JPH02286381A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily return environment to the head of an arbitrary page when abnormality is generated by mounting an environmental data memory means storing the environmental data at the start time of the printing of each page corresponding to the page to a printer controller. CONSTITUTION:Data blocks are prepared in a number wherein 2 is added to the product of the number of papers capable of being present in a printer at once during a series of printing operations in a printing process and the max. number of pages printable on one paper, that is, a number wherein 2 is added to the max. number of pages present in the printer at once during printing operation. These data blocks are ones for storing various environmental data necessary for printing and constituted of one environmental data block (EIB) of a current successively renewing environmental data at the time of the analysis and execution of each ESC sequence, one area temporarily retracting the EIB of the current at the time of the generation of abnormality and an environmental data block for storing the environmental data at the point of time when the editing of each page is started.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention receives coded print information transferred from a computer, stores the print information in internal memory, and prints the information for one page of paper. It relates to so-called page printers that print out one page of information when an amount of data corresponding to This invention relates to a page printer with an improved environmental condition management method.

[Conventional technology]

In general, in page printers, the print information expressed in ASCII code transferred from the host computer to the printer is the normal character code (2
1H to 7EH), CR (return), LP (line feed), etc.
It is roughly divided into byte control codes (00H to 20H, 7FH). However, complex control such as changing printer conditions cannot be performed using only one-byte information such as an ASCII code, so the ESC code (
IBM) is used as a command header to prepare a command group (hereinafter referred to as an ESC sequence) consisting of multiple bytes, and set character spacing in printing, line spacing, margin offset, etc.! It controls the environmental conditions for printing, such as controlling the printing position within the page.

In addition, when a normal page printer receives data from a host computer, it develops the image on the image memory, and at the same time stores the data in an internal host command buffer (hereinafter referred to as HCB), and stores the data on the paper while printing. When an abnormality such as a paper jam occurs, the above-mentioned H
Jam recovery is performed by reading the print information stored in the CB and reprinting based on this information. In such a case, if the printing information is only a normal character code, it is easy to reprint from the page where the abnormality has occurred by storing information representing the beginning position of each page in the HCH. However, if the printing information contains an ESC sequence that changes the spacing between characters to be printed at a position corresponding to the middle of the page, the spacing between characters will be different at the beginning and end of the page. will be held. If the printing environment is changed during the process like this, in order to correctly perform jam recovery for paper that has caused a paper jam, it is necessary to first check all environmental conditions such as the current character spacing before restarting printing. It is necessary to return to the environmental conditions that started image formation on the paper.

Conventionally, the method of rewind processing to return to the top of an arbitrary page was to unconditionally reread all data from the beginning of a series of pages, but this method There is a lot of waste in rereading everything, and in order to improve this waste, Tokko Sho proposed a method to restore the environment by sequentially storing only the changed contents as the environment changes, and going back to this sequentially stored information when an abnormality occurs. No. 62-20577.

Furthermore, some recent printers print on both sides of paper. In a printer engine that performs double-sided printing, for example, as shown in Figure 15, due to the structure for paper transport and paper reversal, when the printed paper is ejected, the order of the printed pages is reversed. There are some configurations that allow it to be ejected.

That is, in FIG. 15, the paper fed from the paper feed tray 1 has an image formed on its first surface in the image forming section 2, passes through the fixing section 3, and passes through the forward roller pair of the conveying roller section 4. A paper reversing unit 5 equipped with a reversing guide through the
Then, the paper is reversely conveyed to the reversing conveyance path 6 via a pair of reversing rollers of the conveying roller section 4, and conveyed again toward the image forming section 2 at the appropriate timing. After an image is formed on the second surface in the image forming section 2,
The paper passes through the fixing section 3 and the conveyance roller section 4, and is ejected by the ejection roller 7 to a paper ejection stuff force 8. In this case, since the pages are sequentially discharged with the second side facing down, the order of the printed pages is reversed.

