JPH0270465A - Print controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control the priority of a printing task in the manner as to be higher than that of a lithography task and to perform a high speed printing of a printer engine by providing a page buffer for a plurality of pages, a task processor for executing a lithography and a printing process, and a tank controller for the lithography and the printing task. CONSTITUTION:The decision of lithography conditions is first performed in the execution of a lithography task 131. If a lithography is impossible, i.e., if a page buffer 14 is not vacant, an executing state is altered to a waiting state, and the selection of a task to be executed is then performed by the task scheduler of a task controller 13. It is similar even in the execution of a printing task 132. The waiting state is released in the task 131 when the buffer 14 becomes vacant and in the task 132 for the buffer 14 prepared with the lithography when a printer engine 16 becomes vacant, the scheduler is immediately started to select the task having highest priority and to start it. Thus, the engine and the buffer can be operated without vacant time, and a printing is conducted at the highest speed of the printer engine.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a print control device for controlling page printers typified by optical printers such as laser beam printers, LED (light emitting diode) printers, and LC8 (liquid crystal) printers. Regarding.

[Prior art] In recent years, in the field of personal computers and workstations,
Optical printers are becoming popular. Optical printers are connected to host computers such as personal computers and workstations via print control devices.

A conventional device is described in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 173526/1983, and is constructed as shown in FIG.

In the figure, a command string sent by the host computer is drawn by the CPU 21 as a head pattern on a page buffer 231. When the drawing for one page is completed, the data in the first page 231 is read out by the printer adapter section 24, subjected to parallel-to-serial conversion, and outputted to the printer engine section 25 as a video signal.

The printer engine section 25 executes an optical printer process to print one page of paper.

Some conventional devices have a plurality of pages 231, 232 and 233 prepared in the page buffer section 23 as in the present invention. Drawing (writing) on one page 231
In the process, by printing (reading) from another page 232 to the printer engine unit 25, drawing and printing are performed in parallel, and throughput is attempted to be increased.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The above-mentioned conventional technology does not take into consideration the control method for writing to the page buffer section by drawing and reading from the page buffer section by printing without wasting time. Even if a printer engine section or a page buffer section consisting of a plurality of pages is used, there is a problem that printing can only be performed at a speed lower than the engine speed because there is idle time in the operation of each section.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printing control device that solves the problems of the conventional invention described above and can bring out the high-speed printing performance of a printer engine section.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a print control device according to the present invention includes a command buffer section that stores a command string including at least a drawing command, and a dot image data drawn according to the drawing command. In a print control device that outputs dot image data in the page buffer after drawing to a printer engine section, the print control device includes a page buffer for a plurality of pages provided in the page buffer, A task processing unit for executing processing and printing processing as a drawing task and a printing task, respectively, and a task control unit for controlling execution of the drawing task and printing task by the task processing unit, and in the control by the task control unit, , the task priority of the printing task is set higher than the task priority of the drawing task.

Another print control device according to the present invention includes a command buffer section that stores a command string including at least drawing commands for various drawing instructions, and a page buffer section that stores dot image data drawn according to the drawing commands, In a print control device that outputs the dot image data in the page buffer section after drawing to the printer engine section, a page buffer for multiple pages provided in the page buffer section, drawing processing and printing processing are respectively executed as a drawing task and a printing task. A task processing section for executing tasks, a task control section for controlling execution of drawing tasks and printing tasks by the task processing section, a page buffer management table section for holding page buffer management information, and a page buffer management table section for holding printer management information. and a printer management table section, wherein the task control section allocates an empty page buffer to the drawing task according to the contents of the page buffer management table section, and also allocates an empty page buffer to the drawing task according to the contents of the page buffer management table section. According to the content, a page buffer waiting for printing and a printer engine unit in an empty state are allocated to the print task.

These print control devices preferably include a task management table section that holds task management information for various tasks including the drawing task and the print task, and the task control section performs task control according to the contents of the tough management table section. conduct.

A print command is stored in the command buffer section along with the command string, and a request to start the print task is made in response to the print command.

Alternatively, the command string stored in the command buffer section includes a command explicitly or implicitly indicating a page break, and a request to start the print task is made in response to the command.

Preferably, the command string stored in the command buffer section is received from the host computer asynchronously with drawing processing and printing processing.

Further, at least the processing of the task control unit may be executed by a CPU, and the free space of the page buffer and the free space of the printer engine unit may be notified to the task control unit using an interrupt to the CPU.3 According to the present invention From another point of view, the print control device includes at least a command buffer section that stores a command string including drawing commands for various drawing instructions, and a page buffer section that stores dot image data drawn according to the drawing commands. In a print control device that outputs the dot image data in the page buffer unit that has finished drawing to the printer engine unit, a page buffer for a plurality of pages provided in the page buffer unit, a drawing process, and a print process are respectively executed by a drawing task. and means for executing the page buffer as a print task; means for managing the use status of each of the page buffers; means for managing the use status of the printer engine section; means for allocating a certain printer engine unit to the print task, and managing the drawing task as a page buffer waiting state when there is no free page buffer, and managing the drawing task as waiting for the page buffer to be free when any page buffer becomes free and a means for managing the print task as a printer waiting state when the printer engine unit is not available, and releasing the printer waiting state when the printer engine unit becomes available. .

In this print control device, the print task to which the printer engine is assigned is managed as being in a print instruction permission waiting state, and when it becomes possible to accept a print instruction based on the usage status of the printer engine, the print task is placed in the waiting state. A means for canceling the state may be provided.

In addition, after the print task finishes reading the required number of copies from the page buffer, the page buffer and printer engine section are made vacant, the print task is managed as waiting for paper ejection to finish, and the paper ejection is completed. A means for later canceling the waiting state may be provided. In this case, a print task separate from the print task in the waiting state for completion of paper ejection may be provided, and the print task may include the printer engine section that is in the idle state. It is preferable to allocate.

[Operation] When the task processing unit executes a drawing task, first, a drawing enable condition is determined.

If drawing is not possible (page buffer is not free),
After immediately starting the task wait and changing the state of one task from the execution state to the wait state, the next task to be executed is selected. This choice is.

This is performed by a task scheduler or task dispatcher as a function of the task control unit.

Printability conditions are also determined when executing a print task. If printing is not possible (the rendered page is not in the page buffer, or the printer engine is not free, or is in a state where it is abnormal or cannot accept print instructions, but the printer is being used by another task), Similar to drawing tasks, it immediately waits for the task and starts the task scheduler or task dispatcher.

- Once a task is in a wait state, it is immediately moved to an executable state by interrupt processing when an event occurs that causes the task to be released from the wait state.

In other words, a drawing task is released from its waiting state when any page buffer becomes empty, and a printing task is released from its waiting state when the printer engine section becomes empty for a page buffer that has already been drawn. is canceled. Thereafter, by immediately starting the task scheduler, the task with the highest priority among the executable tasks is selected and started.

More specifically, a task that has entered the resource free wait state is immediately moved to the executable state through interrupt processing when an event occurs to release the task from the resource free wait state. The drawing task.

The page buffer free waiting state is released by a page read end interrupt (event) from the printer memory controller to the CPU, which will be described later. - On the other hand, regarding the print task, due to a print instruction permission interrupt (event) from the sub-CPU to the CPU, which will be described later, the print task for page n will change from the print instruction permission waiting state (one of the event occurrence waiting states described later). After the release, the print task for page n+1 is released from the printer free wait state by issuing printer free, which is a function of the printer control unit.

