JP6852762B2 - Image forming device and arbitration program executed by the image forming device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of independently switching a guest OS by an authentication method and a program executed by such an image forming apparatus.

With the progress of information and communication technology in recent years, computer virtualization technology is being applied to various fields. In such virtualization technology, for example, using a hypervisor, in addition to a main OS (Operating System) (hereinafter, also referred to as “host OS”), one or a plurality of different OSs (hereinafter, also referred to as “host OS”). Then, it is possible to execute "guest OS") simultaneously on common hardware.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-256066 (Patent Document 1) discloses an environment in which a plurality of operating systems coexisting in a single system can be switched and used at high speed.

In addition, "IBM PowerVM Virtualization Active Memory Sharing" (Non-Patent Document 1) combines a plurality of logical memory partitions (LPAR: Logical PARtition) into one common physical memory space and shares them among multiple OSs as a logical memory partition allocation destination. Disclose the system to be used.

Generally, when one or more guest OSes are executed simultaneously in addition to the host OS, a larger memory space is required in proportion to the number of OSs (particularly the host OS) to be executed. .. Therefore, many virtualization technologies are provided with a mechanism for allowing overcommitment when the upper limit of the system memory prepared in hardware is exceeded by executing the guest OS. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-157476 (Patent Document 2) discloses a configuration for detecting a shortage of physical resources shared between virtual machines.

As a specific example of the mechanism that allows overcommitment, a memory area used as a memory space is secured in a secondary storage device such as a hard disk, and the contents stored in the system memory are temporarily stored in the secured memory area. The process of saving is included.

However, since the secondary storage device such as a hard disk is inferior in responsiveness to a system memory such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), it takes a long time to switch from the host OS to the guest OS, for example. Such problems are difficult to solve with finite resources. With sufficiently large resources, the possibility of such problems occurring can be reduced.

Even in the image forming apparatus, the available resources cannot be increased so much due to cost constraints. In particular, it is common to adopt cost-effective hardware rather than hardware with high processing performance as in the latest computing environment. Under such cost constraints, the image forming apparatus is designed with a memory configuration so that jobs can be processed with higher priority.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-238665 (Patent Document 3) describes a first OS in which processing related to image formation is performed by a device control firmware using hardware resources, and a first OS different from the first OS and on the first OS. Disclosed is an image forming apparatus in which two OSs are configured to be operable. The device control firmware controls to start the second OS when a predetermined specific state is detected in association with the processing by the device control firmware, and also controls to execute the login process for the second OS. To do. In this image forming apparatus, the login procedure is simplified by using the first OS user name as the second OS user name, thereby speeding up the second OS login procedure.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-256066 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-157476 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-238665

"IBM PowerVM Virtualization Active Memory Sharing", Second Edition (June 2011), IBM International Technical Support Organization, June 2011

In order to make the image forming apparatus compatible with a plurality of authentication devices, it is necessary to realize an environment for executing an authentication program corresponding to each authentication device. Each of these multiple authentication programs is executed. A configuration suitable for such processing is required.

According to a disclosure of the present invention, a arbitration program that determines the guest OS according to the authentication device of the image forming apparatus and activates the necessary guest OS is added to the hypervisor, and the authentication device notifies the authentication operation. The arbitration program starts the guest OS in advance at the timing, thereby reducing the time delay when switching the guest OS.

An image forming apparatus according to a certain aspect of the present invention includes a host OS, a control firmware executed on the host OS and controlling the main control of the image forming apparatus, a plurality of authentication devices corresponding to a plurality of authentication methods, and a plurality of authentication devices. A plurality of independent authentication programs corresponding to each authentication method, a plurality of guest OSs different from the host OS for executing each of the plurality of authentication programs, and a hypervisor that manages the execution of the plurality of guest OSs. It includes an authentication management module that manages the combination with the guest OS required to execute the authentication program required for authentication on each authentication device. The authentication management module determines the guest OS required to execute the authentication program according to the signal from one of the authentication devices among the plurality of authentication devices, and determines the guest OS before executing the corresponding authentication program. To start.

Preferably, the image forming apparatus is an arbitration module that links the control firmware and the hypervisor, and a free memory that manages the memory space used by the control firmware for image processing and the memory space used for the authentication program of another guest OS. It includes a management means and a backup memory management module that can access the secondary storage device. The arbitration module manages empty pages with the same data size as the image block unit managed by the image memory in relation to the memory type for the main memory associated with the processor and the image memory associated with the image processing ASIC. The backup memory management module saves the memory related to the guest OS other than the guest OS necessary for executing the determined authentication program to the secondary storage device.

Preferably, the arbitration module sequentially transfers the data of the file memory related to the host OS to the secondary storage device in parallel when switching from the guest OS to another guest OS instead of the host OS after switching to the guest OS. The process of temporarily freezing the system memory used by the guest OS and the program running on the guest OS, and the process of sequentially transferring the temporarily frozen system memory to the file memory transferred to the secondary storage device in parallel. , The process of sequentially allocating the system memory that the previous guest OS has completed the transfer until it reaches the system memory required by the other guest OS, and the process of switching when the system memory that can operate the other guest OS is secured. And are operated continuously.

Preferably, the image forming apparatus determines whether to migrate the execution environment of a different OS to another apparatus and read out the paged-out memory area required for the migration in the job execution state. The determination means, the setting means for performing the initialization setting after the migration, and the transmission / reception means for transmitting and receiving the initialization procedure instruction required for the initialization setting are further included.

Preferably, the image forming apparatus requests an authentication method different from that of the current user when the current user authenticates and starts the job among the continuous jobs managed and executed by the control firmware. If the guest OS of the authentication method is paged out, prioritize the execution of the current user's job and make other users wait until the current user's job is completed, and change or change to the current user's authentication method. Do one of the warnings to do.

An image forming apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention includes a virtual memory control system capable of executing a program in different virtual memory spaces, a virtual interrupt control system capable of handling different interrupt information, and a virtual processor control handling different processors. It includes a hypervisor that manages the start, pause, restart, and stop of the execution environment of the system and a plurality of guest OSes, and an arbitration program that mediates between the host OS and the hypervisor. The arbitration program monitors changes in the amount of image memory space used in job execution controlled by the host OS, and monitors changes in the amount of memory space used by the authentication program in the execution environment of the guest OS.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program executed by an image forming apparatus including a plurality of authentication devices corresponding to a plurality of authentication methods. The program includes a host OS, a control firmware that is executed on the host OS and controls the main control of the image forming apparatus, a plurality of independent authentication programs corresponding to a plurality of authentication methods, and each of the plurality of authentication programs. A combination of multiple guest OSs different from the host OS for execution, a hypervisor that manages the execution of multiple guest OSes, and a guest OS required to execute the authentication program required for authentication on each authentication device. Includes an authentication management program that manages the operating system. The authentication management module determines the guest OS required to execute the authentication program according to the signal from one of the authentication devices among the plurality of authentication devices, and determines the guest OS before executing the corresponding authentication program. To start.

According to the present disclosure, the authentication process is performed by determining that the guest OS required for authentication is switched by the hypervisor depending on the type of the authenticated device when the image forming apparatus uses a plurality of authentication methods properly. It can be done at high speed.

It is schematic cross-sectional view which shows the whole structure of the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structure of the control part of the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the execution state of the program in the control part of the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the execution state of the authentication process in the control part of the image forming apparatus which follows this Embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining the addition procedure of the guest OS in the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining the processing procedure when there is an authentication request in the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the usage form of the block-divided image memory in the control part of the image forming apparatus according to this Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the management method of the block-divided image memory in the control part of the image forming apparatus according to this Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of data management among a plurality of memories in the control part of the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the usage form of the memory space in the control part of the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure which concerns on memory management in the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure for the job which requires the authentication processing in the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure which concerns on the monitoring of the memory usage in the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the execution state of the authentication process which the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment cooperates with other apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure which concerns on migration in the image forming apparatus which follows this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure when the authentication processing for a plurality of users by the image forming apparatus which follows this Embodiment conflicts.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The same or corresponding parts in the drawings are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will not be repeated.