Therefore, in order to transfer raster data for printing to a printer engine with such a configuration,
The host computer server must manage the print information for each page, reverse the page order within the printer controller, and then transfer the raster data to the printer engine. In other words, information is received from the host computer in the order of the first page and the second page, and
The first page will be printed out in the order of the first page.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, in a page printer that uses a printer engine with the above configuration and is configured to print out pages in reverse order, there is a change in the environment such as character spacing during the first page. In this case, the second page to be printed out first starts printing from the top of the page using the environment after the environment change in the first page (with the changed character spacing), and then the first page to be printed out. must be printed based on the environment before the change (with the character spacing before the change), and furthermore, after the first page is printed, it is necessary to set the changed environment conditions. In such a case, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 62-20577 can be used, but it is not an efficient method because it requires backtracking of environment change storage for each page.

Another method to achieve this page order reversal is 1.
Two page memories with a capacity that can store one page of raster images are prepared, and a raster image is formed on each page memory while receiving and receiving print information from the host computer. When one page of raster images is complete, the page order is reversed, the raster image data is transferred to the printer engine, and these two pages of image memory are retained until the paper is successfully ejected. It is known that jam recovery is performed by doing this.

The advantage of this method is that front and back images can be formed without managing environmental changes. However,
Normally, in order to store an A4 size image at a resolution of 300 dpi, approximately 1 Mbyte of memory is required per page, making it quite expensive.Also, printing two pages of data forming a raster image This method has drawbacks such as not being able to start forming the next image until the paper has been properly ejected.

The present invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems in conventional page printers, and provides a printer controller that can easily return the environment to the top of any page when an abnormality occurs. The purpose is to provide.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer/engine that can generate an environment at the beginning of each page using as few memory resources as possible, regardless of the order in which images are transferred to the printer engine.
The purpose is to provide a controller.

[Means and operations for solving the problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a printer in which environmental conditions for printing can be changed by a host command from a host computer. The apparatus is provided with an environmental information storage means for storing environmental information at the time of starting printing of each page in correspondence with the page.

With this configuration, the environmental information at the time of printing start corresponding to each page is stored, and this environmental information can be managed on a page-by-page basis, so that the desired page-by-page environmental information can be quickly and independently accessed. It becomes possible to access. As a result, even if the manual page-by-page order of print information transferred from the host computer and the page-by-page image transfer order to the printer engine are different, environmental information at the beginning of each page can be easily stored with less memory resources. And it can be reproduced quickly. Furthermore, by accessing the environment information for each page, it is possible to easily and efficiently perform jam recovery processing and rewind processing when an abnormality such as a paper jam occurs.

〔Example〕

Next, an embodiment of a page printer controller according to the present invention will be described. First, the configuration and functions of the printer engine and controller in this embodiment are as follows. That is, the printer/engine prints two sheets of four pages of printed information in the same manner as shown in FIG. 15 in double-sided printing. #2. #3. #4
If the paper is transferred in the order of #2. #
1. The mechanical configuration is such that sheets are ejected in the order of pages #4 and #3. Then, the controller changes the information transfer page order to $2.00 in order to correct the page order error in double-sided printing. $1. #4. It is configured to automatically change to $3.

Next, the hardware configuration of this embodiment will be explained based on FIG. The following elements are connected as shown below.

o Read-only program memory that stores the ltllIm program 0 Work memory for writing and reading various control information O Host I/F for reading print information from the host computer 0 Auxiliary processor for forming images An engine I/F for sending commands such as starting printing to the printer engine and receiving information such as the status of the printer engine.Furthermore, the bus of the raster processor includes the following: Connecting elements.

O Font memory that stores the shapes of various fonts in the form of bit maps O Font memory that stores the shapes of various fonts in the form of bitmaps O Font memory that stores the shapes of various fonts in the form of bit maps The image memory CPU stores the bit image data and then transfers the raster scan data to the printer engine. An internal command for the raster processor is generated from information such as a font memory address corresponding to the code and an image memory address corresponding to the current cursor position, and is transferred to the raster processor. The raster processor receives this internal command, arranges the data in the font memory on the image memory, and then sends the raster scan data to the printer engine according to a later command from the CPU.
Send data.

In this embodiment, the processing speed is increased by using the raster processor with the above configuration when transferring the data in the font memory to the image memory.
The font memory and the image memory may be arranged on a CPU bus, and the CPU may directly write data in the font memory to the image memory.

Next, before explaining the actual operation, various control information used in this embodiment will be explained.

