is 14
2 is used.

Next, the hardware configuration of the print control device 11 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, FIG.
In the master processor module 100, the timers 106, 11
6, 126, etc .; image processors 107, 11
7, 127, etc .; character and graphic drawing processors 108, 11
8, 128, etc. were added. Further, an operation panel unit 19 is added so that display and input of the print control device 11 can be performed.

It should be noted that the same components as in FIG. 1 can be added to FIGS.

Next, the software configuration of the print control device 11 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, the software includes a monitor unit 31 and a task processing unit 32. The monitor unit 31 includes a kernel unit 311, a host communication control unit 312, a command buffer control unit 313, a file control unit 314, a page buffer control unit 315, a printer control unit 316, a command buffer unit 33, and a page buffer unit 34. You.

The kernel unit 311 includes a main routine of an interrupt control program, a main routine of supervisor call (abbreviated as SVC) control, a task control unit, and a timer control unit.

The host communication control unit 312 sends and receives various commands between the host computer 10 and the print control device 11. For example, a print command sequence is received from the host computer 10 or various events (error occurrence, page printing end, document printing end, etc.) occurring in the print control device 11.
To the host computer 10.

The command buffer control unit 313 controls a write start pointer, a write end pointer, a read pointer, and the like used when writing and reading with respect to the command buffer unit 33.

The command buffer control unit 313 is used by the host communication control unit 312 to store a print command in the command buffer unit 33. Also, a task processing unit 32 described later is used by using the command buffer control unit 313.
The drawing task unit 321 reads out the contents of the command buffer unit 33 and processes it.

The file control unit 314 is a part for controlling each file in the secondary storage device 161.
Controls for accessing the data in each file, and file entities that make up the file (a set of multiple blocks)
Management etc. Each task in the task processing unit controls a file by using various SVC functions for file control in the file control unit 314.

The page buffer control unit 315 manages empty space (management of acquisition and release) for the page buffer unit 34 having a plurality of pages. By using this free space management,
It is also possible to acquire as many page buffers as required according to the paper size when drawing and writing to the page buffer becomes necessary, and release the page buffer when reading of the drawing contents is completed.

The printer control section 316 includes the printer engine section 18 and the printer engine adapter section 1 (171-171).
a) or the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b)
, And controls input / output with the printer engine unit 18.

The task processing section 32 includes a drawing task section 321, a print task section 322, and a processing section 323 for other tasks.

The drawing task unit 321 stores the drawing management task 3
210, individual drawing task 1 (3211), individual drawing task 2 (3212),..., Individual drawing task M (321
3). These various drawing tasks 321, 32
, 3213 are the print control devices 11
Processor modules (100, 1
10, 120, etc.), parallel processing is performed between different processors, and parallel processing is performed within the same processor. These various drawing tasks 321, 3210, 3211, 3
The processing contents of 213 will be described later in detail.

The print task unit 322 stores the print task 1 (3
221), a print task 2 (3222),..., A print task N (3223). Each print task n is started by the individual drawing task m when the individual drawing task m finishes drawing in the page buffer unit 34.
Each activated printing task n executes a printing process for each page buffer (one page of paper) for which rendering has been completed. The printing process is executed by issuing various SVC commands for printer control to the printer control unit 316. A plurality of print tasks are prepared for parallel processing of different pages. The total number of prepared print tasks was set to the maximum value of the number of print tasks that can be concurrently processed in the apparatus. More specifically, the number corresponds to the maximum number of sheets that can exist between the paper supply unit and the paper discharge unit of the printer engine unit 18 at an arbitrary time.
It increases or decreases according to the specification of No. 8.

The processing contents of each part in the software configuration are described in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-15 / 98 filed by the applicant of the present invention.
8481 and Japanese Patent Application No. 1-282747, except that the parallel processing is performed using a multiprocessor as described above.

The command buffer section 33 and the page buffer section 34 may be considered as memory sections that do not belong to the monitor section 31 or the task processing section 32.

Each part shown in the software configuration of FIG. 6 is associated with each part in the hardware configuration diagram of FIG. 1 or FIGS. 2 to 5 as follows.

(1) The program of the monitor unit 31 (excluding the command buffer unit 33 and the page buffer unit 34)
Stored in the local memory 103 for the MPU 101,
Execute in U101.

(2) The command buffer unit 33 is arranged in the shared memory (141 or 142). Further, the whole or a part of the command buffer unit 33 is stored in each local memory (1).
03, 113, 123, etc.).

(3) The page buffer unit 34 is a shared memory (141 or 142) or each local memory (103,
113, 123, etc.).

(4) The program of the drawing management task 3210 is stored in the local memory 103 for the MPU 101 and executed by the MPU 101. It is stored in a local memory (113, 123, etc.) for each SPU, and each SPU (11
1, 121, etc.).

(5) The program for the individual drawing task 1, the individual drawing task 2,...
Local memory (113, 123, etc.) or MPU1
01 in the local memory 103 for the SPU (11
1, 121, etc.) or the MPU 101.

(6) Print task 1, print task 2,...
The program for the print task N is stored in the local memory 103 for the MPU 101 and executed by the MPU 101. Local memory for each SPU (113, 123, etc.)
And executed by each SPU (111, 121, etc.).

(7) Other task processing units 323
The MPU is stored in the local memory 103 for the PU 101 or the local memory (113, 123, etc.) for each SPU.
101 or SPU (111, 121, etc.).

Next, one processing procedure in the printing control apparatus 11 will be described with reference to FIG. Hereinafter, this processing procedure is referred to as a paper size determined type blank drawing concentrated processing method.

First, the master processor receives a print command sequence from the host computer via the host communication controller, and stores the print command sequence in the command buffer unit in the shared memory (141 or 142).

Drawing management task 32 in master processor
10 performs the following processing on the print command sequence in the command buffer unit.

(1) Initialize parameters (4
1).

(1-1) The individual drawing task number m is initialized to 0 (411).

(1-2) The page serial number j is initialized to 0 (412).

(1-3) The drawing attribute parameters are initialized (413).

(2) The following processing is repeated indefinitely (4
2).

(2-1) Update Parameters (42)
1).

(2-1-1) The individual drawing task number i is updated (4211).

(2-1-2) The page serial number j is updated (4212).

(2-2) Perform empty drawing for one page (4
22). That is, while reading and interpreting the print command string in the command buffer unit, the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter without drawing is performed for one page until a page break is detected. As a result, the page break address for the next page head and the drawing attribute parameter are obtained (42).
2).

(2-3) Resources are acquired for an individual drawing task m for performing actual drawing for the page serial number j (423).

(2-3-1) An empty slave processor is acquired for the individual drawing task m (4231).

(2-3-2) Acquire an empty page buffer for the individual drawing task m, that is, access the slave processor acquired for the individual drawing task m, and determine the paper size determined by the empty drawing process. An empty page buffer memory having the size of a minute is acquired (4232).

(2-4) A process referred to as actual drawing in the acquired page buffer memory by the acquisition slave processor for the page (page serial number j) for which the individual rendering task m is started and the empty rendering has been completed is described in the first section. For the page, the initial value of the page break address for the first page and the drawing attribute parameter are used as input parameters, and for the second and subsequent pages, the page break address and the drawing attribute parameter for the page head already detected by the master processor are used. It starts as an input parameter (424).

The individual drawing task m (3212 to 3213) in the slave processor k started by the drawing management task 3210 in the master processor performs the following processing.