<A. Overall configuration of image forming device>
First, the overall configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the overall configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. With reference to FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 includes an automatic document feeder 2, an image scanner 3, a print engine 4, a paper feeding unit 5, and a control unit 100.

The automatic document feeder 2 is for continuously scanning documents, and includes a document feeding table 21, a feeding roller 22, a resist roller 23, a transport drum 24, and a paper ejection table 25. .. The documents to be scanned are set on the document paper feed tray 21, and are fed one by one by the operation of the delivery roller 22. Then, the sent-out document is temporarily stopped by the resist roller 23 to prepare the tip, and then transported to the transport drum 24. Further, this document rotates integrally with the drum surface of the transport drum 24, and in the process, the image surface is scanned by the image scanner 3 described later. After that, the document is separated from the drum surface at a position substantially half-circling the drum surface of the transport drum 24 and discharged to the paper ejection table 25.

The image scanner 3 includes an image pickup device 33 and a platen 35. The image pickup device 33 changes the relative position with respect to the document as the subject with time, reads the image of the document, and generates image data. Data including this image data is processed as a job. The image pickup device 33 outputs, as main components, a light source that irradiates the document with light, an image sensor that acquires an image generated by reflecting the light emitted from the light source on the document, and an image signal from the image sensor. It includes an AD (Analog to Digital) converter and an imaging optical system arranged in front of the image sensor. As the image sensor, a CCD (Coupled Charged Device) image sensor or a contact image sensor (Contact Image Sensor) is typically used. The document to be scanned can also be set on the platen 35. Further, simultaneous scanning on both sides may be realized by arranging the imaging devices on the front side and the back side of the document, respectively.

As an example, the print engine 4 executes an electrophotographic image forming process. Specifically, full-color print output is possible. Specifically, the print engine 4 has imaging units 44Y, 44M, 44C, which generate toner images of each color of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K), respectively. Includes 44K. The imaging units 44Y, 44M, 44C, 44K are arranged in that order along the transfer belt 27 which is stretched and driven in the print engine 4.

The imaging units 44Y, 44M, 44C, 44K include image writing units 43Y, 43M, 43C, 43K, and photoconductor drums 41Y, 41M, 41C, 41K, respectively. Each of the image writing units 43Y, 43M, 43C, and 43K has a laser diode that emits a laser beam corresponding to each color image included in the target print data, and the corresponding photoconductor drums 41Y, 41M that deflect the laser beam. , 41C, 41K includes a polygon mirror that exposes the surface in the main scanning direction.

An electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photoconductor drums 41Y, 41M, 41C, 41K by exposure by the image writing units 43Y, 43M, 43C, 43K as described above, and the electrostatic latent images correspond to each other. It is developed as a toner image by the toner particles supplied from the toner units 441Y, 441M, 441C, 441K.

The toner images of each color developed on the surfaces of the photoconductor drums 41Y, 41M, 41C, and 41K are sequentially transferred to the transfer belt 27. Further, the toner image superimposed on the transfer belt 27 is further transferred to the recording paper supplied from the paper feed unit 5 at the same timing.

The toner image transferred on the recording paper is fixed in the fixing portion arranged in the downstream portion and then discharged to the tray 57.

In parallel with the operation of the photoconductor drums 41Y, 41M, 41C, 41K described above, the delivery rollers 52, 53, 54 and the manual paper feed unit 26 corresponding to the paper feed cassettes of the paper feed unit 5 accommodating the recording paper, respectively. Of these, the part corresponding to the recording paper to be used for image formation operates to supply the recording paper. The supplied recording paper is conveyed by the conveying rollers 55 and 56 and the timing roller 51, and is fed to the photoconductor drum 41 in synchronization with the toner image formed on the photoconductor drum 41.

The transfer device 45 transfers the toner image formed on the photoconductor drum 41 to the recording paper by applying a voltage having the opposite polarity to the photoconductor drum 41. Then, the static eliminator 46 separates the recording paper from the photoconductor drum 41 by removing static electricity from the recording paper on which the toner image is transferred. After that, the recording paper on which the toner image is transferred is conveyed to the fixing device 47. As the transfer device 45, a transfer method using a transfer charger or a transfer roller may be adopted instead of the transfer method using a transfer belt as shown in FIG. Alternatively, instead of the direct transfer method in which the toner image is directly transferred from the photoconductor drum 41 to the recording paper, an intermediate transfer body such as a transfer roller or a transfer belt is arranged between the photoconductor drum 41 and the recording paper. Transcription may be carried out by a process of steps or higher.

The fixing device 47 includes a heating roller 471 and a pressure roller 472. The heating roller 471 melts the toner transferred onto the recording paper by heating the recording paper, and the molten toner is fixed on the recording paper by the compressive force between the heating roller 471 and the pressure roller 472. Toner. Then, the recording paper is discharged to the tray 57. As the fixing device 47, instead of the fixing method using the fixing belt as shown in FIG. 1, a fixing method using a fixing roller or the like or a non-contact fixing method may be adopted.

On the other hand, in the photoconductor drum 41 from which the recording paper is separated, after the residual potential is removed, the residual toner is removed and cleaned by the cleaning unit. Then, the next image forming process is executed. The cleaning unit removes and cleans residual toner by, for example, a cleaning blade, a cleaning brush, a cleaning roller, or a combination thereof. Alternatively, a cleanerless method of recovering the residual toner using the photoconductor drums 41Y, 41M, 41C, 41K may be adopted.

The IDC sensor 49 detects the density of the toner image formed on the photoconductor drum 41. The IDC sensor 49 is a light intensity sensor typically composed of a reflective photo sensor, and detects the reflected light intensity from the surface of the photoconductor drum 41.

The control unit 100 controls the entire image forming apparatus 1. The control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment realizes a virtual environment that enables simultaneous startup (or parallel startup) of a plurality of OSs. The plurality of OSs include a host OS that is executed at a minimum and a guest OS that is appropriately executed in response to a request or the like. That is, the host OS is not saved.

Details of the processing for realizing the virtual environment will be described later.
<B. Hardware configuration of control unit 100 of image forming apparatus 1>
Next, the hardware configuration of the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

With reference to FIG. 2, the control unit 100 is an arithmetic processing subject that controls the entire image forming apparatus 1, and has one or a plurality of arithmetic units. Specifically, the control unit 100 has a processor 102 including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), a main memory 110 including a DRAM, and an image processing ASIC (Application Specific) as main components. Integrated Circuit) 130, 140, interface circuits 105, 106, 107, 108 that exchange signals or data with each component of the image forming unit 1, and HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 1 which is an example of a secondary storage device.
Includes 50 and. These components are configured to be data communicable with each other via the internal bus 104.

The physical memory space of the main memory 110 is divided into a system memory 112 and an image memory 114, and is used for each purpose. The system memory 112 is used as a work memory for storing various data for executing a program on the processor 102. The image memory 114 is used for buffering image data temporarily created in a processing process such as editing, processing, and displaying the image data. For example, it is used as an image buffer when synthesizing a plurality of image data, or as an image buffer when preview-displaying all or a part of the image data on an operation panel or the like.

A memory control IC (Integrated Circuit) 118 is arranged between the main memory 110 and the internal bus 104, and in response to a request from the processor 102 or the like, data is written to the main memory 110 or the main memory. Read the data from 110. A compression / decompression IC 120 is connected to the memory control IC 118, and the image data written in the main memory 110 is compressed in block units, and the image data read from the main memory 110 is decompressed. Such compression / decompression management realizes efficient use of memory space and speeding up of processing.

