JPH03183575A - Font cash device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always hold a character font to be frequently used in an internal memory and to enhance hitting rate by providing an internal storage using information list, i.e., a list which is aligned in a data block memory sequentially at transfer times. CONSTITUTION:Data block memories (3-1)-(3-n) for holding a plurality of character font data as internal memories, a font supervisor 4 used to supervise the font data, and an internal memory information unit 5 are provided. An internal storage using information list has cash information structures respectively present for n pieces of the memories (3-1)-(3-n), aligned sequentially at transfer or using times. The list is rewritten by continuously realigning the structures of the block used at present as a head in the using order. Thus, hitting rate is improved to reduce the number of data transfers.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention efficiently transfers large capacity character font data stored in an external storage device to a small capacity internal storage device, and It is related to the device.

(Prior technology) Japanese desktop publishing (D '1' P
) In the case of dot fonts, the character fonts used for displaying or printing characters in devices, etc. require storing various types of fonts and sizes as data, resulting in a huge amount of data. Therefore, character font data is generally stored in an external storage device, and transferred to an internal storage device for display or printing as needed. In such a desktop publishing device, a process is performed to determine whether or not the necessary character font data exists in the internal storage bag p, and if it does not exist, the data is transferred from the external storage device. Data transfer from the external storage device to the internal storage device is performed randomly in the free space.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, when randomly transferring character fonts to a small-capacity internal storage device, there is a drawback that the probability (hit rate) that a character font to be output exists in the internal storage device is small. Furthermore, since the process of transferring data from the external storage device to the internal storage device requires a long time, there is a drawback that if the number of data transfers is large, high-speed output processing cannot be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the conventional font data transfer method, and its technical object is to improve the hit rate and reduce the number of data transfers.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention is a font cache device used in Japanese desktop publishing devices, etc., as shown in FIG.
, an external storage device 2 that stores character font data divided into data blocks, and a plurality of data block storage units that transfer and store font data for each data block held in the external storage device. , a font management unit 4 that includes the address of an external storage device for each data block for a plurality of fonts and a font-specific list of font data included in the data block storage unit for that font, and the usage status and transfer time of the data block storage unit. The internal storage device 3 has an internal storage information section 5 containing an internal storage usage information list that stores priority ordering, and the font data of the characters input at the input section is stored in the data processor 1. of the internal storage bag. internal storage retention determining means 6-1 for searching whether the data block is retained in any of the storage units; If there is an unused data block storage part in the internal storage device, the unused data block determination means 6-2 determines the existence of an unused data block storage part. 1. Font data transfer means 6- which transfers font data in units of data blocks from the external storage device to the data block storage unit with the lowest priority if all data block storage units are in use; 3, list changing means 6-4 for changing the priority order of the orientation section storage information list with the data block storage section used by the data transfer by the font data transfer means and the discrimination by the internal storage storage determination means first; The apparatus is characterized by comprising an output section 7 that displays or prints input characters based on font data held in an internal storage device.

[Effect]

According to the present invention having such characteristics, when the font or character code of a character to be displayed or printed is input from the input section, whether or not the font data is stored in the internal storage device is stored in the internal storage device. Distinguished by means of discrimination,
If the font data is retained, the font data is outputted and the priority order is changed by the list changing means,
If the data block is not held in the internal storage device, it is determined whether there is an unused data block storage section in the internal storage device.

If there is an unused data block storage area, transfer the font data from the external storage device to the unused data block, change the list priority order (q), and if there is no unused data block storage area, transfer the font data to the unused data block. The font data is transferred from the external storage device to the data blocks with the lowest priority of 1st to 10th in the block storage section and displayed or printed, and the list is changed at the same time.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a font cache device according to the present invention. In the two figures, an input section 1 is an input section for inputting characters to be displayed or printed one by one. This font cache device is provided with an external storage device 2, such as a hard disk, for storing font data of all fonts to be displayed or printed. The external storage bag W2 stores font data of a large number of characters for each typeface, divided into a plurality of data blocks. Further, this font cache device has data block storage units 3-1 to '3-n that hold a plurality of character font data as internal storage devices, and a font management unit 4 used to manage the font data. and an internal storage information section 5 are provided.