(1) Actual drawing for one page is performed. In other words, the setting processing of the drawing attribute parameter and the drawing to the acquired page buffer are performed as the actual drawing until the page break is detected, and the drawing for one page is executed (441).

(2) The end of the actual drawing is reported from the SPUk to the MPU, and a print process is requested for the drawn page buffer (442).

(3) After the fact that this report and the request for the print processing have been accepted is received from the MPU, the processing is terminated.

The communication from each SPUk (k is 1 to K) to the MPU and a request for processing are performed as follows.

(1) Each SPUk uses the information transmission processing unit for the MPU to contact the MPU and request processing (451).

(2) The MPU uses the information reception processing unit from the SPU to receive the communication or the request for processing (43).
2).

(3) The MPU uses the execution unit for the contents of the SPU request to receive a communication and execute processing (433).

(4) The MPU uses the information transmission processing unit for the SPU to transmit a notification to SPUL that the reception of the notification and the execution of the processing have been completed (431).

(5) The MPU uses the information reception processing unit from the SPU to know that the communication and the request for processing have been completed (452).

Next, the communication method between the MPU and each SPU will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 24 and 25.

The MPU and the SPU communicate with each other by mutually inputting interrupt signals as shown in FIG. Each of these interrupt signals is transmitted to the system bus 12.
, But may be a signal line independent of the system bus 12.

Information indicating the contents of communication is arranged on a shared memory as shown in FIG.

Using the interrupt signal shown in FIG. 24 and the contact information on the shared memory shown in FIG. 25, the MPU (SPU
k) communicates with SPU k (MPU) as follows.

(A) Processing of MPU (SPU k) (1) A task or monitor issues a communication macro instruction mtos (stom).

(2) When the monitor on the MPU (SPU k) is m
Execute tos (stom).

(A) [Input] (i) k: SPU number (ii) Contact information I (b) [Output] None (c) [Processing] (i) From MPU (SPU k) to SPU k (MPU) In the contact information area, contact information I is entered.

(Ii) MPU (SPU k) to SPU
Assert an interrupt signal to k (MPU).

(B) Processing of SPU k (MPU) (1) The interrupt factor is analyzed in the interrupt processing,
Identify a communication interrupt from (SPU k).

(2) In the processing corresponding to the communication interruption, M
The contact information I from the PU (SPU k) to the SPU k (MPU) is read, and a process corresponding to the content is performed.

(3) In addition to the simple reception of the contact information I, various kinds of processing (task control such as task start, task end, event occurrence wait, resource empty wait, etc. can be involved).
It can be performed.

The MPU that has received the request to acquire and reacquire the page buffer acquires and reacquires the page buffer by using the page buffer control unit 315 (55).
3).

The MPU having received the end report of the actual drawing,
The execution unit of the SPU request contents updates the actual drawing end page and releases the reporting slave processor (43).
3).

The MPU requested to perform the printing process activates a printing task for the drawn page buffer in the execution unit of the SPU request content (433).

The MPU notifies the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b) or the SPU of the end of reading from the drawn page buffer started by the print task.
The MPU uses the page buffer control unit 315 to release the page buffer when it knows from the interrupt signal from.

Further, the drawing management task processing and the printing task processing by the MPU are performed in parallel using the method described in the prior art. Further, the processing by the MPU and the processing by each SPU are performed in parallel as described above.

Next, another processing procedure in the print control apparatus 11 will be described with reference to FIG. Hereinafter, this processing procedure is referred to as a paper size assumed type blank drawing concentrated processing method.

First, the MPU receives a print command sequence from the host computer via the host communication controller, and stores the print command sequence in the command buffer unit in the shared memory. M
The drawing management task 3210 in the PU performs the following processing on the print command sequence in the command buffer unit.

(1) Initialize parameters (5
1).

(1-1) The individual drawing task number m is initialized to 1 (511).

(1-2) The page serial number j is initialized to 1 (512).

(1-3) Initialize drawing attribute parameters (513).

(2) Acquire resources for individual drawing task i in order to perform actual drawing for page serial number 1 (5)
2).

(2-1) An empty SPU is acquired for the individual drawing task m (521).

(2-2) An empty page buffer is acquired for the individual drawing task m. In other words, a free page buffer memory having a size corresponding to the paper size assumed as an initial value and accessible by the SPU acquired for the individual drawing task m is acquired (522).

(3) The individual drawing task m is started, and a process called actual drawing in the acquired page buffer memory by the acquisition slave processor for the page (first page) of page serial number 1 is performed for the first page head. It is started with the page break address and the drawing attribute parameter as input parameters (53).

(4) The following processing is repeated endlessly (5
4).

(4-1) Empty drawing for one page is performed. That is, while reading and interpreting the print command string in the command buffer unit, the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter without drawing is performed for one page until a page break is detected. As a result, the page break address for the next page head and the drawing attribute parameter are stored (541).

(4-2) Update the parameters (54)
2).

(4-2-1) The individual drawing task number m is updated (5421).

(4-2-2) The page serial number j is updated (5422).

(4-3) Resources are acquired for the individual drawing task m for performing actual drawing for the page serial number j (543).

(4-3-1) An empty SPU is acquired for the individual drawing task m (5431).

(4-3-2) Acquire an empty page buffer for the individual drawing task i. That is, it has a size corresponding to the default paper size at the end of the blank drawing, which can be accessed by the SPU acquired for the individual drawing task i.
Acquire an empty page buffer memory (543)
2).

(4-4) A process called actual drawing in the acquired page buffer memory by the acquisition slave processor for the next page (page serial number j) for which the individual rendering task m is started and the empty rendering is completed is A page break address for the next page head and a drawing attribute parameter are activated as input parameters (544).

The drawing management task 321 in the MPU
The individual drawing task m (3212 to 3213) in the slave processor k activated by 0 performs the following processing.

(1) Actual drawing for one page is performed. That is, the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter and the drawing in the acquired page buffer are performed as the actual drawing until the page break is detected, and the drawing for one page is executed.

When the change of the paper size is detected in the setting processing of the drawing attribute parameter in the actual drawing, the MPU is requested to reacquire the page buffer for the changed paper size (561).

(2) The individual drawing task m (processed by the SPUk) reports the end of the actual drawing to the MPU and requests a printing process for the drawn page buffer (562).

(3) After the fact that this report and the request for the printing process have been accepted is received from the MPU, the process is terminated.

The communication from the SPUk (k is 1 to K) to the MPU and the processing request are sent to the information transmission processing unit (5
71), a processing unit for receiving information from the MPU (572), SP
U information transmission processing unit (551), SPU information reception processing unit (552), SPU request content execution unit (55)
This is performed in the same manner as in FIG. 7 using 3).

The MPU that has received the page buffer acquisition and reacquisition request uses the page buffer control unit 315 to acquire and reacquire the page buffer.

The MPU that has received the end report of the actual drawing
Performs the update of the actual drawing end page and the release of the reporting slave processor in the execution unit of the SPU request content (553). Also, the MPU requested to perform the printing process activates a print task for the drawn page buffer in the execution unit of the SPU request content (553).

The MPU notifies the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b) or the SPU of the end of reading from the rendered page buffer activated by the print task.
The MPU releases the page buffer by using the page buffer control unit 315 when it knows from the interrupt signal from.

The drawing management task processing and the printing task processing by the MPU are performed in parallel using the method described in the prior art. Further, processing by the MPU and each of the SPs
The processing by U is performed in parallel as described above.

