JP6323393B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic device including a flash memory.

  Conventionally, when the power is turned off while recording data on a recording medium, the data being recorded cannot be read. Therefore, various ideas have been made to reduce the loss of data that was being recorded.

  For example, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, when writing data to a mini-disc, instead of writing the final write end address to the mini-disc after all the data has been written, each fine recording unit is written. Is written to an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory).

  By providing two EEPROMs and recording the write end address alternately, the contents of the other EEPROM are protected even if a power interruption occurs while the write end address is being written to one EEPROM. It is said that.

JP-A-11-167787

  However, the technique of Patent Document 1 is a technique for an EEPROM capable of erasing data in units of bytes, and does not consider a flash memory that can be erased only in units of blocks.

  In the case of a flash memory, since writing must be performed after erasing in units of blocks, the time required for writing after initialization is long.

  For this reason, there is a problem that the probability of encountering a power interruption increases compared to the case where the time required for writing is short.

  In view of the circumstances as described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device that shortens the writing time to the flash memory and reduces the probability of inappropriate data writing due to power interruption.

  In order to achieve the above object, an electronic device according to an aspect of the present invention controls a plurality of flash memories that are initialized in units of blocks, and the initialization and data input / output for each flash memory. A flash memory control unit, wherein the flash memory control unit performs a process of writing the data into one flash memory and a process of initializing the flash memory different from the flash memory in which the data is written. Do it in parallel. As a result, the writing time to the flash memory can be shortened, and the probability of inappropriate data writing due to power failure can be reduced.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the electronic apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, the flash memory control unit may be configured to write the data to a different flash memory each time.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the electronic device according to an aspect of the present invention, the flash memory includes a first flash memory and a second flash memory, and the flash memory control unit includes the first flash memory. The second flash memory is initialized in parallel with the writing of the data into the second flash memory, and the first flash memory is initialized in parallel with the writing of the data into the second flash memory. Good.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to shorten the writing time to the flash memory and reduce the probability of inappropriate data writing due to power interruption.

1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the example of operation | movement in flash ROM26a and 26b. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the flow of a process with respect to flash ROM26a and 26b.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, an image forming apparatus (MFP, Multifunction Peripheral) will be described as an example of the electronic apparatus according to the present invention.

  When the image forming apparatus is leased and sold, the number of sheets printed by the image forming apparatus is counted by a counter (not shown) and charged based on the counter value. It is important to securely store the counter value in the flash memory.

  In the following description, the flash memory is referred to as a flash ROM (Read-Only Memory).

  Although the present invention is mainly directed to a NOR type flash ROM, it is not limited to the NOR type as long as it is a flash ROM that requires initialization (block erase) in units of blocks in order to erase data on the storage medium. Can be applied.

[Constitution]
First, the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The image forming apparatus 20 includes a control unit 21. The control unit 21 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), a ROM, a dedicated hardware circuit, and the like, and controls overall operation of the image forming apparatus 20.

  The control unit 21 includes an image reading unit 22, an image processing unit 23, an image memory 24, an image forming unit 25, flash ROMs (flash memories) 26a and 26b, an operation unit 27, a facsimile communication unit 28, a network interface unit 29, and an auxiliary storage. Connected to the unit 30 and the like. The control unit 21 performs operation control of each of the above connected units, and transmission / reception of signals or data to / from each unit.

  The control unit 21 performs operation control on each function such as a scanner function, a print function, a copy function, and a facsimile transmission / reception function in accordance with a job execution instruction input from the user through the operation unit 27 or a network-connected PC. Controls the drive and processing of the mechanisms necessary to execute.

  Further, the control unit 21 has a flash ROM control unit (flash memory control unit) 21a. The flash ROM control unit 21a is a functional block realized by the CPU executing a program loaded from the ROM or the like to the RAM.

  The flash ROM control unit 21a controls initialization for each block and data input / output for each page with respect to the flash ROM (first flash memory) 26a and the flash ROM (second flash memory) 26b.

  The image reading unit 22 reads an image from a document.