As an example, FIG. 2 illustrates a configuration in which both sides of a document can be scanned at one time. That is, the control unit 100 is arranged on the back side of the document and the image processing ASIC 130 that processes the image data read by the image pickup device (front side image pickup device) arranged on the front surface side of the document scanning the document. The image processing device (back side image pickup device) includes an image processing ASIC 140 that processes the image data read by scanning the original. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to improve productivity by simultaneous double-sided scanning in response to increasing scanning needs.

Although the processor 102 may execute the image processing instead of the image processing ASICs 130 and 140, it is preferable to adopt a circuit logic such as an ASIC in order to process the job at a higher speed.

The image processing ASIC 130 stores the image data from the front surface imaging device in the sub memory 134. A memory control IC 132 is arranged between the image processing ASIC 130 and the sub memory 134, and mediates the writing of data to the sub memory 134 and the reading of data from the sub memory 134. The physical memory space of the sub-memory 134 is divided into a surface input image data buffer 136 for storing image data from the surface-side imaging device and an image memory 138, and is used for various purposes. The image memory 138 is used for buffering image data temporarily created in a processing process such as editing, processing, and displaying the image data. For example, an image buffer for converting image data (raw data) from a surface-side imaging device into a specified image format, an image buffer for transmitting a fax, or an image data output to an external network or an external device. It is used as an image buffer for the occasion.

Similarly, the image processing ASIC 140 stores the image data from the back side imaging device in the sub memory 144. A memory control IC 142 is arranged between the image processing ASIC 140 and the sub memory 144, and mediates the writing of data to the sub memory 144 and the reading of data from the sub memory 144. The physical memory space of the sub-memory 144 is divided into a back-side input image data buffer 146 for storing image data from the back-side image pickup device and an image memory 148, and is used for each purpose.

Various programs are non-volatilely stored in the HDD 150. Specifically, the HDD 150 stores the hypervisor 152, the host OS 154, one or more guest OS 156s, one or more applications 158, and the control firmware 160. These programs are non-transitory computer-readable recordings such as optical recording media such as DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disk Read Only Memory), magnetic recording media, semiconductor recording media, and optical magnetic storage media. It may be installed via a medium. Alternatively, a necessary program may be downloaded from a server device (not shown) or the like via a wired communication line or a wireless communication line and installed in the control unit 100. Details of each of these programs, execution timing, and the like will be described later.

Interface circuits 105, 106, 107, and 108 are connected to the internal bus 104.

The interface circuit 105 is connected to a fax communication unit that transmits and receives faxes, and / or network communication that exchanges data with other devices via a network. In response to a command from the processor 102 or the like, it mediates transmission processing from the communication unit to the external device, data reception processing from the external device in the communication unit, and the like. A function of using the function provided by the guest OS 156 on an external terminal may be implemented.

The interface circuit 106 mediates a process of displaying various information on the operation panel 123, a process of accepting a user operation on the operation panel 123, and the like. The operation panel 123 is a display operation unit that accepts touch operations by the user, and typically includes an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) which is a display unit and a touch panel that accepts touch operations. The display unit may be equipped with a function for visualizing the operating status of the host OS 154 and the guest OS 156. For example, the amount of free memory space and the usage time of the processor may be displayed as a graph or a numerical value on the display unit. That is, the image forming apparatus 1 may have a display unit for displaying information on the guest OS 156.

The interface circuit 107 mediates the exchange of data with a plurality of authentication devices. Authentication devices typically include a card authentication device 121 and a fingerprint authentication device 122.

The interface circuit 108 mediates the exchange of data between the processor 102 and the print engine 4.

In the control unit 100 shown in FIG. 2, three image memories are prepared: an image memory 114 in the main memory 110, an image memory 138 in the sub memory 134, and an image memory 148 in the sub memory 144. ..

The image memory is a memory used in image processing in the main body of the image forming apparatus 1. Such an image memory is an indispensable configuration in the image forming apparatus 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the image memory may be reserved as a dedicated image processing area on the main memory 110, or may be dedicated on the local memories (sub-memory 134, 144) provided for each of the image processing ASICs 130 and 140. It may be secured as an image processing area of. As described above, in addition to the image processing ASIC 130 for the front surface, a local memory (sub memory 144) is also arranged in the image processing ASIC 140 on the back surface, and the image memory is provided on the local memory to realize high-speed scanning. ..

As described above, in the design of the memory configuration of the image forming apparatus 1, a dedicated area is often secured according to each purpose.

Further, in the print processing (image forming apparatus), for example, when the image forming apparatus 1 is connected to an external print server, the image processing ASIC and the sub memory (image memory) as shown in FIG. 2 may be added. is there. As described above, even when the function of the image forming apparatus 1 is expanded, more image memories may be added, and the multi-operation is realized by using these image memories at the same time.

<C. Virtualization environment in control unit 100 of image forming apparatus 1>
Next, the virtual environment in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a program execution state in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which three guest OS 156s (guest OS1 to OS3) are simultaneously executed in addition to the host OS 154. With reference to FIG. 3, these plurality of operating systems are executed using common hardware resources (that is, processor 102 and system memory 112). FIG. 3 shows a state in which a plurality of OSs are simultaneously executed by the processor 102 deploying the hypervisor 152 in the system memory 112 and executing the hypervisor 152. That is, a memory space for storing data for operating each OS is prepared in the system memory 112. The memory space usage control (memory area allocation, etc.) of the system memory 112 is managed by the hypervisor 152.

The hypervisor 152 uses resources including the processor 102 and the system memory 112 to control the simultaneous execution of a plurality of OSs including the host OS 154 and the plurality of guest OS 156s. The hypervisor 152 performs allocation processing of virtualized processor resources necessary for execution of each OS, interrupt processing, memory control, provision of device drivers, and the like. By providing such a process, it is possible to switch and execute a plurality of guest OSs 156. The hypervisor 152 has a function of appropriately initializing the image forming apparatus 1 and the device connected to the image forming apparatus 1 so that the guest OS 156 can use the image forming apparatus 1. With such a function, the same processing as that of the host OS 154 can be executed even immediately after the switch to the guest OS 156.

As a function of the hypervisor 152, power management may be performed in addition to management of the memory space. For example, the hypervisor 152 may implement a function of limiting the operation of the guest OS 156 when the image forming apparatus 1 is in the power saving mode.

The host OS 154 is an OS that is constantly executed by the control unit 100. The control firmware 160 is executed on the host OS 154. As the host OS 154, an OS having a virtual memory mechanism such as Linux (registered trademark) is used. However, the host OS 154 is not a general-purpose OS, and its own function is extended to the image forming apparatus 1 so as to accept intervention control by the arbitration module 170 as described later.

The control firmware 160 is executed on the host OS 154 and controls the main control of the image forming apparatus 1. More specifically, the control firmware 160 controls the main processing (main unit operation) of the image forming apparatus 1, job processing mainly for controlling the image processing ASICs 130 and 140 that handle the image memory, and various device controls. Handle.

The guest OS 156 may be the same type of OS as the host OS 154, or may be a different type of OS, as long as it is an OS having a virtual memory function. For example, as the guest OS 156, Linux, Windows (registered trademark) and the like can be used.

Various applications 158 are executed on the guest OS 156. For example, the application 158 may include an application that authenticates a user. More specifically, the application 158 includes a card authentication application 1581, a fingerprint authentication application 1582, and an ID authentication application 1583. These plurality of authentication programs are arranged independently of each other corresponding to the plurality of authentication methods.

The card authentication application 1581, the fingerprint authentication application 1582, and the ID authentication application 1583 are a plurality of guest OSs (guest OS1, guest OS2, and guest OS3) different from the host OS for executing each of the plurality of authentication programs. Executed above respectively.