In the above-described procedure, a variable-length page buffer control method of acquiring and releasing a page buffer of a required size according to the paper size is adopted as a method of acquiring and releasing the page buffer. A fixed-length page buffer control method for acquiring and releasing a page buffer of a fixed size (corresponding to the size of the maximum paper size that can be printed by the printer engine) may be adopted. In this case, in the above procedure, the control of the page buffer can be simplified, for example, it is not necessary to reacquire the page buffer. However, the page buffer memory cannot be used effectively as much as the variable length page buffer control method.

Next, an example of the configuration of the printer engine adapter unit 2 (172) will be described with reference to FIGS.

Printer engine adapter 2 (172)
In FIG. 9, printer engine adapter unit 2 (172)
Is a printer control processor (abbreviated as PPU) 172
1, an internal bus 1722, a local memory 1723, a printer memory controller 1 (1724, also abbreviated as PMC1), and bus I / Fs 1725 and 1726. The PMC 1 (1724) reads the contents of the local memory 1723 (usually, the contents of an area called a print relay buffer described later) to the printer engine unit 18 and controls the local memory 1723 (DR).
AM refresh). For this read processing, a built-in DMA (Direct Memory Access) circuit is provided, and the read processing is performed by the printer control processor 1.
It is desirable to do so without imposing a burden on 721. Under this configuration, the contents of the drawn page buffer in the page buffer unit arranged on the local memory in the master processor module 100 and each slave processor module (110, etc.) are connected to the internal bus for each processor module. Any one of a master processor and a slave processor in each processor module, or a DMA circuit (109, 119, etc.) is connected to the video bus 1 (13) from the internal bus. After transmitting to the bus, the video bus 1 (1
3) to the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-
b) to the area called a print relay buffer arranged on the local memory 1723, and transmits the data in the print relay buffer to the printer engine unit 18 through the printer engine interfaces (12-i-1 and 12-i-).
Send according to 2). Further, the reading of data from the print relay buffer in the printer engine adapter unit 2 (172) to the printer engine unit 18 is performed by the PMC in the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b).
May be performed by using a DMA circuit built in the CPU.

In FIG. 10, the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b) includes a printer control processor (PPU).
1721), an internal bus 1722, a local memory 1723, and a bus I / F 1725.

In this configuration, the printer memory controller 2 (10A, 11A) is installed in each processor module.
Etc. (abbreviated as PMC2). The PMC 2 reads out the contents of the local memories 103 and 113 (normal page buffer contents) to the printer engine unit 18 and controls the local memories 103 and 113 (D
RAM refresh). For this read processing, a built-in DMA (Direct Memory Access) circuit is provided, and the read processing is performed by the MP in each processor module.
It can also be performed without imposing a burden on U or each SPU.

Under this configuration, the contents of the rendered page buffer in the page buffer section arranged on the local memory (103, 113, etc.) in the master processor module and each slave processor module are stored in the respective processor modules. The PMC 2 does not pass through the internal bus for each processor module but transmits to a bus called a video bus 2 other than the system bus, and then transmits from the video bus 2 to the printer engine unit according to a printer engine interface.

In FIGS. 9 and 10, the DMA
Circuit 109, 119 etc. and PMC2 (10A, 11A etc.)
When performing the above-mentioned data transfer, a mode for clearing to zero and a mode not for clearing at the time of reading each raster of the page buffer are provided. The zero-clear mode is used in normal printing, which is called single-page copying, in which each page is printed one by one. The mode in which zero is not cleared is used in printing called multi-page copying in which each page is printed in two or more copies.

In this embodiment, even when the drawing time per page exceeds the printing time of the printer mechanism per page, the maximum performance of the printer can be achieved as the printing throughput.

FIGS. 11, 12 and 13 show timings of command reception, blank drawing, actual drawing, printing and the like in this embodiment. As illustrated, the processing of the drawing management task by the MPU and the processing of the individual drawing tasks 1, 2, and 3 by the SPUs are executed in parallel for each processor. Also M
The commands received by the PU, processing of the drawing management task, transfer 1, transfer 2, ..., transfer 5, etc., print 1, print 2, ..., print 5, etc. are executed in parallel (pipeline processing). I have.

FIGS. 11 and 12 correspond to the case where FIG. 9 is used as the configuration of the printer engine adapter unit 2 (172). In FIG. 11, the local memory (103, 113, etc.) in each processor module (100, 110, 120, etc.) is used to change the print relay buffer (local memory 1723) in the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b). Data transfer to DMA
This corresponds to the case where the circuits (109, 119, etc.) perform. In the figure, the zero clear is performed by hardware (the DMA
Circuit).

On the other hand, FIG. 12 corresponds to the case where any one of the MPU and the SPU in each processor module connected to the internal bus for each processor module performs the data transfer using software processing. In this figure, the zero clear is performed using software (the processor).

In FIGS. 11 and 12, as a print relay buffer in the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b), at least two pages of the page buffer (the maximum number of pages that can be printed by the printer engine unit 18). (Having the size of the paper size), writing and reading to the print relay buffer can be performed in parallel. The printing process can be performed even if the capacity of the print relay buffer is reduced.

FIG. 12 shows an example in which the clear time is longer than the transfer time. However, the magnitude relationship between the clear time and the transfer time changes depending on the method of realizing the print control device. However, even if the magnitude relationship between the two changes, the timing of each process is the same as in FIG.

FIG. 13 corresponds to the case where FIG. 10 is used as the configuration of the printer engine adapter unit 2 (172).

As described above, in this embodiment, since the actual drawing processing is executed in parallel, the drawing time per page is reduced.
Even when the printer mechanism printing time per page is exceeded, the highest performance of the printer as the print throughput can be achieved.

Since the drawing and the printing are performed in parallel, the maximum performance of the printer can be achieved even in the continuous printing of a document including a plurality of pages in which the print content of each page is different.

A plurality of processors (MPU, SPU
1, SPU2,..., SPUK), the drawing performance can be improved even for a document in which each page includes only characters or graphics, and the printing performance can be improved.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The basic configuration of the hardware, the detailed configuration of the hardware, the software configuration, and the configuration of the printer engine adapter unit 2 are the same as those in the first embodiment.
6, 9 and 10 are used.

One processing procedure in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Hereinafter, this procedure is referred to as a blank drawing distributed processing method.

Next, referring to FIG. 14, the printing control apparatus 11 will be described.
Will be described. First MPU
Receives a print command string from the host computer via the host communication controller, and stores the print command string in a command buffer unit in the shared memory.

The drawing management task 321 in the MPU
0 performs the following processing on the print command string in the command buffer unit.

(1) Activate all individual drawing tasks (individual drawing tasks 1, 2,..., M) (81). As the number M of individual drawing tasks, there are usually the following two cases.

(A) The number M of individual drawing tasks is the same as the total number K of slave processors.

(B) The number M of individual drawing tasks is set to K + 1.

In the case of (a), each individual drawing task 1 is assigned to one of the slave processors. In the case of (b), each individual drawing task m is assigned to one of the slave processors and the master processor. Hereinafter, in the present description, the case of (a) will be described, but the case of (b) can be similarly realized.

(2) End the processing of this task (8
2).

The drawing management task 321 in the MPU
0, the individual drawing task 1 (3
212) repeats the next process indefinitely (84).

(1) The MPU is requested to acquire an empty page buffer for the individual drawing task 1. That is, a page buffer is acquired for the default paper size accessible by the SPU acquired for the individual drawing task 1.
U is requested (841).