  The image processing unit 23 performs image processing on the image data of the image read by the image reading unit 22 as necessary. For example, the image processing unit 23 performs image processing such as shading correction in order to improve the quality after the image read by the image reading unit 22 is formed.

  The image memory 24 is an area for temporarily storing document image data obtained by reading by the image reading unit 22 or temporarily storing data to be printed by the image forming unit 25.

  The image forming unit 25 forms an image of the image data read by the image reading unit 22.

  The flash ROMs 26a and 26b store counter values that are frequently updated.

  The operation unit 27 includes a touch panel unit and operation key units that receive instructions from the user regarding various operations and processes that can be executed by the image forming apparatus 20. The touch panel unit includes a display unit 27a such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) provided with a touch panel.

  The facsimile communication unit 28 includes an encoding / decoding unit, a modulation / demodulation unit, and an NCU (Network Control Unit) (not shown), and performs facsimile transmission using a public telephone line network.

  The network interface unit 29 includes a communication module such as a LAN board, and transmits and receives various data to and from a device (such as a PC) in the local area via a LAN or the like connected to the network interface unit 29.

  The auxiliary storage unit 30 is a large-capacity storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that stores a document image read by the image reading unit 22.

  The configuration of the image forming apparatus 20 has been described above.

[Operation example]
Next, an example of operation in the flash ROMs 26a and 26b will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of operations in the flash ROMs 26a and 26b. As a premise for the following description, it is assumed that Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized.

  When the counter value is updated, the flash ROM control unit 21a first initializes Block2 of the flash ROM 26b while writing the updated counter value to the page in Block1 of the flash ROM 26a (1b). ).

  When the counter value is updated again, the flash ROM control unit 21a initializes Block2 of the flash ROM 26a while writing the updated counter value to the page in Block2 of the flash ROM 26b (2b). ).

  When the counter value is further updated, the flash ROM control unit 21a initializes Block1 of the flash ROM 26b while writing the updated counter value to the page in Block2 of the flash ROM 26a (3b). .

  When the counter value is further updated, the flash ROM control unit 21a initializes Block1 of the flash ROM 26a while writing the updated counter value to the page in Block1 of the flash ROM 26b (4b). .

  When the counter value is further updated, the flash ROM control unit 21a is repeated so as to write the updated counter value to the page in Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a.

  As described above, the flash ROM control unit 21a writes the counter value (data) to a different flash ROM each time.

  In this way, while writing data to one flash ROM, the other flash ROM is erased in parallel, so when writing data to one flash ROM, block erase occurs after a write request occurs. The time required for writing can be shortened as compared with the case of performing.

  The example of the operation in the flash ROMs 26a and 26b has been described above.

[Process flow]
Next, the processing flow for the flash ROMs 26a and 26b will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing for the flash ROMs 26a and 26b. In the following description, assuming that Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized, the process from “start” to “end” in the flowchart representing one writing is performed four times in succession. It will be described as

  When the counter value is updated, the flash ROM control unit 21a first determines whether or not Block1 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (step S201).

  When Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (Yes in step S201), the flash ROM control unit 21a writes the updated counter value to the page in Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a (S202), and the flash ROM 26b. Block 2 initialization processing (S203) is performed in parallel.

  When the counter value is updated again, the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block1 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (step S201).

  When Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a has not been initialized (No in Step S201), the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block 1 of the flash ROM 26b has been initialized (Step S204).

  When Block 1 of the flash ROM 26b has not been initialized (No in Step S204), the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block 2 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (Step S207).

  When Block 2 of the flash ROM 26a has not been initialized (No at Step S207), the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether Block 2 of the flash ROM 26b has been initialized (Step S210).

  When Block 2 of the flash ROM 26b has been initialized (Yes in step S210), the flash ROM control unit 21a writes the updated counter value to the page in Block 2 of the flash ROM 26b (S211), and the flash ROM 26a. Block 2 initialization processing (S212) is performed in parallel.

  When the counter value is updated again, the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block1 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (step S201).