As described above, by switching the task in the execution state according to the drawing conditions such as the pages in the page buffer section and the free space in the printer engine section, and the printing conditions, the printer engine section and the page buffer section (consisting of multiple pages) can be
Since the printer can be used without any idle time, the throughput of the printing system consisting of the print control device and the printer engine section can be improved.

(Hereinafter, blank space) [Example] Hereinafter, a first example of a printing control device according to the present invention will be described as a first example.
This will be explained using figures.

This device includes a command buffer section 11, a task control section 1
2. It consists of a task processing section 13, a page buffer section 14, a printer adapter section 15, and a task management table section (task control queue section) 17.

In FIG. 1, a string of commands transmitted by the host computer 10, such as a drawing command for drawing instructions and a print command for print display, is stored in a command buffer unit 11. Note that each page is defined as a string of zero or more drawing commands and one print command, and is sent by the host computer. The commands stored in the command buffer section 11 are processed by the task control section 12.

The task control unit 12 is a collection of functions such as task generation, task execution, task waiting, task wake-up, task termination, and task scheduler. Among these, the task generation process generates a task corresponding to each command in the command buffer unit 11 and connects it to the execution queue in the task control queue unit 17.

One drawing task and one printing task are generated corresponding to the drawing command string and printing command that constitute each page. Each of the connected tasks is sequentially selected and activated by task execution processing. Here, the task scheduler controls the timing of task generation and task execution. The contents will be described later. Each activated task is processed by the drawing task processing unit 131 and the printing task processing unit 1 in the task processing unit 13.
32.

The drawing task processing unit 131 first determines the drawing enable conditions. The free space of each page in the page buffer unit 14 is used as the drawability condition. If it is possible to draw (there is space available), execute the drawing command sequence that makes up the drawing task, and draw characters and figures.

A blank page with images etc. (e.g. page 142)
Write on top in dot image format.

If it is impossible to draw (there is no space), call the task wait process and put the 1 water sweeping task in the state of waiting for page buffer free space.
After moving the task to the drawing condition queue in the task management table section 17, the task scheduler is activated.

The print task processing unit 132 determines printable conditions. The printable conditions are determined based on the states of the page buffer unit 14 and printer engine unit 16, and include a page for which rendering has been completed exists in the page buffer 14, and
It is necessary that the printer engine section 16 is not abnormal and is in a state where it can accept print instructions. If printing is possible, a print instruction is issued to the printer engine unit 16 via the printer adapter unit 15, and then a task wait is activated to place the main print task in a printing completion wait state, and the information in the task management table unit 17 is After moving it to the print completion queue, start the task scheduler. If printing is not possible, a task wait process is called, the main print task is placed in a printer idle wait state, and after being moved to the print condition queue in the task management table section 17, the task scheduler is activated.

The printer adapter unit 15 issues a print instruction to the printer engine unit 16 in accordance with the instructions from the print task processing unit 132, and then, in accordance with the video signal interface with the printer engine unit 16, prints the page buffer 142 that is the target of the print task. The dot image data within is output to the printer engine section 16 as a video signal.

The printer adapter section 15 starts a print instruction permission interrupt process when it becomes possible to issue a print instruction to the printer engine section 16, and ends page reading when the reading of one page's worth of dot image data is completed. Start interrupt processing. The two interrupt processes start a task wake-up process, and if there is a first task (print task) in the printing condition queue or a first task (drawing task) in the drawing condition queue, the two interrupt processes start the task wake-up process, and if there is a first task (print task) in the print condition queue or a first task (draw task) in the drawing condition queue, they are respectively activated with the highest priority, After making it executable with the next priority and moving it to the execution queue, start the task scheduler. The details will be described later as an explanation of task wake-up.

As a result of this interrupt processing, when the printer engine section or page buffer section becomes free, the print task or drawing task that has been kept waiting is started immediately. Furthermore, the task scheduler causes the CPU to execute printing tasks and drawing tasks without any free time. The task control function described above allows the CPU, printer engine section 15, and page buffer section (consisting of multiple pages) to be used without idle time, thereby improving throughput and realizing printing at the maximum speed of the printer engine. be able to.

Each part in FIG. 1 is a microprocessor and a RAM.

It can be configured using ROM, LSI, logic IC, etc.

Next, the contents of the task control section 12, which is a feature of the present invention, will be explained.

First, the task states used by the task control unit 12 and the transitions therebetween will be explained. The tasks are the following 4 as shown in Figure 3.
Take one of the states.

(i) Unregistered: The task has not yet been registered in the system. (ii) Run: The task is currently being executed on the CPU (■
) Executable (Ready): The task is registered in the system and C
Waiting state (iv) for a PU to be allocated (wait): The task that was in the running state has not yet set the drawing conditions, printing conditions, etc., so it issues a task wait process (supervisor call, abbreviated as SvC). ,
Waiting for those conditions to be met In the present invention, the causes of waiting include: Waiting for printing conditions;
Three methods are used: Waiting for drawing conditions and ■Waiting for printing completion. ■,
(2) and (2) return to the executable state upon occurrence of the page read end interrupt, print instruction permission interrupt, and print end interrupt, respectively. (2) is used to wait for the end of the print task due to the completion of paper ejection after the processing of the print task is transferred from the CPU to the printer adapter section 15 and printer engine section 16. The print end interrupt occurs when paper is normally ejected from the printer engine section. The print task restarted in response to this interrupt processing performs the remaining processing (updating the printed page serial number and reporting to the host computer), and then starts task termination processing, which will be described later.

Next, the individual task control functions: (a) task generation, (b
) task execution, (C) task wait, (d) task wake up,
(e) Task termination and (f) Task scheduler will be explained in order.

(a) Task generation (i) Until the total number of tasks in the execution queue reaches the maximum allowable value or the command buffer section 11 becomes empty,
A command is taken out from the command buffer unit 11 and added to the execution queue as a task. The priority of the added task is set to 2.

(it) Next, start the task scheduler and execute a task with a high priority.

(b) Task execution.

(i) If there is a task in the running state (priority P), search the execution queue for a task with a priority higher than P and the highest priority in the main queue. If it exists, move the running task to the execution queue, and then put the found task into the running state.

If it does not exist, this task execution process ends.

(ii) If there is no task in the running state, search for the task with the highest priority in the execution queue and put it in the running state.

(iti) If the execution queue is empty in (n), this task execution process ends.

(C) Waiting for tasks (i) Waiting for each task: ■Waiting for printing conditions,■Waiting for drawing conditions,■
When each waiting condition such as waiting for printing completion occurs, the execution state is shifted to the waiting state and transferred to each event queue.

(ii) After moving the running task to the event queue, start the task scheduler and execute the task with a high priority.

(d) Task wake-up (i) Print instruction permission interrupt, page read end interrupt,
When an event such as a print end interrupt occurs, the task is woken up and moved from the waiting state to the executable state. Specifically, the first task of each event queue is removed from the queue, the task priority is changed, and then added to the execution queue. In this priority change, the printing task is given the highest priority (for example, priority 0), and the drawing task is given the highest priority (for example, priority 1).

(ii) Next, start the task scheduler and reschedule the task.

Here, the priority change control shown in (i) allows the drawing commands and print commands received from the host computer 10 to be printed correctly in the received page order.

(e) Task end Finish the task using the following steps:

(i) Delete a running task, more precisely, a task control block (abbreviated as TCB).

(it) Start the task scheduler.