(2) Actual drawing for one page is performed. That is, as the actual drawing in the acquired page buffer memory, the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter and the drawing are performed until the page break is detected, and the drawing for one page is performed. When a change in the paper size is detected in the setting processing of the drawing attribute parameter in the actual drawing, the master processor is requested to reacquire the page buffer for the changed paper size (842).

(3) The individual drawing task 1 reports the end of the actual drawing to the MPU and requests a printing process for the drawn page buffer (843).

(4) One page of empty drawing (84
5) is repeated M-1 times (844). The number M-1 corresponds to the number of pages for which other individual drawing tasks are in charge of actual drawing.

(4-1) Blank drawing for one page is performed. That is, while reading and interpreting the print command string in the command buffer unit, the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter without drawing is performed for one page until a page break is detected (845). Since it is unknown which page the rendering attribute parameter is changed, it is necessary to sequentially perform empty rendering on all pages not in charge of itself.

The drawing management task 321 in the MPU
0, the individual drawing task m (3
(213) repeats the next process indefinitely (86).

(1) Blank drawing for one page shown below (86
2) is repeated m-1 times (861). The number m-1 corresponds to the number of pages handled by another individual drawing task up to the page in charge of the individual drawing task m.

(1-1) Empty drawing for one page is performed. That is, while reading and interpreting the print command string in the command buffer unit, the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter without drawing is performed for one page until a page break is detected (862).

(2) Request the MPU to acquire an empty page buffer for the individual drawing task m. That is, the MPU requests the MPU to acquire a page buffer for the default paper size accessible by the SPU acquired for the individual drawing task m (863).

(3) Actual drawing for one page is performed. That is, as the actual drawing in the acquired page buffer memory, the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter and the drawing are performed until the page break is detected, and the drawing for one page is performed. When a paper size change is detected in the setting process of the drawing attribute parameter in the actual drawing, the master processor is requested to reacquire the page buffer for the changed paper size (864).

(4) The end of the actual drawing is reported from the individual drawing task m to the MPU, and a print process for the drawn page buffer is requested (865).

(5) The blank drawing (867) for one page is
Repeat M-m times. The number M-m corresponds to the number of pages of the M pages which are in charge of other individual drawing tasks following the page in which the individual drawing task m is in charge of drawing.
The processing content of the empty drawing (867) is the same as that shown in 862, and may be the same subroutine program or function.

The communication from the SPUk (k is 1 to K) to the MPU and the processing request are sent to the information transmission processing unit (8
51, 871), an information reception processing unit from the MPU (85)
2, 872), an information transmission processing unit to the SPU (831),
6 and 11 to 13 by using the information receiving processing unit (832) from the SPU and the execution unit (833) of the SPU request content.
This is performed in the same manner as in Example 1 shown in FIG.

The MPU having received the page buffer acquisition and reacquisition request uses the page buffer control unit 315 to acquire and reacquire the page buffer.

The MPU having received the end report of the actual drawing,
The execution unit of the SPU request content updates the actual drawing end page (833).

The MPU requested to perform the printing process activates a print task for the drawn page buffer in the execution unit of the SPU request content (833).

The MPU notifies the printer engine adapter unit 2 (171-b) or the SPU of the end of reading from the rendered page buffer started by the print task.
The MPU uses the page buffer control unit 315 to release the page buffer when the MPU knows from the interrupt signal from.

In the above-described procedure, a variable-length page buffer control method of acquiring and releasing a page buffer of a required size according to the paper size is adopted as a method of acquiring and releasing the page buffer. A fixed-length page buffer control method for acquiring and releasing a page buffer of a fixed size (corresponding to the size of the maximum paper size that can be printed by the printer engine) may be adopted. In this case, in the above procedure, the control of the page buffer can be simplified, for example, it is not necessary to reacquire the page buffer. However, the page buffer memory cannot be used effectively as much as the variable length page buffer control method.

The drawing management task processing and the printing task processing by the MPU are performed in parallel using the method described in the related art. Further, the processing by the MPU and the processing by the respective SPUs are performed in parallel as described above.

In the second embodiment, the command reception,
The timing chart of blank drawing, actual drawing, printing, etc. is shown in FIG.
1, FIG. 12 and FIG. That is, as shown in FIG.
The processing of each individual drawing task 1, 2, 3, etc. by U is executed in parallel. In addition, command reception processed by the MPU, processing of the drawing management task, transfer 1, transfer 2,.
The transfer 5, etc., print 1, print 2,..., Print 5 etc. are executed in parallel.

The correspondence between FIGS. 11, 12, and 13 and FIGS. 9 and 10 is the same as that of the first embodiment.

As described above, also in this embodiment, since the actual drawing processing is executed in parallel, the drawing time per page is reduced.
Even when the printer mechanism printing time per page is exceeded, the highest performance of the printer as the print throughput can be achieved.

Further, since the drawing and the printing are performed in parallel as described above, the maximum performance of the printer can be achieved even in the continuous printing of a document composed of a plurality of pages in which the printing contents of each page are different.

A plurality of processors (MPU, SPU
1, SPU2,..., SPUK), the drawing performance can be improved even for a document in which each page includes only characters or graphics, and the printing performance can be improved.

Also, in this embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, each individual drawing task performs blank drawing. Therefore, when the load of the empty drawing is small, the number M of individual drawing tasks is set to the total number of slave processors K + 1, and each individual drawing task m is assigned to any one of the slave processors and the master processor, so that the print throughput is the first.
It can be improved as compared with the embodiment.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. Basic configuration of hardware of this embodiment, detailed configuration of hardware, software configuration, printer engine adapter unit 2
The configuration shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, FIG. 9, and FIG. 10 is used as in the first embodiment.

In a conventional print command, a clear page is included.
There is a command without a break and a handover of drawing attribute parameters (hereinafter referred to as an unconstrained command). Here, "clear page break" means that when a command indicating a page break is not at a page break position and the following condition occurs, the print control device implicitly breaks the page. Is assumed to have been instructed.

(1) The total number of character lines exceeds the page length.

(2) A change of various specifications that can be specified only once for each page, such as the paper size and the number of copies, was instructed in the middle of drawing on a certain page.

[0211] Also, commands with handover of drawing attribute parameters include the type of character font, character line pitch, character string pitch, line width, line type, paper size, number of copies, printer paper feeder, and printer discharger. Various parameters related to drawing and printing of paper and the like are commands that are carried over to the next page.

Note that there is no clear page segmentation, and as a representative of a command with drawing attribute parameters taken over, that is, an unconstrained command, a printer control escalation uniquely defined by each printer manufacturer. There is a push-kens.

When printing is performed using the above-described unconstrained command, in the above-described first and second embodiments, if the load of the blank drawing process increases, the printing performance will jump even if the multiprocessor system is used. Improvement cannot be expected.

For example, the processing amount d of the blank drawing process by the individual drawing task in the blank drawing distributed processing method is as follows: d = (M−1) · a + 1, where M: the number of individual drawing tasks, a: the load coefficient of the blank drawing process (Ratio to drawing processing time).

In this case, when M = 3 and a = 0.1 to 0.4, the processing amount d of the blank drawing processing is d = 1.2 to 1.8.

In the blank drawing concentrated processing method, the drawing management task performs blank drawing by the blank drawing processing load coefficient a for each page for the unrestricted command.

