JPH01103466A - Control in page-type printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance efficiency in use of a printer device part to a great extent by providing a control means determining which information should be stored between that of a next page and that of a prior page buffer and transmitting the next page information simultaneously with the printing execution of a page- type printer device. CONSTITUTION:N-th page information is stored in a page buffer 7, thereafter being transmitted to a printing buffer 5 from a receive buffer 4 via an interface part 2. Using this vacant time, (N+1)th page information is sent into the receive buffer 4, moreover being issued to the side of a printer device 1. At the end of this operation, the side of the page-type printer device 1 completes a printing on the N-th page and raises a printing end signal 10 to advance to the (N+2)th page. If the signal is an abnormal end signal, which represents that the N-th page information is not properly printed, a prior page buffer 8 in which the N-th page information has remained is exchanged for the page buffer 7. After that, the information of the page buffer 7 is transmitted to the side of the printer device 1, and these buffers are again exchanged with each other.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an interface of print information between a page printer device and a host device, and in particular, to realize a method for checking whether the print information needs to be retransmitted. The present invention relates to a control method for a page-type printer device.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, the interface between a page-type printer device and a higher-level device is that after sending and receiving one page or information,
If the printing of that page is completed correctly, the information is transferred to the next page, and if the printing is not completed correctly, the same page is sent and received again.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional method described above, after sending and receiving the printing information of a certain page, the printing information of the next page is sent and received after waiting for that information to finish printing correctly. In this case, an idle time occurs between the end of sending and receiving print information for a certain page and the sending and receiving of print information for the next page, and therefore, there is a problem in that the printing speed cannot be increased to the maximum printing speed of the printing device.

[Means for solving problems]

The control method of the page printer device of the present invention includes a page buffer and a previous page buffer that physically or logically exist, and a physical or logical receiving buffer and a previous page buffer that are connected to the page buffer through an interface section. A page-type printer device having a print buffer, and determining whether to store next page information or information in the previous page buffer in the page buffer in response to a print completion signal for the previous page sent from the page-type printer device. and a page buffer control means for controlling the page buffer, so that the next page information is simultaneously transferred while the page type printer device is printing.

[Effect]

In the present invention, a method is adopted in which it is checked whether the information on the previous page has been printed correctly before sending out the information on the next page.Therefore, while processing in the event of an abnormality is reliably carried out, the ink 7 Processing of data in the machine section and printing device section proceeds simultaneously.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a page-type printer device, and this page-type printer device 1 is connected to a host device 3 via an interface section 2.
There is a physical or logical reception buffer 4, print buffer 5, and printing device 6 inside, and the structure is such that information is transmitted from the reception buffer 4 to the print buffer 5 to the head of the printing device 6. There is. Then, the host device 3 receives the physically or logically existing page buffer T and previous page buffer 8 and the print completion signal 10 from the printing device 6.
The page buffer control mechanism 9 operates in response to the state of the page buffer. Here, this page buffer control mechanism 9 transmits either the next page information or the information of the previous page buffer 8 to the page buffer T in response to the print completion signal 10 of the previous page sent from the page type printer device 1. It constitutes a page buffer control means that controls whether or not to store the data.

The page printer 1 is configured to simultaneously transfer next page information while printing is being executed.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

First, when one page of information (hereinafter referred to as the Nth page for later explanation) is stored in the page buffer 7 by the software in the host device 3, that information is transferred to the ink 7 unit 2. The data is then transferred to the reception buffer 4 of the page-type printer 1 via the printer 1, and further transferred to the print buffer 5, and printing is started immediately after the transfer is completed. On the other hand, receive buffer 4
Since the receiving buffer 4 becomes empty when the information is transferred from the host device 3 to the print buffer 5, the next page (N+1 page) information is sent from the host device 3 to the receiving buffer 4 using this free time. It's crowded.

Next, the following operation is performed inside the host device 3. That is, after the Nth page information stored in the page buffer T is transferred to the previous page buffer 8, the new N+1th page information is stored in the page buffer T, and the page format is transferred via the interface section 2. It is sent to the printer device 1 side.

Then, at the time when this operation is completed, the page type printer device 1 has completed printing the Nth page, and the print completion signal 10 has been raised. Here, if the signal indicates normal completion, the information in the page buffer 7, that is, the information on the N+1 page, is transferred to the previous page buffer 8, and the information on the next page, the N+2 page, is transferred to the previous page buffer 8. is stored in the page buffer 7. On the other hand, if the signal indicates abnormal termination, it indicates that the information on the Nth page is not printed correctly, so the abnormal state of the printer is reported to the screen of the host device 3, etc. After the abnormal state such as paper out, paper jam, etc. is resolved by operator intervention, the following restart processing is performed.

Since the information of the Nth page whose printing was not completed correctly remains in the previous page buffer 8, the previous page buffer 8 and the page buffer T are exchanged. After that, after the information in the page buffer 7 is transferred to the page printer device 1 side, the previous page buffer 8 and the page buffer 7 are transferred again.
The information in the page buffer 7 is transferred to the page type printer 1 side, and the normal cycle returns.

FIG. 2 (,) is a time chart that describes the flow of each page of information in the interface section and the flow of page information handled by the printing device section at this time, along with the flow of time. In FIG. 2(a), N indicates information on the N-th page, N+1 indicates information on the N-1-1 page, and N+2 indicates information on the N+2 page.

Note that FIG. 2(b) shows a time chart in the prior art.

As is clear from FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), the printing device section is efficiently used in the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2(a).

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, by employing a method of checking whether the information on the previous page was printed correctly before sending out the information on the next page, processing in the event of an abnormality can be reliably carried out. For the first time, it has become possible to proceed with data processing in the interface section and the printing device section at the same time. This has the great effect of greatly improving the usage efficiency of the printing device section. This is particularly effective when dealing with image information, which has recently increased in number, and requires a lot of time at the interface.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a time chart showing page information processed by the interface section and the printing device section. 1. Fist-page printer device, 2. Interface unit, 3II. Upper device, 4. Reception buffer, 5. Print buffer, 6. Printing device.
T---Page buffer, 80.・, Previous page buffer, 90.・Page buffer control mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A page-type printer device having a page buffer and a previous page buffer that physically or logically exist, and a physical or logical receiving buffer and print buffer that are connected to the page buffer through an interface unit; page buffer control means for controlling whether to store next page information or information in the previous page buffer in the page buffer in response to a print completion signal for the previous page sent from a page printer device; A control method for a page-type printer device, characterized in that next page information is simultaneously transferred while the page-type printer device is performing printing.