First, as shown in Figure 2, a buffer is used to store print information transferred from the host computer.
m-word long host command buffer (HCB)
)・Prepare n blocks and give each block an ID from O to (n-1). Each HCB block is composed of an inter-block link information area of one word at the beginning of the block and an area for storing (m-1) words of print information. In the link information area, storage of print information for one page is not completed in the relevant HCB block, and when storing print information in another HCB block, it is necessary to store the print information in the link information area. D (0 to n-1) is written, and when storage is completed in the current HCB block, -1 is written as link information. FIG. 3 shows a connected configuration of HCB blocks.

Next, in order to manage writing/reading/opening of the above HCB, iA, H
Prepare the CB control block.

The HCB control block contains the following information:

O ID of the HCB block being written O Offset value from the beginning of the HCB block while being written 0 IDO of the HCB block being read Offset value from the beginning of the HCB block being read is the product of the number of sheets of paper that can exist during the printing process and the maximum number of pages that can be printed on - sheets of paper (if double-sided printing is possible, 2 pages/use), plus 2, i.e. During a printing operation, information blocks of the maximum number of pages existing in the printer at one time plus 2 are prepared. This information block is an information block for storing various environmental information necessary for printing, and the current environmental information block (
E I B), one area for temporarily saving the current BIB when an abnormality occurs, and a storage environment information block for storing the environment information at that time when editing each page is started. has been done. In addition to the maximum number of pages, there are two EIB blocks available:
This is for the current EIB and the evacuation area. An example of the configuration of this ElB is shown in FIG.

Next, during a series of printing operations, - the number of sheets of paper that may exist in the printer during the printing process, and the maximum number of pages that can be printed on one sheet of paper (2 pages/use if double-sided printing is possible). Prepare as many information blocks as the product of This is called a page information block (PIB), and the following lower control information is subordinate to the 20PIB. That is, the information of the HCB corresponding to the page, that is, the information indicating the location of the command buffer in which the print information constituting the current page transferred from the host computer is stored, and the information of the HCB corresponding to the page. Information on the storage EIB, that is, information indicating the ID of the BIB that stores various environmental information at the start of editing of the page until the printing of the page ends normally, and processing for a series of printing on the page are currently being performed. Contains control information used as a page state switch to indicate what state the page is in. A more detailed list of these is as follows.

o HCB start block 10 o Offset value from the beginning of HCB start block o
HCB end block ID o Offset value from the beginning of HCB end block on
A flag (HCB use flag) with at least n bits of information to indicate the HCB block used by the page in each HCB block 0 IDO page state switch of the EIB corresponding to the page FREE i open state EDIT: Editing EDENDj&W collection completed DSPT: Image forming DSEND: Image formation finished RTOE: Raster data being transferred to the engine WAIT: When the paper is ejected, and during a series of printing operations, inside the printer at - Sheet information blocks (S I B), which are the same number of information blocks as the number of sheets of paper that can exist during the printing process, are prepared. As shown below, this SIB contains the information of the PIB corresponding to the page, that is, the IDs of multiple pages printed on the sheet, and the printing position on the sheet of the page assigned each ID, that is, double-sided printing. In this case, the first sheet
As information indicating whether to print on the first side or the second side,
It is used to store information for managing the print position on the sheet of each page according to the print format.

Furthermore, it is used as a seat state switch to indicate the current state of the sheet and SrB.

0 Number of PIBs constituting the sheet (single-sided printing - 1/
Double-sided printing = 2) ID of PIB of first print O Position information on sheet of first print 0 ID of PIB of second print O Information of position on sheet of second print 0 Sheet state switch FREE: Open state EDIT : Editing EDEND : Editing finished WAIT : When paper is ejected The management system of SIB, PIB, HCB, and EIB is shown in FIG.

Furthermore, a sheet sequence queue (which is a FIFO-structured data block having the same length as the number of SOBs mentioned above)
Prepare S S Q). This SSQ is a data block used to control the printing order of each page, and when the printing of each sheet is completed, the ID of the sheet,
That is, the SIB IDs are written sequentially. Therefore, this SSQ indicates the output order of unprocessed sheets, and by referring to this SSQ, each processing module in the controller can perform its own predetermined processing operation in a time-sharing manner.

Furthermore, when performing control, one unit is a data block that is long enough to store the address of each processing module corresponding to each 8-bit character code, and this data block is In order to store the addresses of processing modules, a plurality of processing address tables shown below are prepared, in which 256 processing address tables are concatenated in the order of character codes. Furthermore, a processing table pointer is prepared to indicate the processing address table currently in use.