In the present embodiment, the above problem is solved by defining a print command called a constraint command as shown in FIG. Here, the constraint command is
A command called a page break command indicating a page break is arranged at a page break (95, 98), and various drawing attribute parameters are initialized at the head of each page according to the print command specification. Or a reset command B (93, 93) for initializing various drawing attribute parameters at the beginning of each page.
96), and before the command for the first page, all pages of the document consisting of all external characters, formats, functions, dictionaries, etc. that are valid for all subsequent pages of this document. -A command for defining a page valid parameter is arranged (92), and a reset command A (91) for initializing the drawing attribute parameter and document entire page valid parameter at the beginning of the document. ), And a row of various drawing attribute parameter setting commands and various drawing commands for designating the drawing and print contents of each page between the reset command B and the page break command. (9
4, 97).

Note that there are the following two methods for implementing the constraint command.

(1) A print command is newly defined according to the above rules.

(2) How to use unrestricted commands, that is, the command sequence conforms to the above-mentioned rules.

In recent years, in order to perform high-quality printing using a laser printer or the like, a Page Description Language (PD
A print command called “L” is becoming widespread.
PDL includes Adobe PostScript and HP DD
L, Xerox Interpress and the like. These PDs
L is compared to the printer control escape sequence.
The above problem is particularly serious due to the large throughput. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 16, when the PDL is converted into a constraint command, the printing performance can be greatly improved. The PDL with this constraint will be hereinafter referred to as a restricted PDL.

As shown in FIG. 16, the restricted PDL includes a head comment section 10A, a document all page valid parameter setting section 10B, a first page content section 10C, a second page content section 10D,..., A last page content section 10E, It consists of a sentence end comment section 10F.

The introductory comment section 10A includes a document creator 10A1, a document name 10A2, a creation date 10A3, a total number of pages 10A4, a font list 10A5, an end descriptor 10A6 of the head comment section, and the like. In this example, the total number of pages 10A4 and the font list 10A5 used refer to the sentence end comment section 10F.

Document All Page Valid Parameter Setting Unit 10B
Is a part for setting the document all page valid parameter 92 described above.

The first page content section 10C, the second page content section 10D,..., The last page content section 10E are used to set various drawing attribute parameters and various drawing commands for specifying the drawing and print contents of each page. Column (94,
97).

The end-of-sentence comment section 10F includes a start descriptor 10F1, a total number of pages 10F2, a font list 10F3 to be used, and the like.

It should be noted that at least the first page content section 10
C, second page content section 10D,..., Last page content section 1
The break of 0E, that is, the page break is 10C, 1
It is desirable that the description of the page contents such as 0D, 10E, etc. be easily distinguished from each other so that the detection of the page break can be easily performed in order to reduce the load of the blank drawing process.

[0228] A command called copypage is used in PostScript. This command inherits all the drawing contents and drawing attribute parameters for the previous page in the page buffer to the next page. Accordingly, the print control apparatus proceeds with the processing assuming that the page is not updated by the copypage command.

Next, the processing by the host computer 10 and the print control device of the restricted command and the unrestricted command will be described with reference to FIG.

The host computer transmits a print command sequence to the print control device 11 by performing one of the following.

(1) An application program or a printer driver in the host computer 10 directly generates the constraint command 11A1 and sends it to the print control device 11.

(2) An application program or a printer driver in the host computer 10 once creates the unconstrained command 11A2, and the host computer 10 similarly constrains the unconstrained command 11A2 using the constraint command conversion unit 11B. After conversion into the command 11C2, the command is transmitted to the print control device 11.

(3) An application program or a printer driver in the host computer 110 creates the unrestricted command 11A2 and sends it to the print control device 11 as it is (corresponding to 11C3).

In the head area of the print command sequence, a command for specifying whether or not there is a constraint is arranged in order to distinguish between the restricted command and the unconstrained command (see FIG. 18). Send to

The printing control device 11 performs the following processing.

(1) By processing the above-mentioned constraint presence / absence designation command described in the print command sequence received from the host computer, it is determined whether the received print command sequence is a restricted command or an unconstrained command. (11D1).

(2) If the result of the determination is that the command is a constraint command, the print control method 11E1 corresponding to the constraint command is executed (11
E1). If the command is an unconstrained command, the print control method corresponding to the unconstrained command is executed (11E2).

In the print control method corresponding to the unrestricted command, the processing shown in the first or second embodiment is performed as the blank drawing processing. Further, in the print control method corresponding to the constraint command, only clear page break detection is performed as blank drawing processing, and the drawing attribute parameter takeover processing is not performed.

The processing procedure of the drawing management task and the individual drawing task in the present embodiment includes the paper size fixed type blank drawing centralized processing method (FIG. 7) and the paper size assumed type blank drawing centralized processing method in the first embodiment. (FIG. 8) or the blank drawing distributed processing method (FIG. 14). However, in the constraint command, the empty drawing is simplified as described above.

Next, the format of a print command string transmitted by the host computer will be described. The host computer 10 creates a print command sequence in the format shown in FIG. The print protocol designation command 12A1 designates the type of various PDLs such as the above-described printer-controlling pudding control escape sequence and PostScript. This print protocol specification command cannot be omitted.

The restricted command 12A2 distinguishes a restricted command from an unrestricted command. A print command sequence 12A3 (hereinafter, referred to as a document content description print command sequence) indicating the print content of the document is arranged after the constraint presence / absence designation command 12A2. An example of the content of the document content description print command sequence 12A3 is the print command sequence shown in FIG. 15 or FIG. By attaching a single-sided / double-sided print designation command 12A4 to the document content description print command sequence 12A3, one of single-sided printing and double-sided printing is designated. Command for specifying whether or not there is a constraint
If the double-sided print designation command is omitted, the previous designated value is used. If there is no previous specified value, it is regarded as the initial value. In this embodiment, the initial value is an unconstrained command or single-sided printing, but may be a restricted command or double-sided printing. The print protocol designation command 12A1 and the constraint presence / absence designation command 12A2 may be combined into a print protocol designation command 12A1.

As described above, by providing the constraint command and the print control system corresponding to the constraint command, the blank drawing process by the drawing management task in the blank drawing centralized processing system and the blank drawing process by the individual drawing task in the blank drawing distributed processing system. Can be simplified and speeded up in the case of a constraint command.

Therefore, in this embodiment, in addition to the effects obtained in the first and second embodiments, an effect of improving the drawing performance almost proportional to the number of processors can be obtained.

In the constraint command, a print command sequence for each page is cut out and then transferred from the shared memory to a local memory in a processor module corresponding to each individual drawing task. May be performed by each individual drawing task. In this case, when accessing the print command sequence by each individual drawing task, there is an effect that access conflict unlike the case of the shared memory does not occur. However, the transfer time is extra.

Further, by providing a page break which is easier to detect than a page break command as described below, the speed of page cutout can be further increased, and the load of blank drawing can be further reduced.

(1) SCSI (Small Computer System)
Interface), a Print command is issued separately for each page. (2) As described in the above-described restricted PDL, a page break is easily distinguished from the description of page contents such as 10C, 10D, and 10E. A special descriptor that can be attached is provided.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The software configuration and the configuration of the printer engine adapter unit 2 use the ones shown in FIGS. 6, 9, and 10, as in the case of the first embodiment. Although the hardware configuration shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 can be used, other configurations can be adopted. The hardware configuration will be described later.

The present embodiment is intended for high-speed printing of a one-page document or the first page of a document called first print.

For this reason, one page is divided into a plurality of areas, and each processor performs drawing for each area as individual drawing task processing for each area.
Each page is drawn at high speed.