(f) Task Scheduler (i) Activation Timing When the following events occur, the task scheduler is activated, and a task with a high priority is selected and activated.

■Task generation ■Task termination ■Task waiting ■Task wakeup■ Execution of other task control functions that require activation of task schedule (ii) Processing details Activate task execution. During task execution, if the execution queue is empty and there is no task to be put into the execution state next, task generation is started and then task execution is restarted.

Next, FIG. 4 shows an example of the task management table section 17 for managing the processing of the task control section 12.

The task management table unit 17 has two types of queues: an execution queue shown in FIG. 4(a) and an event queue shown in FIG. 4(b). The former is the CP of the task in the ready state mentioned above.
This is a table for managing execution by U, and the latter is a table for describing and managing tasks that are waiting for an event such as waiting for printing conditions, waiting for drawing conditions, waiting for printing completion, etc. as described above. Further, FIG. 4(c) shows the contents of a TCB (task control block) which is a component of the execution queue and the event queue.

The operating procedure of this device explained above is shown in FIG.
(Problem Analysis Diagram
). Figures (a) to j) respectively show main, task scheduler, drawing task execution, print task execution, first part printing, print start, print instruction permission interrupt processing, page read end interrupt processing, and print end. The operation procedure of interrupt processing and page read start interrupt processing is shown.

Note that the interface between the host computer 10 and this device is R8232C, Centronics,
5C81, GP-IB, etc. are used.

According to this embodiment, task control functions such as task waiting and task wake-up allow the CPU, printer engine section, and page buffer section to operate without idle time, thereby improving throughput and achieving the maximum speed of the printer engine. This has the effect that printing can be performed.

Next, a second embodiment will be explained using FIG. 6.

This figure shows the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 with a page buffer management table section 18 and a printer management table section 19 added thereto. The former is a page buffer section 1 consisting of multiple pages.
This is used to prevent idle time from occurring in the use of the page buffer section in writing by the drawing task and reading by the print task to the page buffer section 4, and to prevent errors in the order of accesses to the page buffer section by each task. The latter is a printer (printer adapter section 15) by a print task.
It is used to manage the usage status of the printer engine unit 16) and to prevent idle time from occurring in printer operation.

FIG. 7 shows an example of page buffer management tape/L[18(7). FIG. 7(a) shows its overall configuration.

The common information for all page buffers 71 describes the page buffer Nα to which the drawing task should write next, the page buffer Nα to which the print task should read next, and the like.

Further, for each page, task related information 7211, paper size related coordinate information 722, and paper feed/discharge unit related information 723 are prepared. The contents of these pieces of information 721 to 723 are shown in FIGS. 7(b) to 7(d), respectively.

In the task related information 721, first, the drawing/printing status of each page is shown as drawing possible (empty), drawing in progress, printing possible (valid), printing start, printing in progress 1, printing in progress 2, and
Describe as either.

Furthermore, we described the drawing and printing tasks that are using each page. In addition, a drawing task waiting for the page to become available was written and used as a pointer to the root of the drawing condition queue described above.

In addition, the drawing task writes the paper size-related coordinate information and paper feeding/discharging section related information specified by part of the drawing command string to the paper size related coordinate information 722 and paper feeding/discharging section related information 723, and the printing task writes the paper size related coordinate information and paper feeding/discharging section related information 723. I used them to print.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the printer management table section 19. The figure shows an example for a laser beam printer. The printer status 81 in FIG. 1
As shown in (b), print instructions and paper feed/discharge section change instructions are possible/disabled by the print task (811 and 812); Printer engine status 813; Paper feed section and paper discharge section status (814, 812);
15).

Further, as the task-related information 82 in FIG. 10A, as shown in FIG.
1; print task 822 waiting for a printer to become available; print task 823 waiting for printing to be completed. Of these, waiting tasks 822 and 823 are used as pointers to the roots of the print condition queue and print completion queue described above.

Note that for other types of page printers such as LED printers, LCS printers, and shuttle printers, the printer management table section can be defined using the same concept as this embodiment.
can be used.

FIG. 9 shows a timing diagram of parallel processing such as drawing and printing by the print control device when the number of page buffers is 3. As shown in FIG. 9, command reception, page buffers 1 to 3. Since the laser control and paper control of the printer are performed in parallel, there is no idle time in the use of link and page buffers, allowing the printer engine to operate at its maximum speed. In the figure, "valid" following "drawing" indicates that drawing has been completed and the drawing data is available. "Release of waiting for drawing conditions due to completion of page r reading" and "Release of waiting for printing conditions due to completion of paper feeding" are both performed by an interrupt request to the CPU, as described above.

Note that the timing of canceling the wait for printing conditions varies depending on the characteristics of the printer engine section 16, and may not coincide with the timing of paper feeding completion depending on the printer engine. However, even in this case, the printer adapter section 15 or the printer engine section 16 detects the release of the print condition wait according to the characteristics of the printer engine section 16, and as a result, the printer adapter section 15 immediately sends the "print condition" to the CPU. The present invention can be applied by generating a "waiting release" interrupt.

According to the embodiment described above, the page buffer management table section 18 and the printer management table section 19 are prepared for managing the page buffer section 14 and printers (15, 16), respectively. can be managed in detail independently from CPU management, and
When the page buffer section or printer is changed, the program can be updated by simply changing the corresponding management table section and its access program for each case individually.

(Hereafter, margin) Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

First, features of this embodiment that are not present in the first and second embodiments described above are listed below.

(1) Page buffer control unit 116 and printer control unit 1
17 was established. This effect will be discussed later.

(2) The functions of the printer adapter unit 15 are realized by the printer memory controller 109 and the sub CPU 106.

(3) Another function of the task control unit 12 was prepared and used. Specifically, (i) task states and their transitions;
(n) Task management table section; (fit) Another example of implementation as a task control macro is shown.

In particular, instead of the two functions of waiting for a task and waking up a task in the first and second embodiments, this embodiment provides four functions: waiting for an event to occur, canceling a wait for an event to occur, waiting for a resource to become available, and canceling a wait for a resource to become available. I used it.

(4) The contents of the page buffer management table section 18 and printer management table section 19 have been expanded.

(5) In the first and second embodiments, the task generation process started by the task scheduler extracts a command from the command buffer section 11, generates a drawing task or a print task according to the type of the command, and waits for execution. Connected to the queue. On the other hand, in this embodiment, a drawing task retrieves a command from the command buffer section 11 in its execution state.

Interpretation and execution, as well as starting print tasks (first and second
(equivalent to task generation in the embodiment) is also performed by the drawing task. From another perspective, in the previous embodiment, the task was a non-resident task, but in this embodiment, it was a resident task.

(6) In the first and second embodiments, the transition to and release from the state of waiting for the end of paper ejection (referred to as the state of waiting for the end of printing in the first and second embodiments) for each print task is performed by waiting for the end of printing. This was realized using a queue, task waiting, and task wake-up, but in this embodiment, it was realized using event occurrence waiting and event occurrence waiting canceling.

First, the hardware configuration of the print control device according to this embodiment will be explained using FIG. 18. The print control device is a CPU
Bus 101, host communication controller 102, CPU1
03, ROM memory 104, floating point arithmetic coprocessor 105. Sub CPU 106, user operation panel 107
, an image rotation LS 1108, a printer memory controller 109, and a DRAM memory IOA.

The CPU bus 101 receives various input/output signals (
address signals, data signals, and other control signals).