  When Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a has not been initialized (No in Step S201), the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block 1 of the flash ROM 26b has been initialized (Step S204).

  When Block 1 of the flash ROM 26b has not been initialized (No in Step S204), the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block 2 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (Step S207).

  When Block 2 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (Yes in step S207), the flash ROM control unit 21a writes the updated counter value to the page in Block 2 of the flash ROM 26a (S208), and the flash ROM 26b. Block 1 initialization processing (S209) is performed in parallel.

  When the counter value is updated again, the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block1 of the flash ROM 26a has been initialized (step S201).

  When Block 1 of the flash ROM 26a has not been initialized (No in Step S201), the flash ROM control unit 21a determines whether or not Block 1 of the flash ROM 26b has been initialized (Step S204).

  When Block 1 of the flash ROM 26b has been initialized (Yes in Step S204), the flash ROM control unit 21a writes the updated counter value to the page in Block 1 of the flash ROM 26b (S205), and the flash ROM 26a. Block 1 initialization processing (S206) is performed in parallel.

  If the counter value is updated again after the processing of step S206, the flash ROM control unit 21a repeats the processing from step S201.

  The processing flow for the flash ROMs 26a and 26b has been described above.

[Additional notes]
In addition, this invention is not limited only to the above-mentioned embodiment, Of course, various changes can be added within the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 ... Image forming apparatus 21 ... Control part 21a ... Flash ROM control part 22 ... Image reading part 23 ... Image processing part 24 ... Image memory 25 ... Image forming part 26a ... Flash ROM
26b ... Flash ROM
27 ... Operation unit 28 ... Facsimile communication unit 29 ... Network interface unit 30 ... Storage unit

Claims (3)

Multiple flash memories that are initialized in blocks, and
An image forming apparatus comprising: a flash memory control unit that controls the initialization and data input / output for each flash memory ;
The flash memory control unit
Determining whether one block of one flash memory has been initialized;
If it is determined that the block has been initialized,
There line in parallel with the processing of the initialization for different the flash memory and the flash memory is being written one of said writing the data to the block of the already initialized the flash memory process and the data,
If it is determined that the block has not been initialized,
One block of one flash memory is initialized until it is determined that one block of the flash memory different from the flash memory having the uninitialized block has been initialized Repeat the process of determining whether or not
An image forming apparatus . The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
The plurality of flash memories include at least a first flash memory and a second flash memory,
The first flash memory has at least a first block and a second block;
The second flash memory has at least a third block and a fourth block,
The flash memory control unit
(1) When the data is updated, it is determined whether or not the first block of the first flash memory has been initialized. When it is determined that the first block has been initialized, A first process in which a process of writing updated data to a page in one block and an initialization process of the fourth block of the second flash memory are performed in parallel;
(2) When the data is updated again, it is determined whether or not the first block has been initialized. If it is determined that the first block has not been initialized, the data in the second flash memory is determined. It is determined whether or not the third block has been initialized. If it is determined that the third block has not been initialized, it is determined whether or not the second block of the first flash memory has been initialized. If it is determined that the second block has not been initialized, it is determined whether the fourth block has been initialized, and if it is determined that the fourth block has been initialized, the fourth block A second process for performing in parallel the process of writing updated data to the page in the page and the initialization process of the second block;
(3) When the data is updated again, it is determined whether or not the first block has been initialized. If it is determined that the first block has not been initialized, the third block is initialized. If the third block is not initialized, it is determined whether the second block has been initialized, and the second block has been initialized. The third process for performing the process of writing the updated data on the page in the second block and the initialization process of the third block in parallel,
(4) When the data is updated again, it is determined whether or not the first block has been initialized. If it is determined that the first block has not been initialized, the third block is initialized. If it is determined whether the third block has been initialized, a process of writing updated data to a page in the third block, and initialization of the first block And a fourth process that performs the process in parallel.
When the data is updated again after executing the fourth process, the process from the first process is repeated.
An image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2,
A counter for counting the number of sheets printed by the image forming apparatus;
The data written to the flash memory is a counter value as the number counted by the counter.
An image forming apparatus.

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