JPH0327971A - Printing processing apparatus of cut paper printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the deficiency of printer equipment by making it possible to simultaneously utilizing one printer by two control processings. CONSTITUTION:Two paper stackers 2, 3 are provided and a stacker selecting mechanism 1 selecting said stackers and two picture memories 8, 9 capable of storing the image data of one page or more are provided. The receiving data transmitted from two higher rank control parts 14, 15 are received by two interface circuits 10, 11 to be separately stored in two picture memories 8, 9 and printing processing is performed by a printer control processing part 7. That is, the printing data from two higher rank control parts 14, 15 are simultaneously received to perform plotting on the separate picture memories 8, 9 and the printing of image data previously completed in the plotting of one page is started and the mechanism 1 selecting the stackers is controlled so as to store papers in the paper stackers 2, 3 by the higher rank control parts. Then, the printing data from two higher rank control parts 14, 15 are simultaneously subjected to printing processing to be stored in the separate paper stackers 2, 3. By this method, the deficiency of printer equipment can be eliminated.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a print processing method for a cut paper printer, and particularly to a print processing method that simultaneously receives and processes print data and commands from two upper control units. ．． [Prior Art] Conventionally, this type of electrophotographic cut paper printer has been capable of high-speed printing at low cost. Printers with large capacity screen memories have been developed and have become very convenient, but printers have only had one interface circuit for connecting the printer with a host control unit and performing printing operations.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional technology described above, when one printer is used by two higher-level control units, the connection between the printer and the higher-level control unit must be changed each time the printer is used, or an external interface circuit must be installed in the middle of the connection. I used this method to connect two higher-level controllers and one printer, but even with this method, while one higher-level controller is using the printer, the other higher-level controller cannot use the printer. The drawback is that it cannot be done.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention has two paper stackers, a mechanism for selecting the stacker, and two screen memories capable of storing one page or more of image data. Reception data sent from the two upper control units is received by the two interface circuits, stored separately in two screen memories, and printed by the printer control processing unit. In other words, print data is received from two higher-level control units at the same time, and drawing is performed on separate screen memories.As a result, printing of the image data for which one page of drawing has been completed is started, and the upper-level control units are printed on separate sheets of paper. By controlling the mechanism that selects the stacker so that the paper is stored in the stacker, print data from two upper control units are simultaneously printed and stored in separate paper stackers.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the process of paper travel. stacker selection machine ml
is controlled by a printer control processing section, which will be described later, and causes the paper to travel to either paper stacker 2 or 3. Stackers 2 and 3 store sheets on which printing has been completed. A photosensitive drum 4 is used to print on paper in a print developing section 5. The paper hopper 6 stores paper before printing.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a printer circuit according to the present invention. The printer control processing section 7 includes a microprocessor and R
It is composed of OM, RAM, and other peripheral circuits, and controls the printer's operations and functions. Screen memory 8
and 9 are memories for drawing image data that can each store image data for one page or more, and interface circuits 10 and 11 transfer print data and commands from the upper control units 14 and 15 to the printer control processing unit 7. I do.

The upper control units 14 and 15 send print data and commands to the printer circuit 3.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the process executed by the printer control processing section 7 of FIG.

The overall operating procedure will be explained below based on Figures 1, 2, and 3. First, when the printer device is powered on, the printer control processing section 7 executes the initial setting 20 process shown in FIG.
Thereafter, the multitasking operating system 18 is activated. Multitasking operating system 18 begins executing processes 16 and 17 simultaneously. In the processes 16 and 17, when print data or commands are sent from the upper control unit 14 or 15 to the interface circuit 10 or 11, the print data or commands are read from the interface circuit, and when processing such as editing is completed, they are stored in the screen memory. Draw image data on 8 or 9. When the drawing for one page of the screen memory 8 or 9 is completed by the process of 16 or 17, the multitasking operating system cancels the process of 16 or 17 that finished the drawing process first.
Execute the process in step 9. In one process, first, the printing paper storage stacker 3 or 2 is defined as the storage stacker for the paper to be printed from now on (for example, the interface circuit 1
The paper printed by the print data received at 0 is stored in the stacker 2, the paper printed by the interface circuit l1 is stored in the stacker 3, and so on. ) As instructed, set the stacker selection mechanism shown in Figure 1 on the rack in which the printing paper is to be conveyed. Next, the image data from the screen memory where drawing has been completed is delivered to the print processing section 12, and printing is performed. When the print processing unit 12 starts printing on paper, the paper is pulled out from the paper hopper 6 shown in FIG. Ru. Thereafter, the paper is conveyed to point A in FIG. 1, and the printing paper is stored in stacker 3 or 4 by the stacker selector ml, which has already set the paper conveyance direction.

When the above process of printing the image data in the screen memory on paper and storing it in the stacker is completed, the multitasking operating system 18 executes the previous process 16 or 17 again. While the contents of one screen memory are being printed by the process 19, one process cannot be used even if the drawing process of another screen memory is finished.
The process remains in a waiting state until the processing of one of the nineteen processes is completed. Thereafter, in the same manner, print data and commands sent from the upper control unit 14 or l5 are received and processed, and printing is performed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention enables one printer device to be used for two control processes at the same time, thereby resolving the shortage of printer equipment and also allowing two printers to be used for two control processes.
This has the effect of reducing the area occupied by the device and the cost of printer equipment compared to when a printer is used.

paper hopper.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the printer circuit.

7... Printer control processing unit, 8, 9... Screen memory, 10.11... Interface circuit, 12...
Print processing section, 13...Printer circuit, 14.15...
- Upper control unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of processing executed by the printer control processing section of the circuit shown in FIG.

16.17.18, 19.20...Processing details.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Two paper stackers, a mechanism that changes the direction of paper advance to the stacker based on commands from the printer control unit, two interface circuits connected to two higher-level control units, and a system that converts at least binary image data of printed images. It has two screen memories that can store one page, simultaneously receives print data and commands from the two upper control units, and stores the paper on which the print data has been printed in a stacker for each upper control unit. Print processing method for cut paper printers.