The CPU 103 communicates via the main CPU bus 101 with 102.
Peripheral controllers such as 105, 106, 108, 109 and 104. Performs input/output with memory such as IOA.

The host communication controller 102 is a controller for the print control device to communicate with the host computer 10. The physical I/F for this communication (called host I/F) is SCS I (Small Computer S
System Interface) RS 232
C.

RS 422, GP-IB (general p
urpose 1nterfacebus), Centronics, HDLC()Iigh-Level D
ATA Link Control), etc., to implement appropriate hardware logic for the controller 102 depending on the type of physical I/F to be used.

The ROM memory 104 stores an initialization start-up program (IPL) for the printing control device.
ramLoading (also called program) and part of the character font.

The DRAM memory IOA contains (i) the control program of the printing control device, (ii) the remaining character fonts, (city) command buffer section memory, (iv) page buffer section memory, and (V) task management table, page buffer. Stores various management tables such as management tables and printer management tables, and others. Of these (i) and (ii)
is stored by downloading it from the host computer 10 using the IPL program. Also (i)
and (n) may not be stored in the DRAM memory IOA, but may be stored in the ROM memory 104 in advance.

Conversely, all character fonts may be stored in the DRAM memory IOA without storing any character fonts in the ROM memory 104.

Floating point arithmetic processor 105 performs floating point arithmetic according to instructions from CPU 103. LS1 for image rotation
Reference numeral 108 indicates that the CPU 10
Rotate the drawing output according to the instructions in step 3. Floating point arithmetic coprocessor 105 and image rotation LS1108
This speeds up the drawing process. Note that although the speed of drawing processing will be reduced, 105 and 108 are omitted and the CPU
It can also be processed by

The sub CPU 106 performs input/output processing with the user operation panel 107 and the printer engine unit 16 according to instructions from the CPU 103 .

The printer memory controller 109 is a DRAM memory I.
Processing of reading the contents of OA (the contents of the normal page buffer section) to the printer engine section 16 and the DRAM memory IOA
control (refresh, etc.) using the built-in DMA (Direct Memory Access
s) function, and when the reading of data for one page of paper from the page buffer section is completed, the printer memory controller 109 sends an interrupt signal (part of the signal in the CPU bus 101) to the CPUIO3. is asserted to start page buffer read end interrupt processing by the CPU.

The print control device performs one communication with the printer engine unit 16 according to r/F called video I/F, with the sub CPU 106 via the signal line 10C-1 and the printer memory controller 109 via the signal line 10G-2. The signal line 10C-2 carries an image output signal that causes the printer memory controller 109 to read the contents of the page buffer section memory to the printer engine section 16 as described above. The signal line 10G-1 is used by the sub CPUIQ6 to send commands for inquiries and instructions to the printer engine section 16, and to receive response statuses from the printer engine section 16, status transmission/reception signals, and the memory contents of the page buffer section. The control signal for controlling the reading procedure to the printer engine section 16 is conveyed.

Note that the sub CPU 106 detects that it is now possible to issue a print instruction to the printer engine unit 16, and at the time of detection, asserts the interrupt signal to the CPU 103, and starts print instruction permission interrupt processing by the CPU 103, which will be described later. .

Next, the configuration of the print control device according to the present invention will be explained using the configuration diagram of FIG. 10. This printing control device is as shown in FIG.
This represents the PU as its functional blocks. A kernel section 113 and various device drivers, that is, a page buffer control section 116, a printer control section 117. Host communication control unit 118, panel control unit 119, command buffer unit 11, page buffer unit 14. Task processing unit 1
It has 3.

The kernel section 113 includes a main routine for various SVC (abbreviation for supervisor call) processing, a main routine for various interrupt processing, a task control section 12, and a timer control section 115. Here, the various SvCs are service functions for task control, timer control, page buffer control, printer control, host communication control, and panel control. When the kernel part accepts the SvC instruction as a CPU instruction,
After analyzing and identifying the cause based on the SvC input parameters, each control unit 12.115, 1 performs individual SvC processing.
The individual SvC processing routines in 16, 117, 118, and 119 are activated and executed. Various interrupts include timer interrupts from the timer hardware 114, page buffer control interrupts from the printer memory controller 109, and interrupts from the printer memory controller 109 and sub CP.
Printer control interrupt from U, host communication control interrupt from host communication controller 102, sub CPU
This is a panel control interrupt from 106, and after analyzing and identifying the cause of the interrupt, the kernel section handles each interrupt by each control section 115, 116, 117, 118, 119.
Starts and executes the individual interrupt handling routine within.

The task control unit 12 refers to the task management table unit 17 and executes a task control macro function, which will be described later using Table 6, in response to a request for activation (issuance) of each part of the device. The activation request is issued by the drawing task processing section 131, the printing task processing section 132, and various device drivers 116, 117, 118, and 119 in the task processing section 13.

Note that each function for task control (for example, task activation, event occurrence waiting) can be regarded as a macro instruction, and therefore is called a task activation macro, event occurrence waiting macro, and so on. When these task control tuna are called from each task in the task processing unit 13, they are called as the SvC, so
It is called by adding SvC to the end of the word, such as task activation 5vC1 event occurrence wait SvC, and is clearly stated as such. On the other hand, when these task control macros are called from the SvC processing or interrupt processing of the printer control unit 117, etc., they are called as subroutines.

They were called with "macro" attached instead of "SvC" at the end, such as "task activation macro" and "event occurrence wait macro".

The timer control unit 115 uses the timer hardware 114 to monitor the completion of various events. For example, monitor the end of paper ejection (end of paper ejection of cut sheet type printing paper) (
(See Figures 15(i) and (j)). Termination monitoring for the timer control unit is performed by preparing a macro for that purpose and issuing the macro from each part 131, 132, 116, 117, 118, and 119 of this device to request startup.

Various device drivers 116, 117, 118゜119
has the following functions:

The page buffer control unit 116 prepares two SvCs, page buffer reserve and page buffer free, shown in Table 1, and the page buffer management table unit 18
While referring to , the resource management of the page buffer consisting of N pages, that is, the free state management is performed. Furthermore, as shown in Table 2, the page buffer control unit 116 performs individual interrupt processing called page buffer read end interrupt processing in response to an interrupt from the printer memory controller 109.

Each task in the task processing unit 13 issues the page buffer control SvC, thereby controlling the page buffer unit 1.
4 is requested to the main page buffer control unit 116.

The printer control unit 117 prepares SvC such as printer reserve, printer free, print instruction, etc. shown in Table 3, and
The printer control unit 117 performs resource management (vacancy status management) of the printer engine unit 16 and input/output control with the printer engine unit 16 while referring to the printer management table unit 19. CPU106,
In accordance with the interrupt from the timer hardware 114, individual interrupt processes such as print instruction permission interrupt process, page read start interrupt process, and paper discharge end timer interrupt process are performed. Each task 131 and 132 in the task processing unit 113 requests the printer control unit 117 to manage the resources of the printer engine unit 16 and control input/output to the printer engine unit 16 by issuing the printer control SvC.

The host communication control unit 118 is the host communication controller 10
It consists of an individual SvC process and an individual interrupt process for controlling 2.

The panel control unit 119 consists of individual SvC processing and individual interrupt processing for controlling the user operation panel 107 via the sub CPU 106.

Page buffer control unit 116 and printer control unit 11
The effects of providing 7 are the following three items.

(1) Page buffer section 14 and printer engine section 16
The resource management function and the input/output control function for these can be made independent of the task processing unit 13.