Data block storage units 3-1 to 3-n are column storage units 2
Each data block has the same memory capacity as each data block, and the number of data block storage units (i.e., n) is assumed to be 10, for example. Now, the control section 6 is made up of a microprocessor and an input/output interface circuit provided between the input section 1 and the output section 7, and performs cache processing to be described later. The output unit 7 indicates a display device, a printer, etc. that displays or prints characters.

The fonts that can be displayed or printed are fonts 1 to 3, and the font code for font 1 is 1. Assume that the number of data blocks is 5. This font 1 shall be shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 Now, as shown in FIG. 2, the font management section 4 has data 4--
1. And font code 4-2 for each font. The number of data blocks is 43, and for each data block of this font I, a data block management section consisting of a first character code 4-4 and a data block external storage address 4-5 is provided, and a list by font type is also provided. 4 to 6 are provided. For example, if the font l is from Table 1 mentioned above, the data content of the font management section 4 is
This is shown in Figure (a). Also, the font type list 4-6 is the third
As shown in Figure (b), cache information structures, which will be described later, are arranged for each typeface, and are used when searching whether font data corresponding to a character code is held.

Now, as shown in FIG. 4, the internal information storage section 5 has the number of used data block storage sections 5-1. Pointers (addresses) 5 to 2 indicating the starting position of the internal storage usage information list. The pointer 5-3 indicating the final list of the internal storage usage information list and the internal storage usage information list 5-4 are displayed.

The internal storage usage information list is a list in which the cache information structures existing for each of the n data block storage units 3-1 to 3-n are arranged in order of transfer or use time and prioritized. . Here, the cache information structure refers to number 8. of the data block storage section, as shown in FIG. Data block number 9 Consists of a pointer IO indicating the position of the internal storage usage information list of the 1st level and a pointer 11 indicating the position of the font-specific list.For example, in the font 1, the data block storage unit 3-1.3-2. Use 3-3, data block storage section with other fonts: 3-4
．． 3 to 7.3-8 are used, the internal storage usage information list 5-4 of the internal information storage section 5 will be as shown in FIG. 6(a), for example. Here, the internal storage usage information list 5-4 is arranged in the order in which the data block storage sections of the internal storage device '\/3 are used.
The first 1q of these IJ structures 12a is indicated by the internal storage usage information list first song pointer 5-2. In addition, the cache information structure 12b of Hiiragi is yfZed by the internal storage usage information list final pointer 5-3. The internal storage information list pointer IO of each cache information tank indicates the address of the next succeeding cache information structure. Note that in this [Ml, the data of the font-specific list pointer of each cache 1 information structure is omitted.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When the operation starts, step 21
At the input section 1, the font and character code of the characters to be displayed or printed are input. Then, the process proceeds to step 22, where it is checked whether the corresponding data block exists in any data block storage section of the internal storage device 3, based on the number of the data block containing the character code. For example, when a character with code 3560h of typeface l is input, this character is included in data block 2 according to the above-mentioned table 1, and as shown in FIG. ~3-10 are not loaded. Therefore, in the flowchart shown in FIG. 7, the process proceeds from step 22 to step 23 to check whether an unused data block storage section exists. In FIG. 6 (al), the number of cache information structures in the internal storage usage information list 5-4 is 6, and there are 4 unused data block storage sections, so the process proceeds to step 25 and the unused data block storage section is e.g. 3-5, and
The data of the data block of the external storage device 2 is loaded into the data block storage section 3-5 of the internal storage device 3.

The process then proceeds to step 27 to rewrite the internal storage usage information list shown in FIG. 6(a). This list is rewritten by sequentially rearranging the cache information structures 12c of all used data blocks in the order of use, as shown in FIG. 6(b).

The process then proceeds to step 28 to calculate the data start address of the input character in the data block, and the process proceeds to step 29 to display and print the character.