0 Basic processing address table (see Figure 6) that stores the addresses of processing modules by character code that are manually input from the host computer 0 After the ESC code that is the command header is input, the supporting ESC Based on the sequence system,
The first ESC processing address table 0 is made up of 256 concatenated addresses in the order of character codes in the same manner as described above, in order to move to each lower processing module according to the character code following the ESC code of the command header. 2nd ESC processing address table for migration 0 A similar 1st ESC processing address table with a number n determined by the supported ESC sequence system Next, in this embodiment, the processing until the printing ends normally is The process will be explained according to the host command-specific processing flowchart shown in FIG.

■ Reading the host command When data is output from the host computer to the data bus and the data is latched into the internal flip-flop by the synchronization signal STB, the CPU reads this data and takes it into the internal unit, and then executes the host command. Processing is transferred to the analysis section.

■ Host command analysis The host command analysis section refers to the processing address table pointed to by the processing table pointer, in this case the basic processing address table that was set first.
Control is transferred to a lower processing module corresponding to each input character code.

The input data is a normal printing character code (21H to 7).
8H), move to a module common to each character code to expand the image data of the font corresponding to the character code onto the image memory, and then move to the process for acquiring the page described in the next section. Le.

If the input data is a control code other than the ESC code, it will move to the respective processing module for each code, and if the control code is a code that causes a change in the current cursor position, it will be transferred to the processing module for obtaining the page described in the next section. Move on to processing.

If the control code does not change the current cursor position, after updating the corresponding information in the current EIB, skip the page acquisition process described in the next section, and execute the host command storage process. to move to.

If the input data is an ESC code, set the first ESC processing address table in the processing table pointer and perform the process of reading the host command again.1.
In response to reading byte data, the processing table pointer is transferred to the second ESC processing address table and the third ESC.
After a transition is made to a processing address table and data is sequentially fetched, and a series of ESC sequences are completed, control is transferred to a corresponding ESC sequence processing module. Each ESC sequence processing module analyzes this series of commands, and if the command is a code that changes the current cursor position, it moves on to the next page acquisition process. If the command is a code that does not cause changes to the current cursor position, such as character spacing settings, after updating the corresponding information in the current EIB, skip the process for acquiring the page in the next section,
Move on to host command storage processing.

(2) Acquisition of page/host command buffer/sheet Next, the process of acquiring page/host command buffer/sheet will be explained with reference to FIG.

The CPU checks whether there is a page currently in the editing state, ie, whether there is a PIB whose page state switch is EDIT. If there is a page being EDIT, no page/host command buffer/sheet acquisition processing is performed.

If there is no page being edited, the CPU first searches for a PIB whose page status switch is FREE, and
obtain.

Next, the CPU performs the following work as initialization processing of the acquired PIB.

0 Set the page state switch of the PIB to EDIT.

o The current HCB from the HCB control block
Read the write location of the PIB and set the HCB start block ID and start offset of the PIB.

o Clear HCB end block ID and offset.

o Set the bit in the HCB use flag that corresponds to the ID of the HCH acquired for writing.

When the PIB and HCB are acquired, check whether there is a sheet currently being edited, that is, the sheet status switch is set to E.
Check if there is a SIB that is a DIT. EDIT
If there is no seat inside, the CPU continues with the following processing to obtain a seat.

0 Search for 31B whose seat status switch is FREE and acquire the SIB.

0 Set the sheet status switch of the SIB to EDIT.

O Depending on the current mode (single-sided printing/double-sided printing), set the number of PIBs that make up the sheet, that is, the number of pages of information to be printed on one sheet (single-sided printing-1/double-sided printing-2). do.

Next, the ID of the PIB subordinate to the sheet and the printing position information on the sheet of the page (in this example, information indicating whether it is printed on the front side or the back side) are written in the corresponding location of the acquired SIB. .

Finally, the CPU stores all the information of the current EIB in one of the released storage EFBs, and sets the ID of the storage EIB in the PIB. This current EIB
In the process of storing information in the current EIB in the storage EIB, the information in the current EIB may be stored as is in the storage EIB, or the information in the current EIB may be stored in the storage EIB in a compressed format.
It may also be stored in the IB.

With the above operations, a page/host command buffer/sheet is acquired.