In other words, the page buffer section 14 and the printer (106, 1
6), a page buffer control unit 116, a page buffer management table unit 18, a printer control unit 117, and a printer management table unit 19 are prepared for management, so the page buffer unit and printer can be independent of CPU and task management. You can manage the wood grain in detail.

(2) Due to (1), printer engine section 1 of a different model
6 and the capacity of the page buffer section 14.

When changing specifications such as the size of each page buffer and the number N of page buffer edges, the page buffer control unit 116 and the printer control unit 11 do not change the contents of the task processing unit 13.
It is only necessary to change the necessary parts of 7.

(3) Processing of the task processing unit 13 is performed by the CPU at the task level (interrupt level minimum Q) and system mode, and the kernel unit 113 and various device drivers 116, 117
, 118, and 119 are performed by the CPU at an interrupt level m (m>Q) higher than the task level and in user mode.

Therefore, the operations of the various control tables 17, 18, and 19 can be exclusively controlled so that the task processing unit 13 cannot be operated, and the reliability of the control program of the printing control apparatus can be improved.

(Hereinafter, blank space) Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 10.

In FIG. 10, a sequence of commands sent by the host computer 1o is stored in the command buffer unit 11. Note that each page is defined as one or more command sequences, and is sent by the host computer. The commands stored in the command buffer section 11 are processed by the drawing task processing section 131 within the task processing section 13.

In the drawing task processing unit 131, the page buffer number to be drawn next in order (the drawing page buffer N
At the beginning of the process for (referred to as o), page buffer reserve SvC, which is a function of the page buffer control unit, is issued. Page buffer reserve SvC registers the svc issuing task as a resource user of this page buffer if the page buffer of the drawing page buffer No. is in an empty state. In the page buffer reserve svc process, if the page buffer is not in an empty state, this SvC process activates a resource free waiting macro, which is a function of the task control unit, and executes the state of the drawing task, which is an SvC issued task. After changing the state from the state to waiting for a page buffer free state and connecting to the free queue for the page buffer, the task dispatcher is activated. Task dispatcher.

Similar to the task scheduler above, select the next task to be executed,
Although it has a function of starting up and returning the drawing task of the previously executed task to an executable state, unlike the task scheduler described above, it does not execute task generation, etc., so it is used separately in this specification.

If the page buffer can be reserved in the page buffer reserve SvC, the drawing task interprets and executes the command strings in the command buffer section 11 in the order of reception, and stores characters, figures, images, etc. in the reserved page buffer (e.g. The image is developed, drawn, and written in a dot image format on the page buffer 142). In the execution process of this command, page break conditions [commands that explicitly indicate page breaks such as form feed, or commands that implicitly indicate page breaks such as specifying paper size and printing direction (portrait/landscape selection), etc. [indicated by]], the drawing task processing unit 131 ends the drawing process for the page buffer and starts a print task for the page buffer.

Note that since the drawing task interprets the above command, when the contents of the command buffer section 11 are read, the command buffer section 11 may be empty.

In this case, the drawing task issues the event occurrence wait SvC to change the state of this task to the command reception wait state. In the drawing task in the command reception waiting state, the host communication control unit 118 receives a command from the host computer 10 via the host communication controller 102, and
It is canceled by issuing an event occurrence wait cancellation macro at the time it is stored in the command buffer unit 11.

With the above functions, the drawing task is executed in the command buffer section 1.
If 1 is empty, it enters a command reception waiting state and other tasks are executed, so the CPU can be utilized without waste.

Further, when it is detected that the command buffer section 11 is empty, the present print control device uses the host communication control section 118.
The host computer 10 is notified of this via the host computer 10.

Upon receiving this communication, the host computer 10 immediately sends commands to the print control device, and the print control device can immediately process those commands.

Therefore, even when printing a text that exceeds the capacity of the command buffer section 11, it is possible to utilize the command buffer section 11 without any idle time and print at a high throughput.

As described later, the print task has a higher task priority than the drawing task, so the task activation S by the drawing task is
Once activated using vC, the print task immediately enters the execution state. That is, the task dispatcher selects and starts the print task as the next execution task, and returns the previous execution task, the drawing task, to an executable state.

The processing contents of the print task processing section 132 will be explained next. In the print task processing unit 132, printer reserve SvC, which is a function of the printer control unit, is first issued. The printer reserve Svc is: ■ The printer engine unit 16 is in a state of accepting print instructions (the print instruction enable/disable flag on the page buffer management table unit 16 is enabled);
■If the printer is not being used by any print task (the task number in use of the printer on the page buffer management table section 16 is empty), the print instruction enable/disable flag is disabled and the printer is not used. The task number of the print task, which is the issue task of this SvC, is registered as the user.

In the printer reservation process, if at least one of the above conditions ``■'' and ``■'' is not satisfied, this SvC process activates the resource free waiting macro, which is a function of the task control unit, and executes the print task, which is the present SvC issuing task. After changing the state from the running state to the printer free waiting state and connecting to the printer free queue, the task dispatcher is activated.

The task dispatcher selects and launches the next task to be executed.

Return the print task of the previously executed task to an executable state.

If the print task is able to reserve the link in the printer reserve SvC, after confirming that the drawing/printing status of the page buffer of the print page buffer No. is ready for printing, the print task executes a series of printer control SVCs (third Ready status check 5VC1 Paper feed section confirmation 5VC1 Paper feed section instruction SVC shown in the table.

Paper discharge section confirmation 5VC1 Paper discharge section instruction 5VC1 Print instruction 5VC
) is issued.

Of the SvCs for printer control, SvCs that perform input/output with the printer engine unit 16 other than printer reserve and printer free follow the video interface with the printer engine unit 16 via the sub CPU 106 and printer memory controller 109. Meanwhile, a series of input/output processing is performed with the printer engine section 16, and the dot image data in the page 142 to be printed in the main print task is outputted to the printer engine section 16 as a video signal.

Note that in the print instruction SvC process among the printer control SvCs, the SvC issuing task (that is, the print task) is moved to a print instruction permission wait state using a task control event occurrence wait macro.

After repeating the series of issuance of the printer control SvC a total of the number of copies to be printed, the print task issues a printer-free SVC. The printer free SvC enables the print instruction enable/disable flag, sets the print task number currently using the printer to empty, and if there is a task in the printer free wait state, the resource free wait release macro is sent to the printer free queue. , and return all tasks waiting for the printer to be available to run.

As mentioned above, while the first print task is repeating the issuance of a series of printer control SvCs for a certain page buffer for the total number of copies to be printed, the main print task continues to maintain the right to use the printer. A printer-free SvC is issued only when the process is completed, and the right to use the printer is released. The reason is that while the first print task is repeatedly issuing a series of printer control SvCs, the second print task starts issuing a series of printer control SvCs for another page buffer. This is because, if allowed, the issuance of printer control SvCs by these two print tasks may overlap, which may disrupt the print results.

After issuing the printer-free SvC, the print task is moved to a state of waiting for completion of paper ejection using the event waiting SvC. This state of waiting for the end of paper ejection is the time-up interrupt process (hereinafter referred to as the ejection end timer interrupt process) of the paper ejection end monitoring timer that is activated by the page read start interrupt process shown in FIG. 15(j). It is canceled by issuing the event occurrence wait cancellation macro in (see i)).

After the paper ejection end wait is released, the print task issues a task end SvC and ends the process.

The sub CPU 106 starts a print instruction permission interrupt process in the printer control section 117 when it becomes possible to issue a print instruction to the printer engine section 16. On the other hand, the printer memory controller 109.