Further, when the drawing for all the areas constituting one page is completed, the print task is started in the same manner as shown in FIG. The print task is processed in parallel with the individual drawing task for another processor, and is processed in parallel for the same processor. Therefore, high-speed printing can be realized even for a document including a plurality of pages. The processing method described in the fourth embodiment is referred to as an intra-page parallel processing method.

This will be described in more detail. A host communication controller (151-a or 15-
The print command sequence is received via 1-b) and stored in the command buffer unit in the shared memory (141 or 142).

The MPU 101 divides one page from the area 1 to the area K, acquires one free partial page buffer for the area 1, and renders the area 1 with the first slave processor SPU1 (111). , By invoking a process referred to as an in-page mode individual drawing task process 1. Similarly, one free partial page buffer is obtained for each region k, and drawing to the main region k is performed on the k-th page. The slave processor SPUk is instructed by activating a process called an in-page mode individual drawing task process k.

Each k-th slave processor SPUk
In the in-page mode individual drawing task process k, the setting process and the drawing process of the drawing attribute parameter using the region k as the clipping area are performed until the page break is detected. , And terminates this processing.

When the MPU receives the processing completion report for each area by each SPU, it releases each SPU of the reporting source.

When the MPU receives the processing completion report for each area by each SPU from all the areas, the print task (322)
1, 3222, 3223, etc.).

In the processing of this print task, the contents of the partial page buffers corresponding to the areas 1 to K are read out in an order necessary for forming one page, and output to the printer engine unit 18.

The MPU notifies the printer engine adapter unit 1 of the completion of reading from each of the rendered partial page buffers.
Upon knowing from the printer engine adapter unit 2 or an interrupt signal from each SPU, the MPU releases the partial page buffer.

Further, processing other than printing by the master processor and printing processing are performed in parallel, and processing by the master processor and processing by each of the slave processors are performed in parallel.

Next, the hardware configuration will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

The system shown in FIG. 19 is called a processor-based local bus connection system. This is basically the same as the case of FIGS. 2 to 5. The difference is that each processor module 100, 1
Local memory 103, 113, 1 in 10, 120, etc.
23 is used as a partial page buffer which can correspond to the above-mentioned areas 1, 2,..., Area K. Here, the reason for calling it with a partial page buffer is
Because each area corresponds to a part of a page, a full page buffer including one entire page is not necessarily required.

In FIG. 19, for example, region 1, region 2,..., Region K are represented by 13A1, 13A2,
.., 13A3 are arranged on the local memory.

The hardware configuration shown in FIG. 20 can be employed. This configuration is hereinafter referred to as a matrix switch coupling system. In this configuration, a plurality of slave processors and a plurality of partial page buffers are connected to each other by a switch between an arbitrary slave processor and an arbitrary partial page buffer. It was configured so that

FIG. 21 shows an example of a print result. 141, 1
“Abc”, “def”, “gh” shown in FIGS.
i ”, the partial page buffers 1, 2,
3 on regions 1, 2, and 3. In this figure, 14
Numeral 4 is a conceptual line for indicating a boundary between areas, and is not output as a print result.

The page buffer read circuit operates as follows.

(1) If a set of partial page buffers having continuous addresses is assigned to the area 1, the area 2,..., The area K, a conventional read circuit is sufficient.

(2) If assignment other than that is permitted, it is necessary to devise a circuit.

That is, a set of partial page buffers constituting one page is registered, and when reading from one partial page buffer is completed, a mechanism for switching the raster read address to the start address of the next partial page buffer is required.

In the case of the local bus installation method corresponding to the processor, a set of partial page buffers on different local buses is registered.

In the case of the matrix switch connection method, an arbitrary set of partial page buffers is registered.

FIG. 2 shows a set of partial page buffers.
The vertical combination shown in Fig. 2 is supported. If the vertical and horizontal combinations shown in FIG. 23 are also supported, the partial page buffer can be used more efficiently.

According to this embodiment, a one-page document and a first print can be printed at a high speed.

According to the contents of the document, such as the total number of pages and the distinction between the restricted command and the unrestricted command, the host computer or the printing control apparatus can execute (a) the in-page parallel processing method and (b) the per-page parallel processing method This is a method for performing parallel processing for each page.
(B-2) The paper size fixed type blank drawing centralized processing method, (b-
3) Any one of the paper size assumption type blank drawing concentrated processing methods) can be selected, switched, and executed. Further, according to the content of the document, an appropriate one ((b-1), (b-2),
(B-3) may be selected and switched by the host computer or the print control device and executed.

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described. The present embodiment is for responding to another type of host computer transmission command shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the control information relating to the paper described later is designated by a separately provided load command, and other drawing attribute parameters (character pitch, line pitch, italic, double-width, underline, etc.) Enabled to specify by drawing / print contents specification command. Specifically, a font load command 2612 and a format load command 2613
And the sheet control information load command 2614 before the drawing / print content designation command 262 for the first page, the font, format, and sheet control parameters received from the host are respectively stored in the print control device 11. Store in advance. The font, format, and paper control parameters are used in drawing and printing of the first page and thereafter. However, the paper control parameters can be changed before any subsequent pages.

Drawing / print contents designation commands 262, 26
Reference numeral 3 includes, as its subcommands, a row of various drawing attribute parameter setting subcommands and various drawing subcommands, and specifies drawing / printing contents of one page of characters, graphics, images, and the like. If there is a subcommand that specifies a page break in this subcommand, it is considered that there is no subsequent subcommand sequence.

A paper control information load command 2614
Are subcommands for single-sided / double-sided printing, paper feeder, paper discharger, paper size, number of prints,
It includes a sequence of subcommands for specifying the printing direction (portrait / landscape), and specifies these various paper control parameters.

In the example of FIG. 26, a font load command 2612, a format load command 2613, and a paper control information load command 261 are used in the first to n-1 pages.
4, the newly loaded font load command 2641 and format load command 2
The font, format, and paper control parameters loaded by the 642 and the paper control information load command 2643 are used. The case where any of these three types of load commands is not permitted is also permitted.

A software configuration employed in this embodiment for processing the various load commands in addition to the conventional commands will be described with reference to FIG. In this configuration, an editing command buffer unit 331 is provided in the task processing unit 32 in addition to the command buffer unit 33 in the monitor unit 31 in FIG. Main editing command buffer section 33
In FIG. 29, each page is divided into pages, and each page is composed of a control information section and a drawing / print content designation command (see FIG. 29).

In this configuration, the following tasks are newly provided in order to correspond to the commands shown in FIG.

Command task 320 Print management task 3220 FIG. 28 shows the functions of the new task and various tasks related to drawing and printing.

(1) Command Task (1-a) The command task exists for each command.

(1-b) The command task for the font load command and format load command sets necessary data in a memory or a table.

(1-c) The command task for the paper control information load command sets various paper control parameters specified as subcommands of this command in the paper control parameter table.

(1-d) The command task for the drawing / print contents designation command performs the following processing.

(1-d-1) Create a control information section for one page. Specifically, the paper control parameters for this page are copied from the contents of the paper control parameter table and set in the fixed area at the head of each page of the edit command buffer unit 331 (for example, 3311-1 in FIG. 29).

(1-d-2) The sequence of the various drawing attribute parameter setting subcommands and the various drawing subcommands, which are the contents of the drawing / print content designation command, are transferred from the command buffer unit 33 to the editing command buffer unit 331. .

(1-d-3) Edit command buffer unit 3
Each time the data for one page is prepared in 31, a message (29M1) is transmitted to the drawing management task (3210 in FIG. 29).