■ Processing for each host command Following the above processing, perform the following processing for each manually entered host command (see Figure 7).If the input data is a normal print character code (2LH to 7EH) , the font memory address corresponding to the character code, the X direction registered in the current EIB (normal printer
Based on information such as the address on the image memory (the print position of the character), which is determined by the cursor values in the main scanning direction (when transferring raster image data to the engine) and the Y direction perpendicular to this. , executes processing such as generating an internal code for image development for the raster processor, and sets the printing start position of the next character to the current EI.
Set to the cursor value in B.

When the input data is a control n code other than an ESC code, for example, when the control code is an LF (line feed) code, the current E! Processing such as adding the registered line spacing value to B or expanding the font data is not performed, but only processing for updating the environment information is performed.

If the input data is an ESC code, processing such as updating of environmental information is executed for each ESC sequence.

After each of the above processes for each host command is performed, the storage process for the next host command is performed.

■ Host command storage processing The CPU checks whether a page is currently acquired. If it has not been acquired, the input host command is a command that does not change the current cursor position, and in the processing for each command described in the previous section, the relevant environment information in the current EIB is simply updated. Terminates processing for the host command. Once the page has been acquired, the following host command storage process is performed.

The CPU reads the HCB control block, the HCB block ID for writing, and the HCB block offset.The CPU then writes the print information received from the host computer to the location indicated by both pointers, and writes the HCB block ID and HCB block offset for writing.
Add 1 to the CB block offset value. Next, check the updated offset value, and if this value is one HC
If the length of the B block is exceeded, the CPU acquires a new HCB block using the following procedure.

As shown in FIG. 9, the CPU calculates the logical sum of the HCB use flags of all PIBs and calculates the ID of the currently released HCB. By writing this ID in the HCB block link information area at the beginning of the HCB block currently being written, the H of the 0th order HCB block will be revealed.
Update the CB block ID and offset value based on the newly acquired HCB block. Furthermore, the HCB use flag in the PIB of the page currently being edited is updated.

■ Page/sheet end processing The CPU repeats the processing up to this point until the page feed command (FF) is transferred from the host computer or the line feed command (L F) exceeds the allowable number of lines for one page. Follow the steps below to close the page.

0 ED the PIB page status switch of the current page
Make it END.

0 Writes the HCB end block ID and HCB end block offset of the PIB of the page.

Next, the CPU checks whether the current sheet has ended due to the end of the page, that is, whether all the pages required for the current sheet have been completed depending on the mode such as single-sided/double-sided printing. If it is not finished, repeat the process up to this point until all pages are finished.
After that, the end processing for the sheet is performed according to the following procedure.

0 Register the SIB ID of the sheet in SSQ.

0 Set the SIB sheet state of the relevant sheet to EDEND.

■ Image data formation/transfer processing When the exclusive use of the image memory for image transfer of the previous page is completed and the image memory is released, the CPU refers to the page position information in the SIB. Then, page 10 to be printed on the first side of the sheet is detected. Next, set the page state switch of the PIB of the detected page to DSPT.
When all data has been developed, the CPU sets the PIB page state switch of the corresponding page to DSEND, and then develops fonts, images, etc. on the image memory. The formed task image data is transferred to the printer engine based on a request from the printer engine. When the transfer of task image data for one screen is completed, the CP
U is WA for each state switch of the corresponding sheet and page.
Set it in the IT and wait for the paper to exit normally from the printer engine.

In reality, when the image memory is released, the process of receiving a host command for a certain page and generating an internal command for image expansion, and then storing the fonts on the image memory according to the generated internal command for the page. The process of forming an image is performed in a time-sharing manner as multi-task processing. Also, while raster image data is being transferred to the engine, the process of generating the internal command for image expansion for the next page is
It is done on a time-sharing basis.

■ Sheet/page/host command buffer release processing When the image formation on the paper in the printer engine is completed and the paper is normally ejected, the CPU releases the sheet page and host command buffer using the following procedure. Perform release processing.

o Extract data from SSQ and detect SIB ID of the ejected sheet.

0 Set the SIB sheet status switch of the relevant sheet to FRE.
Set to E.

0 Perform page release processing using the following procedure for all pages subordinate to the PIB information of the SIB of the sheet.