When the reading of one page's worth of dot image data is completed, a page buffer reading end interrupt process in the page buffer control unit 116 is activated.

In the print instruction permission interrupt process, the task in the print instruction permission waiting state is returned to an executable state using an event occurrence wait canceling macro. As a result, in multi-page copying where the total number of copies to be printed is 2 or more, if there are still copies left to be printed, the water interrupt process will cause the print task to immediately print to the series of printers when it becomes possible to issue and execute a print instruction. By repeating the issuance of the control SvC, it is possible to instruct printing of the remaining number of copies. Therefore, multi-page copying of the same page can be achieved with high throughput at the maximum speed of the printer engine. Further, if the remaining number of copies to be printed is 0, the print task (temporarily referred to as print task A) issues a printer-free SvC at the timing described above. Therefore, the print task for printing the next page (temporarily print task B)
) is in the printer free wait state, as soon as print task A issues a printer free SvC, print task B is released from the printer free wait state,
Reserve a vacant printer and use S for controlling a series of printers.
vC can be issued.

Therefore, continuous printing of different pages can be realized with high throughput at the maximum speed of the printer engine.

In the above multi-page copying of the same page and continuous printing of different pages, only the print instruction SvC is issued as a series of printer control SvCs (ready status confirmation 5
It is also possible to omit issuance of vC1 paper feed unit confirmation Svc and paper feed unit instruction 5VC1 paper discharge unit confirmation 5VC1 paper discharge unit instruction SvC). In this case, since print instructions can be issued to the printer engine section at the shortest intervals allowed by the printer engine section, throughput can be significantly improved.

On the other hand, in the page buffer read end interrupt processing, a page buffer free macro is issued when reading for the total number of printed copies is completed. This page buffer free macro processing makes the task number that is currently using the page buffer of the page buffer number that has finished reading empty, and if there is a task that is waiting for the page buffer to be free, the resource free wait release macro is set to that page. Issued to the buffer free queue and returns the task in the page buffer free wait state to the executable state.

By issuing the page buffer free macro at the above timing, the drawing task that was in the page buffer waiting state will immediately reserve the page buffer and start drawing processing for that page buffer as soon as the page buffer becomes free. It can be carried out.

(a) Page buffer reserve/free function for page buffer control, (b) Printer reserve/free function and print instruction function for printer control, (c) Various task control functions, (d) Print instruction permission interrupt, and ( e) By utilizing the page buffer read end interrupt as described above, when a space becomes available in the printer engine section or page buffer section, the print task or drawing task that has been kept waiting is activated immediately. Further, the CPU executes tasks such as printing tasks and drawing tasks without any free time. Therefore, C
Since the PU, printer engine section 16, and page buffer section 14 (consisting of a plurality of pages) can be used without idle time, throughput can be improved and printing at the maximum speed of the printer engine can be realized.

Next, the contents of the task control section 12, which is a feature of the present invention, will be explained.

First, the task states used by the task control unit 12 and the transitions therebetween will be explained. A task takes one of the six states shown in FIG. 11(a) (i.e., unregistered, dormant, executable, running, waiting for an event to occur, waiting for free resources), and the state shown in FIG. 11(b). Make a transition.

This device uses two types of resource waiting states: (1) printer free waiting state and (2) page buffer free waiting state, as described above.

In addition, as factors for the event waiting state, the following event waiting states (2), (2), and (2) are provided in addition to the above-mentioned (1) printing instruction permission state, (2) paper ejection completion state, (2) command reception waiting state. (2) is a state in which the task is waiting for a response from the sub CPU 106, (2) is a state in which the task is waiting for a response from the printer engine section 16, and (2) is a state in which the task is waiting for a response from the host communication controller 102. By introducing these three event waiting states ■, ■, and ■, it becomes possible for a task to execute other tasks while waiting for a response, thereby improving the throughput of this device. .

Next, FIG. 12 shows an example of the task management table section 17 for managing the processing of the task control section 12.

As shown in FIG. 12(a), the task management table unit 17 has two types of queues: an execution queue (also called a ready queue) and a resource queue. The former is a table for managing the execution of tasks in the executable state (ready state) by the CPU, and the latter describes tasks in a resource free state such as a page buffer free state or a printer free state. This is a table for management.

Further, FIG. 12(b) shows the contents of the task control block (TCB), which is a component of the above execution queue and resource free queue.

Note that the TCE is prepared for each task, and in this embodiment is resident in the program area. As tasks, tasks numbered 1 to 16 shown in Table 5 were prepared. These tasks are performed when the above-mentioned 5C5I is used as the communication I/F between the host computer and the print control device, but the same applies when other communication I/Fs are used.

In Table 5, an idle task is a task that is executed in an idle state in which all other tasks are not in an executable state. The mode sense task is the host computer 10.
This task is for executing a command called mode sense (MODE 5ENSE) sent by. The interrupt task and the cancel task are tasks for interrupting or canceling the print processing by the print control device, that is, the execution of the drawing task and the print task, respectively. Both tasks include: (1) reception processing of 5C8I commands by the host communication control unit 118 from the host computer 10; (2) key manual reception processing by the panel control unit 119 from the user operation panel unit 107; 1
16, 117, 118, and 119) are activated using a task activation macro, which is a task control function.

The drawing task is called the print (PRINT) command5
This is a task for executing the csr command. P.R.I.
In the NT command, the data part contains a command string that represents the actual content of drawing or printing (■ escape sequence for controlling a normal printer, ■ C in ISO).
Command strings such as GI, ODA, ■Post Scr
The drawing/printing content expressed in ipt corresponds to this command string).

Upon receiving a print command from the host computer 1o, the host communication control unit 118 stores the command together with its data portion in the command buffer unit 11. The drawing task reads these command sequences from the command buffer section 11, interprets them, and executes them. In addition, 5C8I
Even in the case where the host communication control unit 118 directly receives and stores the above command strings ① and ② in the command buffer unit 11 without using a communication device such as a PRINT command, the drawing task performs similar processing.

The print task is a task for performing print processing for each different page buffer for which rendering has been completed. A plurality of these print tasks (10 in the example shown in Table 5) were prepared in order to process different pages in parallel. The total number of print tasks to be prepared was set to the maximum number of print tasks that could be processed in parallel within this device. Specifically, it corresponds to the maximum number of sheets that can exist between the paper feed section and the paper discharge section of the printer at any given time, and this number increases or decreases depending on the specifications of the printer engine section 16.

The priority of each task was determined as shown in Table 5 above.

In the tree table, the smaller the task priority, the higher the priority. Note that among the tasks in Table 5 explained above, all tasks other than drawing tasks and printing tasks are executed by the task processing unit 13.
Prepared inside.

As shown in FIG. 12(b), the TCB is provided with separate execution queue pointers and resource queue pointers. The execution queue pointer is connected to an appropriate position in the execution queue by executing the task start macro, and removed from the execution queue by executing the task termination macro. However, in the processing of the resource free wait macro, resource free wait release macro, event occurrence wait macro, and event occurrence wait release macro, the execution queue pointer is not manipulated at all. As a result, the order of tasks with the same priority in the execution queue can be maintained in a first-come, first-served order and can be prevented from being reversed.

Next, each task control function shown on the task state transition diagram in FIG. 11(b) = (1) task start (start)
? (2) Task end (exit) y (3) Wait for event occurrence (wait), (4) Cancel waiting for event occurrence (post)
, (s) Waiting for resource availability (enqueue) , (6
) Cancel resource waiting (dequeue).