Further, a desktop environment for each user of the image forming apparatus 1 may be realized on the guest OS 156, and a function for managing job contents may be implemented. A mechanism similar to an app store that provides an arbitrary program to the guest OS 156 may be adopted.

Further, the arbitration module 170, the free memory management module 172, and the authentication management module 174 are executed as a part of the functions of the hypervisor 152 or as an independent function linked with the hypervisor 152.

The arbitration module 170 operates at the same level as the hypervisor 152, links the control firmware 160 and the hypervisor 152, and arbitrates and uses the memory space between the guest OS 156 that is being executed at the same time. In the present embodiment, the arbitration module 170 takes into consideration the operation of the job to be processed and efficiently uses the image memory to read ahead of the switching of the guest OS 156 and to read the contents of the memory in advance. Execute evacuation etc. The arbitration module 170 may have a function of sharing the user management information on any guest OS 156 with the control firmware 160 before saving, if necessary.

The free memory management module 172 manages the free memory space of the system memory 112 that is not used by the guest OS 156 that is executed simultaneously with the host OS 154 and the host OS 154. That is, the free memory management module 172 includes a memory space used by the control firmware 160 for image processing and a memory space used for other guest OS 156 authentication programs (card authentication application 1581, fingerprint authentication application 1582, ID authentication application 1583). To manage. At this time, the free memory management module 172 manages the free memory space including the image memory space by operating in cooperation with the arbitration module 170. By implementing an API (Application Programming Interface) for managing the arbitration module 170, cooperation between the modules may be enhanced.

The authentication management module 174 manages the relationship between the authentication device and the guest OS, and when there is a notification from the authentication device, the corresponding guest OS is started in advance and then the control firmware 160 is notified. The authentication management module 174 manages the combination with the guest OS required for executing the authentication program required for authentication in each authentication device. The authentication devices include a card authentication device 121, which is a device that reads card information for card authentication, a fingerprint authentication device 122, which is a device that reads fingerprints for fingerprint authentication, and a touch panel for ID authentication. It is assumed that the operation panel 123 is a touch panel device that detects that an ID / password has been input. As described above, the image forming apparatus 1 has a plurality of authentication devices corresponding to each of the plurality of authentication methods.

For example, the authentication management module 174 manages the following tables as a combination with the guest OS required for executing the authentication program required for authentication in each authentication device.

It is preferable that the host OS 154 and the guest OS 156 are saved in the image memory with priority given to the continuous memory space.

A function that appropriately performs the migration process may be implemented so that the program on one guest OS 156 is executed on another guest OS 156. In this case, even if some trouble occurs in one guest OS 156, another guest OS 156 can continue the processing of the application. That is, the arbitration module 170 further includes a function of moving and managing the data contents saved when the guest OS 156 is migrated to the external system.

Further, a server-type or resident-type program that manages the image forming apparatus 1 manages the configuration of the guest OS 156 and executes the configuration of the plurality of image forming apparatus 1 and the image forming apparatus group so as to have an optimum configuration as a whole. The guest OS 156 and the application to be executed on each guest OS 156 may be selected.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of image memories are often prepared in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1. On the other hand, in the image forming apparatus 1, there is a state in which all the image memories are not used at one time, such as when only the printing operation (image forming operation) is continuous or when only one side of the original is scanned. There are many.

Further, in general, the image memory is compressed and decompressed in block units. Furthermore, by dividing the image memory into units and sharing them, a configuration is also adopted so that multiple tasks can efficiently use the physical memory.

On the other hand, as in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, a plurality of guest OSes may be mounted to be multifunctional, but the memory consumption of the guest OS may be large. Further, although the realization of a multi-OS that operates a plurality of guest OSs is required, there is a problem similar to the realization of a general virtual environment. Therefore, within the limited resources of the image forming apparatus, it is not easy to realize a multi-OS without deteriorating the response performance for switching between a plurality of OSs.

For example, Patent Document 1 described above discloses an environment in which a plurality of operating systems coexisting in a single system can be switched and used at high speed. In the invention described in Patent Document 1, an independent memory space not managed by the OS is secured in advance on the system memory and used for storing the operation context of the guest OS. However, even if such a configuration is adopted, there is a limitation of securing an independent memory space on the system memory, and if the memory space is insufficient, a secondary storage device must be used together. Because of the delay, it may be difficult to switch and execute multiple OSs at high speed.

Further, Patent Document 3 described above uses the first OS user name as the second OS user name to simplify the login procedure, thereby speeding up the second OS login procedure. However, when an image processing job occurs and resources such as memory are exhausted, a logout processing time for releasing the resources of the second OS is required to surrender the resources to the first OS of the main body control, and the start of image processing execution may be delayed. .. In particular, since the details of resource confirmation are not disclosed and the image memory is not mentioned, if the resources are released by the termination of the second OS from the flow procedure when the resources are insufficient, the termination procedure takes a lot of time. As a result, the delay to the start of execution of the first OS job becomes large, and the influence on the job productivity is large.

<D. Authentication process>
Next, an example of the authentication process in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described.

When user authentication is performed, a control signal is given from the card authentication device 121 or the fingerprint authentication device 122 to the virtual device of the host OS, and an application executed on the host OS 154 (print application 1601, scan included in the control firmware 160). Application 1602, FAX application 1603, BOX application 1604) receives the control signal and executes the authentication process. In this case, as the application for authentication, the guest OS 156 necessary for performing the authentication process for the authentication application (card authentication application 1581, fingerprint authentication application 1582, ID authentication application 1583) executed on the guest OS 156 is started up. Check if it is, and if necessary, start up the guest OS 156 and then perform the authentication process.

In the image forming apparatus 1, the authentication management module 174 receives the control signal notified from the authentication device of the card authentication device 121 or the fingerprint authentication device 122, boots the necessary guest OS, and then controls the virtual device 1605 of the host OS 154. Notify the signal. By adopting such a process, the application 158 that authenticates to the host OS 154 can make an authentication request in parallel with the startup process of the guest OS 156, so that the authentication process can be performed at high speed. Become.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an execution state of the authentication process in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. With reference to FIG. 4, an example is shown in which the hypervisor 152 is executed by using the hardware of the control unit 100, and the host OS 154 and the plurality of guest OS 156 are executed under the control of the hypervisor 152.

The hardware of the control unit 100 includes the functions of the MMU (Memory Management Unit) and the IC provided by the memory control IC 118 and the compression / decompression IC 120 (FIG. 2), the processor 102, and the main memory 110. including. Further, the hardware of the control unit 100 includes an authentication device 192, a NIC (Network Interface Card) device 194, and various storage devices 196, in addition to the sub-memories 134 and 144.

The hypervisor 152 manages the start, pause, restart, and stop of the execution environment of the plurality of guest OSes. Typically, the hypervisor 152 has a virtual memory management unit (VMMU) 1521, which corresponds to a virtual memory control system capable of executing a program in different virtual memory spaces, and a virtual interrupt capable of handling different interrupt information. An interrupt management unit (VIC) 1522, which is a control system, and a virtual arithmetic resource (VCPU) 1523, which corresponds to a virtual processor control system that handles different processors, are provided in a state in which a plurality of OSs can be used. Further, it is assumed that the application 158 (card authentication application 1581, fingerprint authentication application 1582, ID authentication application 1583) is executed on the guest OS1 to OS3, respectively. The hypervisor 152 manages the execution of the guest OS 156 and the application 158, respectively, using the stub programs 1584, 1585, and 1586.

The image memory is compressed and decompressed in block units. Further, it is assumed that a configuration is adopted in which the physical memory can be efficiently used by a plurality of tasks by dividing the image memory into units and sharing the memory.

The host OS 154 and the guest OS 156 also manage the memory space in a fixed page unit by using a virtual memory mechanism. In the following description, an OS that does not have a virtual memory mechanism is not considered.