00 Set the page state switch of PIB of the page to F
Set to REE.

oo Reset the corresponding HCB usage flag of the PIB of the page.

With the above steps, single-sided printing is selected as the print mode, and the printing information input from the host computer is
Printing on paper completes normally.

FIG. 10 shows the general flow of the processing up to this point.

In single-sided printing, the paper conveyance mode and the above PIB, SIB, SS from the time data is transferred from the host computer until the printed paper is normally ejected.
The state transition of Q is shown in FIG. 11. In FIG. 11, numbers indicate page and sheet ranks.

Next, when an error occurs, data is read from the host command buffer and automatically reprinted without requesting the host computer to retransmit the data, based on the flowchart in Figure 12. explain. Note that the above series of processes is executed and the printer
Assume that an abnormality such as a paper jam occurs in the printer engine after the image data has been transferred to the engine.

When the printer engine detects an abnormality such as a paper jam, it notifies the printer controller of the occurrence of the abnormality using the control information engine I/F shown in FIG. The printer controller receives this information and executes jam recovery according to the following steps.

- Jam recovery start The CPU temporarily suspends various processes for the host command currently being executed, and stores the current EIB in the EIB-time save area.

Next, the CPU refers to the SSQ and detects 5IB(7)10 of the sheet being conveyed within the printer engine.

When multiple SIB IDs are registered, each SIB
Repeat the following process for

■ Recovery of sheet information Set the sheet status switch of the sheet to EDIT, and repeat the following process for all pages subordinate to the PIB information in the SIB.Start recovery of row information.PIB of the page Set the page state switch to EDIT.6 Next, refer to the EIB information of the current PIB,
The environment information corresponding to the page is read from the storage EIB and set in the current EIB. This process returns all environmental information to the same state it was in when the host command corresponding to the page was first transferred to the printer, without having to go back through the set of changed environmental information. Furthermore, information on the HCB start block 10 and HCB start block offset of the PIB of the page is stored in the HC
HCB block 10 for reading B control block. Set to HCB block offset.

o Loading host commands from HCB During normal printing, print information is read and edited from the data latch of the host computer I/F, but when a jam occurs
During recovery, instead of the latch, the HCB control
HCB block ID for reading within the block.

1 from the address indicated by the HCB block offset
Host commands are read out byte by byte, and editing operations are performed based on the read host commands.

Next, read H in the HCB control block.
Add 1 to the CB block offset value. Then check the updated offset value and check if this value is one HC.
If the length of the B block is exceeded, the CPU recognizes the HCB block to be connected by referring to the HCB block link information of the block, and reads the ID of the new CB block in the HCB control block. At the same time, the HCB block offset for reading is initialized.

During normal printing, the host computer transfers a page feed command (F F) or a line feed command (L
F), when the allowable number of lines for one page was exceeded, the page transitioned to end processing, but during jam recovery, the HC for reading in the HCB control block
Both the B block ID and HCB block offset values are the HCB end block 10. of the PIB of the page. H.C.
By matching the B block offset information, the end of the page is detected.

■ End of page recovery Set page state switch of PIB of the page to EDEND
Set to .

With the above process, one page jam recovery is completed,
After proceeding to the recovery operation of other pages subordinate to the SIB and repeating the same process, the sheet state switch of the SIB of the page is set to EDEND. Thereafter, similar to the normal processing described above, image data is created with reference to internal commands, and the task image data is transferred to the printer engine.

With the processing up to this point, jam recovery for one sheet is completed. The CPU refers to the SSQ and repeats this process for all the sheets that were being conveyed when the printer engine experienced an abnormality, thereby completing the recovery process when the abnormality occurs.

Next, a case will be described in which when double-sided printing is selected as the print mode, the page order of print information for each page from the host computer is reversed within the controller and printing is performed.

When data is received from the host computer, the receiver parses the data as it does for single-sided printing, acquires the page/host command buffer if the data involves cursor movement, and continues printing. In the sheet acquisition process in which the sheet acquisition process is performed, in the duplex printing mode, the ID of the PIB of the first page received from the host computer is registered in the SIB as information for second printing. Thereafter, processes such as updating the current EIB and generating internal commands for image expansion are executed for each command.

However, at this time, in the image data forming process running in multi-task mode, the page currently generating internal commands is recognized as data for the second print, so the font data is not expanded onto the image memory. will not be carried out.