(7) Task creation (create), (8) task deletion (delete), (9) task end deletion (e
(10) Control table lock (tblLock)
, (11) Control table unlock (tblunlk)
The specifications are also shown.

(Hereinafter, blank space) The processing functions of the task dispatcher shown in FIG. 11(b) are as follows.

[Functions of Task Dispatcher] (a) Activation Timer When the following events occur, the task dispatcher is activated.

■Task launch ■Task finished ■Waiting for event to occur ■Cancel waiting for event occurrence ■Waiting for resources ■Cancel resource waiting (b) Processing details Tasks in the execution queue in order of priority.

Within the same priority, searches are performed on a first-come, first-served basis to determine feasibility. The first executable task found is selected as the next execution task (abbreviated as next execution task), is moved to execution state, and then activated. The previous execution task (abbreviated as pre-execution task) is returned to the executable state.

Next, the contents of the page buffer management table section 18 and printer management table section 19 in this embodiment will be explained using FIG. 13 and FIG. 14. As in the previous embodiment, the former does not cause idle time in the use of the page buffer section when writing to the page buffer section 14 consisting of a plurality of pages by the drawing task and reading by the print task. The latter is used to prevent errors in the order of access by each task, and the latter is used to manage the usage status of the printer (sub CPU 106 and printer engine unit 16) by print tasks, and to prevent idle time from occurring in printer operation. .

FIG. 13 shows an example of the page buffer management table section 18 of this embodiment, and FIG. 13(a) shows the overall configuration.

All page buffer common information 1 determines the page buffer number to which the drawing task should write next (referred to as the drawing page buffer number 526) and the page buffer number to which the printing task should read next (the printing page buffer number).
527), page buffer number currently being printed out
528, the start address of each page buffer 0°1, . . . , N-1, current printing condition value 524, unresolved command information 525, etc.

Among these, the print condition current value 524 is used to store a default value when the drawing task sets print conditions for each page buffer. That is, in the printing condition setting process for each page buffer (for example, page buffer O), after copying the current printing condition value 524 to the printing condition field 522 for this page buffer and setting it as a default value (this process Various printing conditions (paper source code, paper ejection unit code, paper size instruction parameters) that are newly instructed to be changed for one page buffer (performed in buffer reserve).

total number of copies to be printed, etc.) in the print condition field 522 and current print condition value field 524 for the main page buffer.
, update, and configure.

In addition, the command unresolved information 525 (FIG. 13(e)) contains only part of the command at the end of the command buffer section 11. In order to continue interpreting or executing the command, the command must be sent to the host. It is used when it is necessary to receive data from the computer 10.

Further, task related information 521, printing conditions 522, and printer memory controller setting information 523 are written for each page. The contents of these pieces of information 521 to 523 are shown in FIGS. 13(b) to 13(d), respectively.

In the task-related information 521, first, the drawing/printing status 521-a of each page is shown in FIG.
, Printing 2. Describe as either. In addition, the number of the drawing task and printing task (521
-b, 521-c). A pointer 521-d to the root of the free queue for the page is also provided here.

The drawing task writes the paper size related information and paper feed/discharge section related information instructed by part of the command string to the print condition 522, and the print task uses them to perform printing.

Further, in the printer memory controller setting information 523, it is possible to describe the status of the printer memory controller and register setting values therefor according to the paper size. 1st
FIG. 3(g) illustrates the relationship between the printable area and the printer memory controller setting information.

FIG. 14 shows an example of the printer management table section 19, which is an example for a laser beam printer. The sub CPU state 61 in FIG.
Describe the U communication status and sub CPU ready status. Also,
The printer status 62 in FIG. 6(c) includes: enable/disable printing instructions by print task and instructions to change the paper feed/discharge unit (621, 622); printer engine status 623; The paper unit status, the paper discharge unit status 624; and the number 625 of the paper discharge end monitoring timer are described. Also in the same figure (d
) contains the print condition field 52 for the page buffer corresponding to this print task.
The value of 2 is first copied and entered by the print task, and thereafter the value of the actual print condition field 63 is referred to by the print task. Further, the task-related information 64 in FIG. 6(e) includes the task number 641 of the task currently using the printer; the root pointer 642 of the printer free queue; and the head print waiting for paper ejection to be completed. Task number 643; Task number 644 that is using the sub CPU; Describe the root pointer 645 of the sub CPU free availability matrix. Note that 644 and 645 indicate that the sub CPU in this device is the CPU.
This feature was created because there was no function to accept multiple sub-CPU control commands from. In this case, when the print task printer control SvC issues a sub CPU control command to the sub CPU, the above steps 644 and 645 are used.

A sub-CPU reserve macro and a sub-CPU free macro were prepared and used. The function of the sub-CPU reserve/free macro roughly corresponds to the printer resource in the printer reserve/free macro replaced with the sub-CPU resource. In addition, the paper feed unit status and paper discharge unit status 624 are shown in the same figure (
f).

Note that in this embodiment as well, the printer management table section can be defined and used in the same way as in this case for other types of page printers such as LED printers, LCS printers, inkjet printers, and shuttle printers.

The operating procedure of this device explained above is shown in FIG.
(Problem Analysis Diagra
m). (a) to k) in the same figure respectively indicate initialization processing, drawing task, print task, print specification processing, print instruction, wait for completion of paper ejection, print instruction permission interrupt processing, page buffer read end interrupt processing, and end of paper ejection. The operation procedures of timer interrupt processing, page read start interrupt processing (also referred to as vertical synchronization signal output request interrupt processing), and idle task are shown.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 15(b) and 15(d), the page buffer management table section 18 and the printer management tape section 1
9, the page buffer control unit 116 and the printer control unit 1
When each task in the task processing unit 13 accesses directly without going through the SVC function or interrupt processing function of 17, the control table lock/lock shown in Table 6 is performed before and after the access.
Issue unlock SvC, 17 and 18 above.
Exclusive control of access to the management table section was performed.

FIG. 16 shows the operating procedures of four representative functions for managing resources regarding page buffers and printers: page buffer reserve, page buffer free, printer reserve, and printer free.

FIG. 17(a) shows the control parameters (referred to as drawing parameters) referenced by the drawing process to the page buffer, and FIG. 17(b) shows the relationship between the main drawing parameters and page/<sofa.

Further, the control software of this printing control device has a hierarchical structure shown in FIG. 19.

(i) In the figure, processing level 5 (task level) consists of task processing. That is, tasks such as a drawing task, a printing task, an interruption task, a cancel task, a mode center task, an idle task, etc.) whose deviation force is 1 are executed according to instructions from the task dispatcher.

(ii) Processing level 4 consists of a kernel section (consisting of SVC control, interrupt control, task control, timer control, etc.) and device driver control (page buffer control, printer control, host communication control, panel control, etc.).

(in) Processing levels 1 and 2 each consist of CPU exception handling and parity error handling, and both handle highly urgent abnormalities.The former handles CPU exceptions such as bus errors, address errors, CPU illegal instructions, and division by zero. Perform abnormal handling for etc.

On the other hand, the latter performs parity error processing for RAM memory.

(1-) Processing level 0 performs initialization processing.