However, the unit size of the block unit managed by the image memory and the page unit managed by the virtual memory mechanism are not always the same. Further, the handling of the image memory to be managed cannot be the same when it is provided in the main memory 110 and when it is provided in the sub memories 134 and 144.

Therefore, on the premise of the management unit and control in the image forming apparatus 1, a memory sharing mechanism in the host OS 154, the guest OS 156, and the hypervisor 152 is required.

Image processing ASICs 130 and 140 are incorporated in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. However, the image memory used for print control includes the image memory 114 in the main memory 100 shared with the processor 102, and the image memories 138 and 148 in the dedicated sub memories 134 and 144 associated with the image processing ASIC 130 and 140. It is composed of two types. In this way, since the usage mode is adapted to the job that uses the image memory, the memory area is secured in the unit size as described above according to the job operation.

Further, in order to properly use the image memory shared by the application 158 executed on the guest OS 156 with the host OS 154, the guest OS 156 required for authentication exchanges information with the hypervisor 152 and the arbitration module 170 to allocate the memory. Need to do. If each of the plurality of applications 158 independently allocates memory, it becomes impossible to manage the operation prioritized by the host OS 154 and the control firmware 160 of the image forming apparatus 1 as a whole system, and different memory management in each guest OS 156. Since a wrapper is required to implement the above, the stub programs 1584, 1585, and 1586 that satisfy both of them must be adapted to each guest OS 156 and installed by the stub management program 190.

The stub management program 190 runs on the hypervisor 152 or the host OS 154, manages and saves the stub programs 1584, 1585, and 1586 according to each guest OS 156, and acquires the information required by the application 158 by the installation method of each guest OS 156. It is configured to be installed with a possible implementation.

In addition, it has an API (Application Programming Interface) that can be accessed from applications, and is configured to enable memory request, release, expansion, page-out instructions, and memory allocation information.

The backup memory management module 178 is accessible to the secondary storage device (HDD 150 in FIG. 2) and swaps out the memory to provide free memory space.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for adding a guest OS in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. Each step shown in FIG. 5 is mainly realized by the processor 102 of the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 executing a program for realizing the hypervisor 152.

With reference to FIG. 5, the processor 102 determines whether or not a request for adding a new guest OS has been received (step S100). If no request for adding a new guest OS has been received (NO in step S100), the process ends.

If the addition request of the new guest OS is received (YES in step S100), the processor 102 determines whether or not the stub program corresponding to the guest OS for which the addition request is received exists (step S102).

If there is a stub program corresponding to the guest OS for which the additional request has been received (YES in step S102), the processor 102 instructs the guest OS for which the additional request has been received to install the corresponding stub program (when YES in step S102). Step S104). Then, the process ends.

On the other hand, if there is no stub program corresponding to the guest OS that received the additional request (NO in step S102), the processor 102 stops adding the guest OS that received the additional request (step S106). ). Then, the process ends.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure when an authentication request is made in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. Each step shown in FIG. 6 is mainly realized by the processor 102 of the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 executing a program for realizing the authentication management module 174.

With reference to FIG. 6, the processor 102 determines whether or not a signal from any of the authentication devices among the plurality of authentication devices has been received (step S200). If no signal is received from any of the authentication devices (NO in step S200), the process ends.

If a signal is received from any of the authentication devices (yes in step S200), the processor 102 determines the authentication program and the guest OS required to execute the authentication program according to the signal from the received authentication device. (Step S202). Then, the processor 102 starts the determined necessary guest OS (step S204). When starting the guest OS, the process shown in FIG. 5 may be executed.

After booting the determined required guest OS, the processor 102 executes the authentication program according to the signal from the received authentication device on the booted guest OS (step S206). Then, the process ends.

<E. Memory management in image forming apparatus 1>
Next, memory management using a data structure peculiar to an image memory will be described. In particular, a process suitable for using the block-divided image memory will be described.

In the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the physical image memory is compressed and expanded in units of image blocks. The unit memory of a certain size is managed in a tree structure. More specifically, each unit memory is managed using a tree-like data structure using a linked list, and the type and address of each unit memory are stored in the extended address data structure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram for explaining a usage mode of the block-divided image memory in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. With reference to FIG. 7, the physical image memory is compressed and decompressed in units of image blocks. The unit memory of a certain size is managed in a tree structure. More specifically, each unit memory is managed using a tree-like data structure using a linked list, and the type and address of each unit memory are stored in the extended address data structure.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 7, the arbitration module 170 is preferably configured to arbitrate with the image processing ASIC. Such a configuration has a high affinity with the virtual memory mechanism of the host OS 154, the guest OS 156, and the hypervisor 152. On the other hand, since such a configuration is configured on the premise of conventional image processing that depends on job control, other purposes, particularly use as a memory space that can be handled by the OS, is not considered.

In the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the page unit structure in the host OS 154, the guest OS 156, and the hypervisor 152 is assigned to the image forming management unit and managed as a normal memory space, so that the guest OS 156 can also be used. Allows the use of image memory.

That is, as virtual memory, page memory of a certain size is managed in a tree structure, and any guest OS can be used. The image memory has different memory response performance depending on the type of the image memory (that is, when it is provided in the main memory 110 and when it is provided in the sub memories 134 and 144). Therefore, if it is used as a simple memory space, it is accessed without considering the memory response performance, so that the performance as a whole may deteriorate.

In the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the arbitration module 170 is interposed between the main body OS (host OS 154 and guest OS 156 and the hypervisor 152, and depending on the type of image memory, a normal memory space and a normal memory space, and Selectively allocate as one of the storage memory spaces.

For example, the storage memory space is set to have a high page save possibility (Swappable), and the memory management is arbitrated by the arbitration module 170 so that it is swapped according to the job operation. In addition, once a page is created, it is not restored to the storage memory space again, but is treated in the same way as a normal swap, enabling high-speed memory recovery.

In FIG. 7, the arbitration module 170 that cooperates with the hypervisor 152 sets the main memory 110 as having a low possibility of page evacuation (in Residential), and the sub memory 134,
144 may be set (to Swappable) when the page save possibility is high. Further, the saved memory on the sub-memories 134 and 144 may be swapped out to the swap area of the HDD 150.

In these memory managements, by assigning an ID that identifies the guest OS 156 to the data arranged in the memory space, the arbitration module 170 also has a function of grasping that the read guest OS 156 has been destroyed by job execution. It may be made available. That is, the arbitration module 170 detects that the read guest OS 156 has been destroyed by the job execution, and reads the destroyed guest OS 156 detected before the start of the job again.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining a method of managing the block-divided image memory in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. With reference to FIG. 8, a table (column) containing attribute information is associated with each image block unit (for example, 4 kByte) in a certain memory space.

Multiple attribute information is stored in this table. In the example shown in FIG. 8, the block number, address, memory ID, OSID, JOB information, C, U, etc. are used.

The block number is information that identifies an area on the memory space. The address is the address of the corresponding block in memory space. The memory ID indicates whether it is an image memory provided on the system memory 112 or an image memory provided on the sub-memories 134 and 144. The OSID indicates the ID of the corresponding OS. The JOB information indicates whether or not the authentication JOB corresponds to the guest OS. C indicates the number of times the corresponding block has been referenced, and U indicates whether or not the corresponding block has been updated.

As described above, the arbitration module 170 has a function of classifying the memory space into types and managing a list including an ID that can identify the OS used for each unit memory. Swap-out or write-back is controlled based on such information for each block.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing an example of data management between a plurality of memories in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. With reference to FIG. 9, the hypervisor reads the guest OS from the HDD 150 onto the system memory 112 in the main memory 110 and starts it ((1) start) in response to a request or the like. After that, depending on the situation, the image is saved in the image memory 114 in the main memory 110 ((2) saved). If there is not enough free memory space in the image memory 114 in the main memory 110, the contents read out in the image memories 138 and 148 in the sub memories 134 and 144 associated with any of the image processing ASICs will be displayed. It may be evacuated.