On the other hand, in step 23, as shown in FIG. 8(a), if there is no unused data block storage section and all the data blocks in the internal storage information use list, 10 data blocks in this embodiment, have already been used. Then, the process proceeds to step 24, where the data storage block portion indicating the end of this usage information list is extracted and the font data is transferred from the external storage device 2 to this data block (step 26).
. Then, proceed to step 27 and do the same in Figure 8 (b).
) as shown in the internal memory usage information list t#I! perform the process. If the font data exists in any of the data block storage sections of the internal storage device 3 in step 22, the process proceeds from step 22 to step 27 to rewrite the internal storage usage information list. For example, the 6th
If a character with code 4530h of font l is input in the state shown in Figure (a), this character is included in data block 3 according to Table 1, and data block storage unit 3-2
There is no need to transfer the font data from the external storage device 2.

Therefore, the internal memory use information list is rewritten every 1 time, starting with the cache information structure 12d shown in FIGS. 6(a) to 6(C). The process then proceeds to steps 28 and 29 to perform similar processing. Here, the control unit 6 performs step 2.
In step 23, the function of the internal storage storage determination means 6-1 is achieved, which determines whether the character data inputted in step 2 is retained in any part of part a, which is written in the data block of the internal storage device. fulfills the function of unused data block determining means 6-2 for determining the existence of an unused data block storage section. Further, the control section 6 achieves the function of the font data transfer means 6-3 for transferring font data from the external storage device to the data block storage section selected in steps 24 to 26, and step 27 performs such processing. The function of the list changing means 6-4 for rewriting the internal storage usage information list after the list is completed is achieved.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, frequently used character fonts are always stored in the internal storage by providing an internal storage usage information list, that is, a list arranged in order of transfer time to the data block storage unit. This will result in a higher hit rate. Therefore, the number of times font data is transferred to an external storage device or an internal storage device can be greatly reduced. In addition, by providing this internal memory use information list for each font, it is possible to search for each font to see if font data is floating in the internal storage device, which has the effect of allowing output processing to be performed in a short time. It will be done.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the font cache device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the font management section, FIG. 3(a) is a diagram showing an example of the data,
Figure (1)) shows an example of the list by font, Figure 4 shows the configuration of the internal information storage section, Figure 5 shows the configuration of the cache information structure, and Figure 6 shows the internal storage. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing changes in the internal storage usage information list when all data block storage units are used. be. ■−・−・・Input section 2−・−−111 external storage device β
3 Internal storage device 3-1 to 3-n---m-Data block storage unit 4---Font management unit
4-6--List by typeface 5--11--Internal storage information section 5-4--Internal storage usage information list 6--Control section 6-1...- . . .Internal storage device retention determination means 6-2.Unused data block determination means 6-3-1---Font data transfer means 6-4--List changing means 7--
・Output section

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An input unit for inputting character fonts and character codes, an external storage device for storing character font data divided into data blocks, and font data for each data block held in the external storage device. a plurality of data block storage units for transferring and storing data; a font management unit including an address of an external storage device for each data block for a plurality of fonts and a font-specific list of font data included in the data block storage unit for the font; and an internal storage device having an internal storage information section including an internal storage usage information list that stores priorities according to the usage status and transfer time of the data block storage section; and font data of characters input in the input section are stored in the internal storage device. internal storage retention determination means for searching whether or not the data block storage unit is retained in any of the data block storage units; unused data block discriminating means for discriminating the existence of an unused data block, and if the unused data block discriminating means determines that there is an unused data block storage section in the internal storage device, the unused data block discriminating section reads data from the external storage device to the data block storage section in units of data blocks; font data transfer means for transferring font data and, if all data block storage units are in use, transferring font data in units of data blocks from the external storage device to the data block storage unit with the lowest priority; list changing means for changing the priority order of the internal storage information list with the data block storage unit used by the data transfer by the font data transfer means and the data block storage unit used by the internal storage storage determination means first; A font cache device comprising: an output unit that displays or prints input characters based on held font data.