Figure 20 shows that the number of page buffers is 3 in this embodiment.
As shown in Figure 6, which shows a timing diagram of parallel processing such as drawing and printing by this print control device in the case of Therefore, there is no idle time in the use of the printer and page buffer, allowing the printer engine to operate at its maximum speed. "
As described above, the release of the page buffer empty wait state upon completion of page buffer reading and the release of the print instruction permission wait state upon completion of paper feeding are both performed by an interrupt request to the CPU.

Note that, as in the previous embodiment, the timing of canceling the print instruction permission waiting state varies depending on the characteristics of the printer engine section 16, and depending on the printer engine, it may not coincide with the timing of paper feeding completion. CPU1
06 or the printer engine section 16 detects release of the print instruction permission waiting state according to the characteristics of the printer engine section 16.

As a result, the present invention can be applied by causing the sub CPU 106 to immediately generate an interrupt to the CPU to "cancel the print instruction permission waiting state".

The means adopted in each of the above embodiments to enable such parallel processing can be summarized as follows.

1) A page buffer with sufficient number of sides (three sides in the above example).

2) Receiving commands asynchronously with the operations of the drawing task and printing task in the printer control device. 3) Managing drawing and printing as separate tasks, especially managing the printing task separately for each print process for each paper.

4) Manage the execution of the drawing task and print task defined in 3) using the mechanisms for waiting for an event to occur and canceling it, and waiting for resource availability and canceling it.

The above embodiments can also be applied to the following cases.

(1) When the total number of pages N in the page buffer unit 14 is 1.

(2) Total number of pages N in the page buffer unit 14.

An example of this case is when the configuration etc. are dynamically changed by a command string sent by the host computer 10. For example, an example of this case is when a command string instructs to change the paper size, dot density of an optical printer, or page buffer memory capacity. It is.

(3) When a task other than those shown in Table 5 is added as a task in the task processing unit 13.

(4) A case where various methods shown below are used as a method of transmitting a command sequence from the host computer 1o to the present device.

(a) Send one drawing command and one printing command for each page.

(b) For each page, send zero or more drawing command sequences and one print command.

(c) In addition to (a) and (b), control information for each page (paper size, distinction between vertical writing, horizontal writing, number of copies, distinction between single-sided printing, double-sided printing, etc.) can be added using the drawing command - or drawing. Command, send as a different type of command other than print command.

Here, the drawing command is a command to instruct the content to be drawn to the page buffer, and the print command is to instruct the end of drawing to the page buffer and the start of a print task for the page buffer that has been drawn. This is a command for

(5) When a task is defined in response to an individual command sent by the host computer, or in response to an entire command string that constitutes one page.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, since the printer engine section and the page buffer section can be operated without idle time, printing can be performed at the maximum speed of the printer engine, and the throughput of the printing device can be improved.

(Margin below)

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional printing control device, and FIG. 3 is a state transition diagram of the operation of the task control unit in FIG. 1. , 4th
5 is an explanatory diagram of various operations of the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. Figure 7 is a configuration diagram of the page buffer management table section, Figure 8
The figure is a configuration diagram of the printer management table section, and Figure 9 is a drawing.
A timing diagram of parallel processing such as printing, FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the third embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of task state definitions and state transitions, and FIG. 12 is a task control relationship. FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram of the page buffer management table section, FIG. 14 is a configuration diagram of the printer management table section, and FIGS. 15 and 16 are explanatory diagrams of various operations of the apparatus of the present invention. , FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram of drawing parameters, FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the device of the present invention, FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of control software of the device of the present invention, and FIG. 20 is a timing diagram of parallel processing such as drawing and printing. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Host computer, 11... Command buffer unit, 12... Task control unit, 13... Task processing unit, 131... Drawing task processing unit, 132...
Print task processing section, 14... page buffer section, 14
1... Page buffer 1, 142... Page buffer n, 143... Page buffer N, 16... Printer engine section, 17... Task management table section, 1
8... Page buffer management table section, 19... Printer management table section, 116... Page buffer control section. 117...Printer control unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. The page buffer includes a command buffer section that stores a command string including at least a drawing command, and a page buffer section that stores dot image data drawn according to the drawing command, and the page buffer after drawing has been completed. A print control device that outputs internal dot image data to a printer engine section includes a page buffer for multiple pages provided in the page buffer section, and a task for executing drawing processing and printing processing as a drawing task and a printing task, respectively. a processing unit; and a task control unit that controls execution of a drawing task and a print task by the task processing unit, and in the control by the task control unit, the task priority of the print task is set to be higher than the task priority of the drawing task. A printing control device characterized by being raised. 2. A command buffer section that stores at least a command string including drawing commands for various drawing instructions, and a page buffer section that stores dot image data drawn according to the drawing commands, and the inside of the page buffer section after drawing has been completed. In a print control device that outputs dot image data to a printer engine section, the page buffer section includes a page buffer for multiple pages, and a task process for executing drawing processing and printing processing as a drawing task and a printing task, respectively. a task control unit that controls execution of drawing tasks and printing tasks by the task processing unit; a page buffer management table unit that holds page buffer management information; and a printer management table unit that holds printer management information. , the task control section allocates an empty page buffer to the drawing task according to the contents of the page buffer management table section, and assigns a page buffer waiting to be printed to the drawing task according to the contents of both the management table sections. A print control device characterized in that a buffer and a printer engine unit in an empty state are assigned to the print task. 3. The present invention further comprises a task management table section that holds task management information regarding various tasks including the drawing task and the printing task, and the task control section performs task control according to the contents of the task management table section. 3. The print control device according to 1 or 2. 4. The print control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a print command is stored together with the command string in the command buffer section, and a request to start the print task is made in response to the print command. 5. Claim 1, wherein the command string stored in the command buffer section includes a command explicitly or implicitly indicating a page break, and a request to start the print task is made in response to the command. Or the printing control device according to 2. 6. The command string stored in the command buffer unit is received from the host computer asynchronously with drawing processing and printing processing.
Printing control device as described. 7. At least the processing of the task control unit is executed by a CPU, and the empty space of the page buffer and the free space of the printer engine unit are notified to the task control unit using an interrupt to the CPU. 3. The print control device according to 1 or 2. 8. A command buffer section that stores at least a command string including drawing commands for various drawing instructions, and a page buffer section that stores dot image data drawn according to the drawing commands, and the inside of the page buffer section after drawing has been completed. A print control device that outputs dot image data to a printer engine section, comprising: a page buffer for a plurality of pages provided in the page buffer section; means for executing drawing processing and printing processing as a drawing task and a printing task, respectively; means for managing the usage status of each page buffer; means for managing the usage status of the printer engine unit; assigning an empty page buffer to the drawing task; and assigning an empty printer engine unit to the printing task. means for managing the drawing task in a page buffer waiting state when there is no free page buffer, and releasing the free waiting state when any page buffer becomes free; and the printer engine. 1. A print control device comprising: means for managing the print task as a printer waiting state when the copy is not available; and releasing the printer from the waiting state when the copy becomes available. 9. For the print task to which the printer engine is assigned, manage the print task as waiting for print instruction permission, and release the wait state when it becomes possible to accept the print instruction based on the usage status of the printer engine section. 9. The printing control device according to claim 8, further comprising means. 10. After the print task finishes reading the required number of copies from the page buffer, the page buffer and printer engine section are made vacant, the print task is managed as waiting for paper ejection to finish, and paper ejection is completed. 10. The printing control apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising means for later canceling the waiting state. 11. The print control device according to claim 10, wherein a print task separate from the print task in the state of waiting for completion of paper ejection is provided, and the printer engine unit in the vacant state is assigned to the print task. .