(2) Drawing management task (2-a) The task is started by receiving a message or a report from the SPU.

(2-b) Acquire and release the SPU and page buffer as needed.

(2-c) A message indicating that data for one page from the command task has been prepared (29M
If 1), an SPU and a page buffer are acquired for this page, and then the individual drawing task (3211,
3212 ...).

(2-d) When the drawing completion report of the individual drawing task is received from the SPU, the print management task 3220
The start request message (29M2) is sent to the edit command buffer management table (29C), and the edit command buffer state for the corresponding page is set to “drawing completed state”.

(2-e) When a page buffer reading end interrupt occurs, this interrupt processing transmits a page release request message to the drawing management task (3210).
Upon receiving this message, the drawing management task sets the edit command buffer state of the read page to an empty state, releases the edit command buffer, and sets the read page buffer (29C1, 29C2,
, 29C3) is released.

(3) Individual drawing tasks 1 to M (3-a) Perform drawing for the page buffer specified by the drawing management task.

(3-b) When the drawing of one page is completed, the fact is reported to the drawing management task.

(4) Print Management Task (4-a) Select and activate a print task for printing the drawing completed page buffer.

(5) Print tasks 1 to N (5-a) Print processing for one page.

Next, a processing method of a host transmission command in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In this system, the following are provided as buffer memories and management tables in addition to those in FIG.

(1) Font memory (29A1): A memory for storing various fonts such as Mincho and Gothic fonts. Stores dot fonts and outline fonts separately. Dot fonts are stored separately by size.

(2) Font attribute memory (29A2):
It consists of attributes of each font (font name, distinction between dot font / outline font, dot font size, etc.), and a correspondence table between character codes and each character font address.

Form memory (29B): Memory for storing a form. For example, it is expressed as a set of a format ID and format contents (mixed data of characters, graphics, and images).

(3) Edit command buffer management table (29C): A table for managing the edit command buffer unit 331. It consists of an edit command buffer state (drawing waiting, drawing, drawing completed, empty) corresponding to each page, an edit command buffer read pointer corresponding to each page, and the like.

Next, the processing method of the host transmission command will be described with reference to FIG.

(1) First, the host communication control unit 312
One of the commands shown in FIG. 26 is received in the internal buffer (291-1).

(2) The command is stored in the command buffer unit 33 in response to the interrupt processing of the host communication control unit in the MPU (291-2).

(3) When the command is stored in the command buffer 33, the command task 320 corresponding to each command is started (291-3). The command task 32 performs the following processing.

In the case of the font load command, the font data received from the host is set in the font memory 29A1 and the font attribute memory 29A2 by executing this command.

In the case of a format load command, the format data received from the host is set in the format memory 29B by executing this command.

In the paper control information load command, various paper control parameters specified by the subcommand of this command are set in the paper control parameter table (not shown in FIG. 29).

In the case of a drawing / printing content designation command, FIG.
As described in (1-d) of FIG. 8, the control information section for each page and the drawing / printing content designation command are stored in the editing command buffer section 331, and the drawing management task 3210 is performed every time information of one page is prepared. Send message 29M1 to (2
92). The creation of the control information section 3311 for each page by the command task 320 corresponds to the centralized blank drawing method described above.

(4) 1 in the edit command buffer unit 331
The message 29 indicates that the data for the page has been prepared.
The drawing management task 3210 learned from the reception of the M1 is obtained from (2-b) in the description column of the drawing management task in FIG.
Perform the processing shown in -c). That is, the SPU and the page buffer are acquired, the edit command buffer state of the relevant page in the edit command buffer management table 29C is set to “drawing wait state”, and then the acquired SPU (SPUx
) And a separate drawing task for the page buffer,
It is started in the same manner as in the above embodiment.

(5) The activated individual drawing task (321)
1, 3212, 3213, etc.), when drawing for one page is completed, an end report is made to the drawing management task 3210 in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment.

[0313] The communication method between the drawing management task 3210 and the individual drawing tasks (3211, 3212, 3213, etc.) may be as follows.

An SPU management task x for communicating with each SPUx is provided on the MPU. That is, 321
SPU management tasks 3211A, 3212A, and 321 correspond to individual drawing tasks such as 1, 3212, and 3213.
3A or the like is provided. Then, each SPU management task x
The communication between PUx and the MPU is mediated by using the message sending / receiving function, which is one function of the kernel unit 311.

The drawing management task 3210 starts the SPU management task x without directly starting the individual drawing task x on the SPU in the above (4).

The SPU management task x activates the SPUx and instructs the SPU to execute the individual drawing task x.

When the drawing for one page is completed, the individual drawing task x on the SPU notifies the SPU management task x on the MPU to that effect using the same communication method between processors as in the above-described embodiment. .

The SPU management task x received the above notification
Notifies the drawing management task 3210 to that effect using the above-described message transmission function.

(6) When the drawing management task 3210 knows that the drawing of one page has been completed by the individual drawing task x, it sends an activation request message 29M2 to the print management task.

(7) Upon receiving the activation request message 29M2, the print management task selects a print task for printing the page buffer for which drawing has been completed, and then selects the print task (3221, 3222, 3223, or the like). Start

(8) The print task performs print processing for the page buffer for which drawing has been completed, in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment.

Note that the function of the print management task can be realized as a part of the function of the drawing management task.

According to the present embodiment, the printing throughput can be improved by utilizing the multiprocessor even when drawing and printing are performed after fonts and formats are pre-loaded.

In this embodiment, the contents of the command buffer unit 33 are converted into the contents of the edit command buffer unit 331 divided for each page, and the conventional drawing and printing processes are performed using a multiprocessor. So you can
Also for the above-described restricted command, the printing throughput can be improved as in the case of the unrestricted command.

In the above embodiment, the master processor and the slave processor may have the four items of errors shown in FIG. 30, that is, SPU exception, SPU non-response, MPU exception, and MPU non-response errors. For each error item, (a) a processor (error detection unit) for detecting the error, (b) an error processing name,
(C) The contents of the error processing are as shown in the figure. Note that no response from the SPU to the MPU and no response from the MPU to the SPU for the error items 2 and 4 are shown in FIGS.
This is an error when there is no communication that should be present between the processors as described in the above section.

By providing the above error processing, even when an error occurs in the master processor or the slave processor, the printing process can be continued without any trouble using the remaining processors except for the processor in which the error has occurred.

In the above embodiment, the print control device can be realized as one function of the host computer 10 by using any of the following methods.

(1) The print control device is realized as one print control adapter or print control board in the host computer, a multiprocessor is mounted on the adapter or board, and the multiprocessor unit has the functions described above. Mount.

(2) The print control device is realized as software processing by the main processor of the host computer. At this time, the main processor is realized as a multiprocessor, and the multiprocessor unit has the functions described above.

In a multiprocessor type print control device
Since a plurality of slave processors can perform processes such as drawing in parallel under the control of the master processor, the processing capability of the print control device can be improved. In particular, since the blank drawing is adopted, the parallel drawing process by a plurality of processors becomes easy.

In a print control apparatus using the blank drawing centralized processing system (paper size fixed type blank drawing centralized processing system or paper size assumed blank drawing centralized processing system), the drawing management task performs blank drawing, The individual drawing task executes the actual drawing in parallel on another processor. In addition, the printing process for each page buffer that has been drawn by the actual drawing can be executed in parallel with the blank drawing and in parallel with the real drawing.