The above process is repeated, and similarly to the single-sided printing mode, a page/sheet end process is performed using a page break command (FF), etc., and the editing process for the first page is ended.

Subsequently, when the second page (first print) data is transferred from the host computer, the page/host command buffer is acquired in the same way, and then the PIB acquired as the first print data is transferred. The ID is registered in the SIB. Since the editing process for the first page is being executed as usual, all the various environmental information in the current EIB at this point have been updated to the values necessary to start editing the second page. Therefore, similarly to the above, various environmental information of the current EIB is stored in the storage EIB, and this ID is registered in the PIB.

Current EIB corresponding to each command subsequently received
, update the image, generate internal commands for image deployment, etc.

During the editing of this second page, in the image data forming process running in multi-task mode, the page currently generating internal commands is recognized as data for the first print, and the image memory is released. If so, image data formation processing such as development of font data is performed.

This process is repeated until a page feed command (F
After the sheet end process has been executed and all images have been formed using the generated first print internal command, a task image is sent to the printer engine.
Transfer data.

When the transfer of the task image is completed and the image memory is released, the process continues to form image data for second printing based on the previously generated internal command. When the printing operation for the first print is completed in the printer engine and the paper reaches the reversal paper waiting position in the 13 nonta engine and is ready for the next printing, the image data of the second page that has been formed is transferred. Transfer to printer engine.

When image formation on both sides of the paper is completed using the above steps and the paper is ejected normally, the sheet/page/host command buffer release process is executed in the same way as in the single-sided printing mode, and the series of processes is completed. finish.

In double-sided printing, the paper transport mode and the above PIB, SIB, SS from the time data is transferred from the host computer until the printed paper is normally ejected
In Figure 0, which shows the state transition of Q, the numbers in SSQ indicate sheet ranks, and the other numbers indicate page ranks input from the host computer.

Note that in the above embodiment, an environment information block (EIB) is prepared to store various environmental information, and information indicating the ID of the EIB at the time of starting editing of each page is placed in the EIB. , SLB, PIB, HCB in Fig. 14
As shown in the diagram showing the management system, even if the environment information block storage area of each page is arranged in the EIB of the page, exactly the same processing operation can be performed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above based on the embodiments, according to the present invention, environmental information at the time of printing start corresponding to each page is stored, and the environmental information can be managed on a page-by-page basis. environmental information can be accessed independently and quickly. As a result, even if the input order of print information transferred from the host computer on a page-by-page basis and the order of image transfer on a page-by-page basis to the printer engine are different, environmental information at the beginning of each page can be easily stored with less memory resources. And it can be reproduced quickly. Furthermore, by accessing the environment information for each page, it is possible to easily and efficiently perform jam recovery processing and rewind processing when an abnormality such as a paper jam occurs.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of an embodiment of a printer controller according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a host command buffer (HCB) block, and FIG. is a diagram showing the connected configuration of HCB blocks, and FIG. 4 is an environmental information block (E I B)
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of SrB, PIB, HCB.
, a diagram showing the EIB management system, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the basic processing address table, FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing by host command, and FIG. 8 is a page/HCB/sheet acquisition process. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the HCB use flag mode, FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure from input from the host computer to printout, and FIG. 11 is the PIB when printing on one side. , SIB, and SSQ. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the jam recovery processing mode. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the state transition of PIB during double-sided printing.
S.I.B. FIG. 14, a diagram showing the state transition of SSQ, is SIB. Diagram showing other management systems of PIB, HCB, EIB, Part 1
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a printer engine that performs double-sided printing. In the figure, 1 is a paper feed tray, 2 is an image forming section, 5 is a paper reversing section, 6 is a reversing conveyance path, and 8 is a paper ejection stacker. Patent applicant: Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. Figure 6 Corresponding character code processing Atres Figure 8 Figure 14 Sheet information block (SIB) Figure 15 6 Inversion M'fs 'IA

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a printer in which environmental conditions for printing are changed by a host command from a host computer, an environment in which environmental information at the start of printing of each page is stored in correspondence with the page. A printer controller comprising an information storage means and capable of managing the environmental information on a page-by-page basis. 2. The printer controller according to claim 1, wherein the environment information is arranged subordinate to a page information block consisting of print information for each page. 3. The printer controller according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for storing identifiers of page information in the order of printing.