After that, in response to a processing request by the image processing ASIC or the like, the saved data is paged out to the HDD 150 in order to secure sufficient free memory space in the sub-memories 134 and 144.

As shown in FIG. 9, in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the HDD 150, the main memory 110 (including: system memory 112, image memory 114), and the sub memories 134, 144 associated with the image processing ASIC are Data saving processing, page-out processing, etc. are performed in an optimized state among the three or four parties (image memory 138, 148) according to the memory usage request and the amount of free memory space. To.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of how the memory space is used in the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. With reference to FIG. 10, for example, it is assumed that the start of the guest OS 3 is instructed while the host OS and the data necessary for executing the guest OS 1 and the guest OS 2 are stored in the system memory 112 ((1) Request generation. ). Then, for example, the arbitration module 170 saves (swaps out) the memory area allocated to the guest OS 1 whose execution is temporarily stopped to the sub memory 134. Alternatively, the memory area allocated to the guest OS 1 may be saved (swap out) to the swap area of the HDD 150.

At this time, the data transfer from the system memory 112 to the sub memory 134 can be relayed through the system memory and transmitted in parallel in units of the buffer capacity (for example, 4 kB) (that is, in block units).

After that, when the necessity of executing the sub OS 3 is eliminated, the contents of the system memory 112 are swapped out to the HDD 150 and written back from the sub memory 134 to the system memory 112.

In this way, the arbitration module 170 performs memory transfer in parallel in block units until the required system memory 112 becomes available, and allocates the memory space to the guest OS 156. Then, the arbitration module 170 switches to the guest OS 156 after the memory transfer is completed. After that, when switching to the host OS 154, the arbitration module 170 temporarily freezes the system memory used by the previously executed guest OS and the program running on the guest OS 156, and sequentially replaces the previously transferred memory. The process and the process of switching to the host OS after the replacement is completed are continuously operated.

Further, the arbitration module 170 sequentially transfers the data of the file memory related to the host OS 154 to the HDD 150 (secondary storage device) in parallel when switching from the guest OS 156 to another guest OS 156 instead of the host OS 154 after switching the guest OS 156. , The process of temporarily freezing the system memory used by the previously executed guest OS 156 and the program running on the guest OS 156, the process of sequentially transferring the temporarily frozen system memory to the file memory transferred to the HDD 150, and the process of sequentially transferring the temporarily frozen system memory in parallel. The process of sequentially allocating the system memory that the previous guest OS has completed the transfer until the system memory required by the other guest OS is reached, and the process of switching by securing the system memory that can operate the other guest OS. To operate continuously.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure related to memory management in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. Each step shown in FIG. 11 is mainly realized by the processor 102 of the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 executing the program of the arbitration module 170.

With reference to FIG. 11, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) divides the memory space into types and updates a list including an ID that can identify the OS used for each unit memory (step S300). It is determined whether or not the switch from the host OS to the guest OS is requested (step S302).

When switching from the host OS to the guest OS is requested (YES in step S302), the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) transfers memory in parallel in block units until the required system memory becomes available. It is carried out (step S304). As a result, the necessary memory space can be allocated to the guest OS for which switching is requested. After the memory transfer is completed, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) switches from the host OS to the guest OS (step S306).

After that, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) determines whether or not a switch from the guest OS to another guest OS is requested (step S308).

When switching from the guest OS to another guest OS is requested (YES in step S308), that is, when switching from the guest OS to another guest OS instead of the host OS after switching to the guest OS, first , The processor 102 (arbitration module 170) sequentially transfers the data of the file memory related to the host OS to the HDD 150 (secondary storage device) in parallel (step S310). Subsequently, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) temporarily freezes the system memory used by the previously executed guest OS and the program running on the guest OS (step S312). Further, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) sequentially transfers the temporarily frozen system memory to the file memory transferred to the HDD 150 (secondary storage device) in parallel (step S314), which is required by another guest OS. Until the system memory is reached, the previous guest OS sequentially secures the system memory for which transfer is completed (step S316). Finally, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) switches from the guest OS to another designated guest OS because the system memory in which the other guest OS can operate is secured (step S318). Then, the process proceeds to step S320.

If switching from the host OS to the guest OS is not requested (NO in step S302), or if switching from the guest OS to another guest OS is not requested (NO in step S308), Alternatively, after the execution of step S318, it is determined whether or not the switch from the guest OS to the host OS is requested (step S320).

When switching from the guest OS to the host OS is requested (YES in step S320), the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) is a system used by the previously executed guest OS and the program running on the guest OS. The memory is temporarily frozen (step S322). Then, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) sequentially replaces the previously transferred memory (step S324). After the memory replacement is completed, the processor 102 (arbitration module 170) switches from the guest OS to the host OS (step S326). Then, the process returns to step S300.

If switching from the guest OS to the host OS is not requested (NO in step S320), the processing of step S300 and subsequent steps is repeated.

<F. Processing of jobs that require authentication processing>
Next, the processing of the job that requires the authentication processing will be described. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for a job that requires authentication processing in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. Each step shown in FIG. 12 is mainly realized by the processor 102 of the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 executing the control firmware 160.

With reference to FIG. 12, the processor 102 determines whether or not a plurality of authentication applications executed on different guest OSs are required for the jobs included in the managed job list (step S400). If a plurality of authentication applications executed on different guest OSes are not required (NO in step S400), normal processing is executed (step S402).

If multiple authentication applications running on different guest operating systems are required (yes in step S400), the processor 102 estimates the amount of memory used by the guest operating systems in proportion to the number of guest operating systems required. (Step S404). Subsequently, the processor 102 determines whether or not the estimated required memory amount can be secured from the free memory space (step S406).

If the estimated required memory amount can be secured from the free memory space (YES in step S406), the processor 102 secures the estimated required memory amount from the free memory space (step S408) and proceeds with the normal processing (step S408). S402).

On the other hand, if the estimated required memory amount cannot be secured from the free memory space (NO in step S406), the processor 102 secures the memory amount required for the authentication method for the job to be processed from the free memory space. It is determined whether or not it can be done (step S410).

If the amount of memory required for the authentication method for the job to be processed can be secured from the free memory space (YES in step S410), the processor 102 proceeds with normal processing (step S402). In this case, the process of step S400 or less is executed again.

If the amount of memory required for the authentication method for the job to be processed cannot be secured from the free memory space (NO in step S410), the processor 102 saves the memory and provides the free memory space (step S412). Then, the processor 102 secures the amount of memory required for the authentication method for the job to be processed from the free memory space (step S414), and proceeds with the normal processing (step S402). In this case as well, the processes of step S400 and subsequent steps are executed again.

If the estimated required memory amount cannot be secured from the free memory space (NO in step S406), it may be evaluated whether or not the authentication method can be changed for each job stored in the job list. ..

<G. Monitoring changes in memory usage>
The image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment uses the image memory in addition to the system memory 112 to simultaneously execute a plurality of OSs (host OS 154 and one or a plurality of guest OS 156s) on common hardware.

Therefore, it is preferable to manage the memory area in consideration of the entire plurality of memory spaces. Specifically, the arbitration module 170 monitors changes in the usage of the image memory space used in job execution controlled by the host OS 154, and changes in the usage of the memory space used by the authentication program in the execution environment of the guest OS 156. May be monitored.

Further, the arbitration module 170 keeps an update history that records the start or end of some processing each time, and changes the arrangement location of the stored contents each time based on the increase / decrease tendency of the memory usage amount or the free memory amount. You may.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure related to monitoring the memory usage in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. Each step shown in FIG. 13 is mainly realized by the processor 102 of the control unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 executing the program of the arbitration module 170.

With reference to FIG. 13, the processor 102 determines whether or not a memory area request (page fault) has occurred (step S500). If the request for the memory area has not occurred (NO in step S500), the process of step S500 is repeated.

If a request for a memory area has occurred (YES in step S500), the processor 102 inquires of the free memory management module 172 for the amount of free memory (step S502). Then, the processor 102 calculates the amount of change in the amount of free memory from the actual amount of free memory in the past and the amount of free memory responded to the inquiry (step S504).

Further, the processor 102 determines whether or not the calculated change amount of the free memory amount shows a decreasing tendency (step S506). If the calculated change amount of the free memory amount does not show a decreasing tendency (NO in step S506), the process of step S500 or less is repeated.

If the calculated change amount of the free memory amount shows a decreasing tendency (YES in step S506), the processor 102 inquires the save memory management module 178 for the save memory amount (step S508). Then, the processor 102 identifies the target save memory and pages out the specified save memory (step S510).

Finally, the processor 102 updates the amount of saved memory managed by the saved memory management module 178 (step S512), and repeats the processes of step S500 and subsequent steps.

By managing the total memory area in this way, the frequency of overcommitment can be reduced. In addition, it is possible to improve the utilization efficiency of limited memory resources.

<H. Cooperation of multiple devices>
In the above description, the configuration for realizing the virtual environment in the image forming apparatus realized by a single hardware has been illustrated, but a plurality of devices may be linked to realize the virtual environment.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an execution state of the authentication process in which the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment cooperates with other devices. In the configuration shown in FIG. 14, the main body device 1A and the auxiliary device 1B cooperate to realize a virtual environment.

On the main device 1A, the hypervisor 152 realizes a virtual environment by using hardware. Specifically, the host OS 154 and the guest OS 156 (guest OS 1 and guest OS 2) are being executed. The control firmware 160 is executed on the host OS 154, the card authentication application 1581 is executed on the guest OS 1, and the fingerprint authentication application 1582 is executed on the guest OS 2.

On the other hand, even on the auxiliary device 1B, the hypervisor 153 uses the hardware to realize a virtual environment. Specifically, the host OS 154 and the guest OS 156 (guest OS 1 and guest OS 2) are being executed. The ID authentication application 1583 is executed on the guest OS3.

The hypervisor 152 executed on the main device 1A and the hypervisor 153 executed on the auxiliary device 1B both have a function of managing the execution environment and can cooperate with each other. The hypervisor 153 executed on the auxiliary device 1B has a setting function for performing initialization settings after migration. On the other hand, the hypervisor 152 executed on the main body device 1A has a function of transmitting and receiving an initialization procedure instruction (playbook) necessary for the initialization setting in the auxiliary device 1B. That is, the hypervisor 153 executed on the auxiliary device 1B is an initialization procedure instruction manual (playbook) from the main device 1A.
Initialize the settings according to the above.

As a specific application example, it is assumed that the main body of the image forming apparatus 1 corresponds to the main body 1A and the operation panel 123 corresponds to the auxiliary device 1B. That is, the operation panel 123 is also equipped with a processor capable of performing authentication processing, and it is assumed that the operation panel 123 will share and execute a specific authentication process among the authentication processes in the image forming apparatus 1. To. Alternatively, it is assumed that the image forming apparatus 1 delegates the authentication process to an external server. That is, it is assumed that the external server corresponds to the auxiliary device 1B.

That is, the hypervisor 152 executed on the main device 1A can migrate the execution environment of a different OS to the auxiliary device 1B. However, the hypervisor 152 executed on the main device 1A can be switched to execute the authentication process on its own device if there are enough resources.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure related to migration in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. Each step shown in FIG. 15 is mainly realized by the processor 102 of the main unit 1A executing a program for realizing the hypervisor 152.

With reference to FIG. 15, the processor 102 determines whether or not a plurality of authentication applications executed on different guest OSs are required for the jobs included in the managed job list (step S600). If a plurality of authentication applications executed on different guest OSes are not required (NO in step S600), normal processing is executed (step S602).

If a plurality of authentication applications executed on different guest OSes are required (YES in step S600), the processor 102 determines whether or not migration to another device is possible (step S604). .. That is, the processor 102 determines whether to migrate the execution environment of a different OS to another device and to read the paged-out memory area required for the migration in the job execution state.

If migration to another device is not possible (NO in step S604), normal authentication processing is executed (step S606).

If migration to another device is possible (YES in step S604), the processor 102 invalidates the authentication application to be migrated (step S608), and the invalidated authentication application is executed. The stub program is deleted from the guest OS (step S610). Then, the processor 102 switches the memory management method from the stub program to the memory management method by the authentication program (step S612).

The processor 102 returns the memory and page-out management managed by the arbitration module 170 to the free memory management module 172 (step S614). Then, the processor 102 stops the guest OS on which the invalidated authentication application is being executed (step S616).

When the processor 102 confirms that the guest OS has stopped (step S618), the processor 102 transfers the guest OS to the migration destination hypervisor (step S620) and also transfers the initialization procedure instruction (playbook) (step S618). Step S622).

Then, the processor 102 determines whether or not the guest OS is started in the migration destination device (step S624). If the guest OS is started in the migration destination device (YES in step S624), normal processing is executed (step S602).

If the guest OS is not started in the migration destination device (NO in step S624), the processor 102 restarts the guest OS on the own device side (step S626). Then, a normal process is executed (step S602).

By implementing the migration function as described above, a flexible system in which multiple devices are linked can be realized.

<I. Multiple user authentication>
Next, processing when a plurality of user authentication processes are required for consecutive jobs will be described. For example, if user authentication processing is required for multiple users, a change may be proposed to prioritize job execution and delay the user authentication processing, or a job may be changed by changing the authentication method. If it seems that you can complete the above faster, you may propose to the user to change the authentication method of the current user.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when authentication processing for a plurality of users in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment conflicts. Each step shown in FIG. 16 is mainly realized by the processor 102 of the image forming apparatus 1 executing the control firmware 160. In the processing procedure shown in FIG. 16, for example, it is assumed that an authentication application corresponding to the authentication method used by the user who has been authenticated for the job is operating for the currently executing job.

With reference to FIG. 16, it is determined whether or not execution of different authentication methods for different users is requested (step S700). If the execution of different authentication methods for different users is not required (NO in step S700), the following processing is skipped.

If different authentication methods are required to be executed for different users (yes in step S700), the processor 102 is running a guest operating system that runs an authentication application to implement the different authentication methods requested. Whether or not it is determined (step S702).

If the guest OS that executes the authentication application for realizing the different requested authentication methods is running (YES in step S702), the processor 102 executes the user authentication process with the different requested authentication methods. (Step S704). Then, the processing preparation for the next job is started (step S706).

If the guest operating system running the authentication application to implement the different requested authentication methods is not running (NO in step S702), the processor 102 will use the different requested authentication methods for the currently running job. It is determined whether or not the authentication method of (step S708) can be used instead. If the different requested authentication method cannot be replaced by the authentication method for the currently running job (NO in step S708), the processing in steps S710-S714 is skipped and the processor 102 prepares for processing the next job. Is started (step S706).

If the different requested authentication method can be replaced by the authentication method for the currently executing job (YES in step S708), the processor 102 shall use the authentication method of the current user for the user of the next job. Is proposed, and it is determined whether or not the user accepts the proposal (step S710).

If the user accepts the proposal (yes in step S710), the processor 102 authenticates the user using the current user's authentication method (step S712). Then, the processor 102 starts the processing preparation for the next job (step S706).

On the other hand, if the user does not accept the proposal (NO in step S710), the processor 102 waits until the execution of the current job is completed (step S714), and then starts preparing for processing the next job. (Step S706).

In this way, among the continuous jobs managed and executed by the control firmware 160, when the current user authenticates and starts the job, another user requests an authentication method different from that of the current user, and the corresponding authentication is performed. If the guest OS of the method is paged out, prioritize the execution of the current user's job and make other users wait until the current user's job is completed, and change or change to the current user's authentication method. To warn you, do one of them.

By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to realize a secure image formation process while considering the user's circumstances.

<J. Addendum>
The present invention can be further expressed as follows as another aspect.

An image forming apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention has a control firmware and a host OS for performing controls necessary for an image forming operation, and a plurality of user authentication methods. The image forming apparatus includes means for selecting a different user authentication method for each user, an independent authentication program for each user authentication method, a guest OS different from the host OS for executing the authentication program, and a guest OS. It has a hypervisor that manages the execution of the above, and an authentication management program that notifies the hypervisor of the guest OS according to the user authentication method by holding a combination of the user authentication method and the guest OS required for authentication. The authentication management program determines the guest OS required for authentication according to the signal from the authentication device, and instructs the hypervisor to start which guest OS before the authentication program operates. , Start the guest OS required for authentication.

The image forming apparatus manages the mediation program that links the control firmware and the hypervisor, the memory space used by the control firmware for image processing, and the memory space used for the authentication program of other guest OSs using the same table. Depending on the free memory management means, the means by which the hypervisor manages the physical memory in the page table, and the memory type of the main memory managed by the CPU and the image memory managed by the image processing ASIC in the image memory space used by the control firmware. It is worthwhile to allocate data to the page table and manage it for each memory type, to manage empty pages in units of composite pages of the same size as the image block managed by the image memory, and to use the image memory in the composite page. Includes a backup memory management means for managing the page table. As a memory for saving a memory area that is not required by the guest OS other than the selected authentication method, the memory space managed by the saved memory management means is shared via the control firmware and the arbitration program.

When executing authentication at the start of a job, the image forming device executes it according to the means for selecting the guest OS to be operated from the table corresponding to the authentication program and guest OS required for the selected authentication method, and the type of each image memory. A means for setting priorities based on jobs and job information, a means for managing an available memory list that can set an ID that can identify each guest OS being used, and a system that has the above-mentioned amount of memory. A means to sequentially execute memory transfer in parallel in units of file memory blocks until memory is obtained, a means to switch to the guest OS after the memory transfer is completed, and a system used by the guest OS and the operating program when switching to the host OS next time. A means for temporarily freezing the memory, a means for sequentially replacing the memory previously transferred by the above-mentioned memory transfer means and performing a parallel transfer, a means for allocating to the original memory address saved in the sequential transfer, and a means after the replacement transfer is completed. By means that the means for switching to the host OS can operate continuously, the means for saving the memory used by the guest OS other than the selected guest OS to the memory managed by the save memory management means and the means for saving after the authentication is executed. It includes means for controlling the memory to page out and for defining an arbitration program and timing to execute them according to the timing required by the control FW.

The image forming apparatus includes a main body OS, a virtual memory control system capable of executing a program in a different virtual memory space, a virtual interrupt control system that handles different interrupt information, and a virtual CPU control system that handles different CPUs. It includes a hypervisor that manages the start / pause / restart / stop of the guest OS execution environment, and an arbitration program that mediates between the main OS and the hypervisor. The arbitration program monitors changes in the usage of the image memory space used in the image formation job operation controlled by the main OS, and monitors changes in the usage of the memory space used by the authentication program in the guest OS execution environment. And include.

The image forming apparatus is a means for migrating a different OS execution environment to another image forming apparatus or a server, a means for determining whether to read the paged out memory area required for migration in the job execution state, and after the migration. Includes a means for setting the initialization of the above and a means for sending and receiving an initialization procedure instruction (playbook).

In the image forming apparatus, when the current user authenticates and starts the job among the continuous jobs managed and executed by the control firmware, another user requests an authentication method different from that of the current user, and the guest OS of the corresponding authentication method is used. If is paged out, the control firmware controls the job execution and prioritizes the execution of the current user's job, and other users are the current user's. Wait for the job to complete, or warn you to change or change to the current user's authentication method.

<K. Summary>
The image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment can more easily implement various types of authentication methods by providing a virtual execution environment for the authentication method. In addition, it is possible to import an authentication method that used different hardware (for example, a method that uses an intermediate authentication server) as a guest OS, and to migrate the guest OS to a server in a large-scale environment that already has a server. Therefore, there is a cost reduction effect because no special hardware is required. Furthermore, migration makes it possible to easily build an authentication operating environment, which can be expected to reduce the man-hours for setting up the environment and provide a safer environment.

It should be considered that the embodiments disclosed this time are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown by the scope of claims rather than the above description, and it is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of claims.

1 Image forming device, 1A Main unit, 1B Auxiliary device, 2 Automatic document feeder, 3 Image scanner, 4 Print engine, 5 Feeder, 21 Document feeder, 22, 52, 53, 54 Feed roller, 23 Resist Roller, 24 transport drum, 25 output stand, 26 manual feed section, 27 transfer belt, 33 imaging device, 35 document stand, 41, 41C, 41K, 41M, 41Y Photoreceptor drum, 43C, 43K, 43M, 43Y Image writing unit, 44C, 44K, 44M, 44Y imaging unit, 441C, 441K, 441M, 441Y toner unit, 45 transfer device, 46 static eliminator, 47 fixing device, 49 IDC sensor, 51 timing roller, 55 transfer roller, 57 Tray, 100 control unit, 102 processor, 104 internal bus, 105, 106, 107, 108 interface circuit, 110 main memory, 112 system memory, 114, 138, 148 image memory, 118, 132, 142 memory control IC, 120 compression / Decompression IC, 121 card authentication device, 122 fingerprint authentication device, 123 operation panel, 130, 140 image processing ASIC, 134, 144 sub-memory, 136 front side input image data buffer, 146 back side input image data buffer, 150 HDD, 152, 153 Hypervisor, 154 Host OS, 158 Applications, 160 Control Firmware, 170 Mediation Module, 172 Free Memory Management Module, 174 Authentication Management Module, 178 Saved Memory Management Module, 190 Stub Management Program, 192 Authentication Device, 194 Device, 196 Storage Device, 471 Heating Roller, 472 Pressurizing Roller, 1581 Card Authentication Application, 1582 Fingerprint Authentication Application, 1583 Authentication Application, 1584, 1585, 1586 Stub Program, 1601 Print Application, 1602 Scan Application, 1603 FAX Application, 1604 BOX Application, 1605 Virtual device.

Claims (2)

A virtual memory control system that can execute programs in different virtual memory spaces,
A virtual interrupt control system that can handle different interrupt information,
A virtual processor control system that handles different processors,
A hypervisor that manages the start, pause, restart, and stop of the execution environment of multiple guest OSes,
It is equipped with an arbitration program that mediates between the host OS and the hypervisor.
The arbitration program monitors changes in the usage of the image memory space used in job execution controlled by the host OS, and monitors changes in the usage of the memory space used by the authentication program in the execution environment of the guest OS. Forming device. An arbitration program executed by an image forming apparatus
The image forming apparatus
A virtual memory control system that can execute programs in different virtual memory spaces,
A virtual interrupt control system that can handle different interrupt information,
A virtual processor control system that handles different processors,
Equipped with a hypervisor that manages the start, pause, restart, and stop of the execution environment of multiple guest OSes.
The arbitration program is applied to the image forming apparatus.
A function that mediates between the host OS and the hypervisor,
Mediation that realizes a function to monitor changes in the usage of the image memory space used in job execution controlled by the host OS and to monitor changes in the usage of the memory space used by the authentication program in the execution environment of the guest OS. program.

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