Also in the blank drawing distributed processing method, a plurality of individual drawing tasks execute parallel drawing on different processors in parallel, and print processing for each page buffer that has been drawn by the actual drawing is performed by the actual drawing. Can be executed in parallel.

Therefore, in the blank drawing centralized processing method and the blank drawing distributed processing method, since the actual drawing processing is executed in parallel, even if the drawing time per page exceeds the printer mechanism printing time per page, printing is performed. The highest performance of the printer can be achieved as the throughput. Further, since the drawing and the printing are performed in parallel, the maximum performance of the printer can be achieved even in the continuous printing of a document including a plurality of pages in which the printing content of each page is different. Further, since a general-purpose processor is used as the plurality of processors, the drawing performance and the printing performance can be improved even for a document in which each page includes only characters or graphics.

In the case of using the variable-length page buffer control among the blank drawing centralized processing system and the blank drawing distributed processing system, only a page buffer of a required size is obtained according to the paper size. Printing can be realized with a small total page buffer capacity. Furthermore, when printing on small paper sizes, a large number of page buffers can be allocated, so even if some pages with a large drawing load are mixed, the printer engine can perform at the highest performance without lowering the average print throughput. There is also an effect that it is possible to realize printing.

In the blank drawing distributed processing method, unlike the blank drawing concentrated processing method, blank drawing is performed by an individual drawing task. Therefore, when the load of the empty drawing is small, the number M of individual drawing tasks is changed to the total number of slave processors K +
By assigning each individual drawing task m to one of the slave processors and the master processor, the printing throughput can be improved compared to the blank drawing central processing method.

In addition to supporting the constraint command, in the print control process corresponding to the constraint command, only a clear page break is detected in the blank rendering process, and the rendering attribute parameter setting process is not performed. I'm done. Therefore, by providing a constraint command and a print control method corresponding to the constraint command, the blank drawing process in the blank drawing concentrated processing method and the blank drawing distributed processing method can be simplified and accelerated in the case of the constraint command.

Therefore, with respect to the constraint command, in addition to the effects shown in the blank drawing concentrated processing method and the blank drawing distributed processing, an effect of improving the drawing performance almost proportional to the number of processors can be obtained.

In a print control apparatus of the intra-page parallel processing system, drawing for each page is divided into a plurality of areas, and another processor executes each area in parallel.
Further, the printing process for each page buffer after the drawing is executed in parallel with the drawing.

Therefore, in the print control apparatus of the intra-page parallel processing system, not only high-speed continuous printing is performed, but also
Documents consisting of one page and first print can be printed at high speed.

Also, by using a method in which drawing and printing are performed after fonts and formats are loaded in advance, the printing throughput can be improved by utilizing the multiprocessor even in such a case.

By converting the contents of the command buffer section into the contents of the edit command buffer section divided for each page and then performing a normal drawing and printing process using a multiprocessor, the restriction command Also,
The same high printing throughput as that of the unrestricted command is obtained.

Further, by devising a processing method at the time of a processor error, even if an error occurs in the master processor or the slave processor, the printing process can be continued without any trouble using the remaining processors excluding the processor in which the error has occurred. it can.

[0343]

According to the present invention, drawing processing is performed in parallel.
By doing so, it is possible to realize a suitable printing process
You.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a print control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a first basic configuration of hardware of the print control apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a second basic configuration of hardware of the print control apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a third basic configuration of hardware of the print control apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a fourth basic configuration of hardware of the print control apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for describing a processing procedure of a paper size fixed type blank drawing centralized processing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure of a paper size assumed type blank drawing concentrated processing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a configuration of the printer engine adapter unit 2 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining another configuration of the printer engine adapter unit 2 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a printing procedure of the entire print control apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining another printing procedure of the entire printing control apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining still another printing procedure of the entire print control apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a blank drawing distributed processing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a constraint command according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 shows a restricted PDL according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for describing processing of a restricted command and an unconstrained command by a host computer and a print control device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining a format of a host computer transmission command according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining an SPU-compatible local bus coupling system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a diagram for explaining a matrix switch coupling system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print result according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating a method for dividing a page area according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining another method of dividing a page area according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a diagram for explaining a communication method between the MPU and the SPU in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a diagram for explaining contact information between processors on a shared memory in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a format of a host computer transmission command according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a print control apparatus according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a diagram for explaining functions of a new task and a drawing / printing-related task in the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating a processing method of a host transmission command according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a diagram for describing processing specifications at the time of a processor error in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Host computer, 11 Print control device, 12
... system bus, 13 ... video bus 1, 100 ... master processor module, 110 ... slave processor module, 120 ... slave processor module, 1
Reference numeral 30: System bus arbitration unit, 1331: Video bus 1 arbitration unit, 141: Shared memory, 171-b: Printer engine adapter unit 2, 19: Operation panel unit, 18: Printer engine unit, 101: Master processor, 103: Local Memory, 111 ... Slave processor 1, 113
... local memory, 121 ... slave processor K, 1
23 local memory, 31 monitor unit, 311 kernel unit, 312 host communication control unit, 313 command buffer control unit, 314 file control unit, 315 page buffer control unit, 316 printer control unit, 33 ...
Command buffer section, 34 ... Page buffer section, 32 ...
Task processing unit 321, drawing task unit 3210 drawing management task 3211 individual drawing task 1 3212
Individual drawing task 2, 3213 ... individual drawing task M, 32
2 print task section, 3221 print task 1, 3222
... Print task 2, 3223... Print task N, 323.

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-60-178681 (JP, A) JP-A-60-205630 (JP, A) JP-A-2-108567 (JP, A) JP-A-3-178466 (JP) , A) JP-A-4-22648 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 5/30 B41J 29/38 G06F 3/12

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print control method for outputting print information based on a print command sequence to a print engine , wherein the format information of each page is converted to the format information of a page preceding the page.
Information or a print command of the page, and the print command sequence and each page obtained by the step.
Assigning page format information to each of a plurality of processors for each page, and developing bitmaps in parallel based on the print command sequence and the format information of each page, and printing information for each page. Generating, and each of the plurality of processors, the step of notifying the end of the development to the bitmap, receiving the development end notification, outputting the print information to a print engine in a predetermined order, A print control method comprising: 2. A print control apparatus for outputting print information based on a print command sequence to a print engine, comprising: a first processor and one or more second processors ; Format information
Format information of the page before the page or the print frame of the page
Obtained from the command, the format of each page and the print command string
Information is assigned to each of the second processors on a page-by-page basis, and a notification of completion of generation of print information is received from the second processor on a page-by-page basis, and the print information of the page is printed in a predetermined order by the print engine. and outputs to the second processor, respectively, the first based on the page unit of the format information and the assigned print command sequence from the processor, the print information by the deployment of the bitmap in parallel in units of pages And a notification of completion of bitmap development to the first processor. 3. A printing system for printing print information based on a print command sequence, comprising: a first processor unit; one or more second processor units; and a print engine unit. The section stores the format information of each page
The format information of the page before the page or the print
Obtained from the command, the writing of each page and the print command string
Expression information is assigned to each of the second processor units in page units, and a notification of the end of print information generation is received in page units from the second processor unit, and the print information of the pages is arranged in a predetermined order. output in the print engine, the second processor unit, respectively, based on the first page unit format information allocated from the processor unit and the print command sequence, expanded bitmap in parallel in units of pages To generate print information and notify the first processor unit of the end of bitmap development, and the print engine unit prints the print information output in a predetermined order by the first processor unit. A printing system, characterized in that: