JPH0443426A - Data processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute a data processing having the highest priority without delay by altering the priority of an input port, processing the data having the highest priority and interrupting a data processing having lower priority at the time of paging at any time. CONSTITUTION:A data processor has plural input ports 11 and 12 having priority and it can alter priority. A change-over switch 15 is switch-controlled by a reception buffer switch part 17 and a user can freely set priority in the input ports 11 and 12 in a control panel 18. In such a case, a job in the midst of processing is interrupted in a prescribed unit, for example to a section of a page, and after storing in a set parameter the job received in the input port having high priority in the processing is processed. After the termination of the processing, the processing of the job interrupted by the restored parameter is continued from the subsequent page. Thus, the processing of data can efficiently be executed in conformity with the set priority.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention provides a data processing device that receives print control commands and data from a plurality of input ports, and performs predetermined data processing based on these commands. Regarding.

(Prior Art) The receiver has a plurality of input ports, and according to print control commands received from an external device, such as a host computer, through these input ports, the receiver also prints an image on paper based on the received data. A data processing device formed above is used. In this case, a predetermined priority is set in advance for multiple input ports, and for example, when data is given to two input ports at the same time, the data given to the input port with a higher priority is processed first. do.

In this state, for example, even if data is given to an input port that is given a higher priority than the input port that is currently being processed, conventionally, all the data that is currently being processed must be processed before the higher priority input port is given. Unable to process data given to input port.

Alternatively, a system could be created in which when data is given to an input port with a high priority, processing is immediately switched to that port, but in this case, the data that had been processed up to that point would be discarded. .

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) Conventionally, in a data processing device having a plurality of input ports, priority If you try to process another file whose job is higher than that by feeding it to another input port that has a higher priority, you will have to wait for the file currently being processed to finish processing, or There is a problem in that the file being processed must be abandoned midway to accept new data. This problem also occurs when the priority level set for an input port is changed during file processing.

Therefore, the present invention provides a method for interrupting current processing and comparing data when it becomes necessary to process a high-priority job while processing a file consisting of data forming multiple predetermined units, for example, multiple pages. The data processing device is configured to be able to start processing this new job in a relatively short period of time, and to continue processing the interrupted file again after the new job processing is completed without discarding the interrupted file. The purpose is to provide.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a data processing device that has an input port having a plurality of priorities and can change the priorities. means for detecting that data has been received from a second input port having a higher priority while receiving data from the first manual port; means for stopping the execution of processing of the file after processing the file being executed based on data from the file up to a predetermined unit; a memory for storing parameters set in the file; and after storing the parameters in the memory; and means for starting processing of data from the second input port.

(Operation) According to the present invention, a job being processed is interrupted at a predetermined unit, for example, up to a page break, and after the set parameters are memorized, the job is received at an input port with a high processing priority. After completing this processing, the job processing that was interrupted is resumed from the next page based on the restored parameters.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to a laser beam printer will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

In FIG. 1, two input ports 11 and 12 in the sub CPU management unit 10 receive data to be printed and printing parameters from an external device, such as a host computer, such as a top margin, number of lines per page, and a cursor. Paran indicating the location, emulation type, etc.
- data is provided. Each data supplied to the input port 11.12 is sent to a reception buffer 13.14 in the main CPU management section 24 and is temporarily held there.

The data sent from the input ports 11 and 12 to the reception buffers 13 and 14 is selectively sent to the data analysis processing section 16 via the changeover switch 15. This changeover switch 15 is controlled by a reception buffer changeover section 17. This switching is done by receiving buffer 13.1.
The reception buffer switching unit 17 checks whether data is held in the reception buffer 4, and if data is held in the currently set higher priority, for example the reception buffer 13, the data in the reception buffer 13 is Data analysis processing section 1
switch 15 so that the signal is sent to 6. If no data is held in the reception buffer 13, check whether data is held in the other reception buffer 14 with a lower priority, and if so, turn the switch 15 so that this data is sent to the data analysis processing section 16. Switch. If there is no data in any of the receiving buffers 13.14, then it continues to check whether data is held in the receiving buffers 13.14 at regular intervals.

The priority settings for the input ports 11 and 12 can be set freely by the user on the control panel 18, and the priority setting data can be set on the control panel 18.
The data is sent from the panel controller 19 to the reception buffer switching unit 17 . Therefore, in this embodiment, the input port 11 is set to have a higher priority, but the input port 12 can also be set to have a higher priority.

In this case, first, it is checked whether data is held in the receiving buffer 14, and if so, that data is processed, and if not, it is checked whether data is held in the other receiving buffer 13. If data is held only in the receive buffer with lower priority, this data will be processed, but
In this case, each time the processing of a page feed (form feed) symbol is completed, it is checked whether data has arrived in the high priority reception buffer 13. If data is found in the higher priority receive buffer 13 while processing data with lower priority, the panel controller 19 sends the parameter data to the restore controller 2.
0, the data analysis processing unit 16 sends the control signal to
In order to interrupt the processing of data from (from), areas 21a, 21b, . Check whether it is on memory 21. If so, the parameter data is saved in that area, for example, area 21a.

Note that the macro files, font data, etc. created in the above job are left without being deleted.

The data sent to the data analysis processing section 16 is converted into image data, stored in a page memory, and sent as a drive signal to the laser device in the laser printer engine 30 via the video interface 23.

Here, the overall circuit block configuration and structure of a laser printer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a circuit block. Print data and parameter data sent from the host computer are sent to a control circuit 24 which is a main CPU management section, and here, a main motor 32 constituting a laser printer engine 30 is sent. drive circuit 31, drive circuit 3 of mirror motor 34
3. Drive signals and control signals are supplied to the laser output control circuit 35 of the laser optical system 36, respectively, and laser emission is controlled according to the print data.

The structure of the laser printer is shown in FIG.

That is, 40 in the figure is a printer main body of a laser printer 41, and the upper surface of this printer main body 40 is one step higher, and in the center of the upper surface there are four parts 4 serving as a paper ejection section.
2 is formed. A paper output tray 43 movably supported by a jogger is attached to the four parts 42, and the right side of the four parts 42 has an operation panel display section and an operation panel switch section as an operation panel, and the left side has an operation panel display section and an operation panel switch section. Three IC card insertion slots are provided respectively.

Furthermore, a paper ejection tray is attached to the front side of the printer main body 40, and a manual feed tray 44 is attached to the rear side.

Further, a drum-shaped photoreceptor 45 as an image carrier is provided approximately at the center of the printer main body 40, and
Around it is a charging device 46. Laser optical system 47. Developing device (developing device unit) as a developing means 48. Transfer device 49. Peeling device 50° Cleaning device (photoreceptor unit) 51 as a cleaner means. and a defrosting device 52 are arranged in this order.

The laser optical system 47 includes a semiconductor laser oscillator (not shown) that generates laser light, a collimator lens (not shown) that corrects the laser light from this oscillator into parallel light,
A polygon mirror (rotating mirror) 47a having a portion of an octahedral mirror that reflects the light from this collimator lens for each scanning line, an f-theta lens 47b, and a mirror 47c.
.

47d, and a mirror motor (rotating means) 34 for rotationally driving the polygon mirror 47a.

Further, an image support transport path 54 is formed in the printer main body 40 and extends forward through an image transfer section 53 between the photoreceptor 45 and the transfer device 49.
Paper 21 is automatically fed from a paper feed cassette 55 housed at the bottom of the interior via a paper feed roller 58, a phase shift roller 59, etc. Paper P manually fed from a manual feed tray 44 is guided to the image transfer section 53. It looks like this.

Further, an aligning roller pair 60 is disposed on the upstream side of the image transfer section 53 of the image support transport path 54, and a fixing device 61. A paper discharge selector 62 and a pair of paper discharge rollers 63 are arranged.

At the end of the image support conveyance path 54, there is a branch conveyance path 65 provided with a pair of paper discharge rollers 64 to guide the sheets P sorted by the paper discharge selector 62 to the recess 42 serving as a paper discharge section. It is formed.

Further, 77, 78, . . . , 79 shown in FIG. 3 are control boards constituting the control section.

In the image forming operation, the photoreceptor 45 is driven and charged by the charging device 46, and then the laser optical system 47 exposes the photoreceptor 45 to light corresponding to the image signal. An electrostatic latent image is formed. The electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 45 is then developed by a developing device 48 that uses a two-component developer consisting of l.color and carrier, and is sent to the image transfer section 53 as a developer image.

Meanwhile, in synchronization with this developer image forming operation, the paper feed cassette 5
Paper P1 taken out from 5 or paper P fed manually
is fed through the aligning roller pair 60, and the developer image previously formed on the photoreceptor 45 is transferred to the transfer device 49.
The image is transferred to paper P by the action of . Then, the paper P is peeled off from the photoreceptor 45 by the peeling device 50, passes through the image support transport path 54, and is sent to the fixing device 61.

Here, after the developer image is fused and fixed on the paper P, the paper discharge selector 62 selects the discharge direction and discharges the paper onto the upper paper discharge tray 43 or the front paper discharge tray.

After the developer image is transferred onto the paper P, the residual toner remaining on the photoreceptor 45 is cleaned by the cleaning device 5, and the next copying operation is ready.

The operation of an embodiment of the present invention having the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6. Here, as an initial setting, it is assumed that the manual port 11 is set to have a higher data processing priority than the input ports 1' and 2 as a result of the user's designation from the control panel 18.

This priority setting signal is sent to the reception buffer switching section 17 via the panel control section 19 and stored therein.
5 is switched to the receiving buffer 13 side for holding data from the input port 11.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the sub-CPU management section 1o, which manages the reception and transfer of data from the input ports 11, 1.2 to the reception buffers 13-14. Regardless of the priorities of the input ports 11 and 12, the sub CPU management unit 10 determines whether the device shown in FIG. During this period, data received from the input port 11 is transferred to the reception buffer 13, and data received from the input port 12 is transferred to the reception buffer 14. still,
The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is normally in an online state, but when setting printing parameters from the control panel 18, the CPU management section 10.24 of the apparatus shown in FIG.
When an error occurs in the side device or the laser printer engine 30 side, the printer enters an offline state. Further, the control panel 18 is controlled by the main CPU management section 24 in the background.

In FIG. 4, in the first step S], it is checked whether the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is in an online state. If YES, the process advances to the next step S2, and it is checked whether data has been input to the manual port 11.12. Input port 11
．． If there is input data in one or both of 12, the answer is YES, and the process advances to the next step S3. In this step S3, it is checked whether there is space in the reception buffers 13, 14, and if YES, the data to the input port 11 is transferred to the reception buffer 13, and the data to the input port 12 is transferred to the reception buffer 14.

Next, the operation of the main CPU management section 24 will be explained with reference to FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 5, first, by reading data from the receiving buffer 13 connected to the input port 11 to which the higher priority is set in the first step S1, the received data is stored in the receiving buffer 13. Check. In this case, if there is input data, the process advances to the next step S2, and it is checked whether the read data is the end of the file data (END OF JOB).

If the read data is in the middle of the file, NO is obtained and the process advances to the next step S3. In this step S3, the accepted file data is sent from the data analysis processing section 16 to the page memory 22, and further sent to the laser printer engine 30 via the video interface 23, where a laser printer operation based on the input data is executed.

This laser printer operation continues until a page break process is detected in the next step S4. If it is detected in step S4 that the process is a page break process, the process proceeds to the next step S5, where it is checked whether there is data from an input port with a higher priority.

In this case, the initial priority was set high for input port 11, but while processing input data to input port 11, the priority was changed by the user to control panel 18.
A higher priority may be switched to the input port 12 side by an instruction from the input port 12 side.

For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the input port 11 is set to a high priority until time t1, and data from the fourth page of job 1 is being sent to the reception buffer 13 under the control of the sub CPU management unit 10. has been written up to. On the other hand, in the processing of data for job 1, it is shown that the printing operation for the second page has progressed halfway.

If the check operation in step S5 in FIG. 5 is after the priority switching time t1 in FIG. 6 and after the time t2 when data is received at the input port 12, step S
5, YES is obtained, and the process proceeds to the next step S6.

Here, in order to interrupt Job 1 that has been in progress, the parameter save area 21 is an area that holds the current printing parameters (top margin, number of lines per page, cursor position, emulation type, etc.). If it is, the flag is not set in step S6, and the area is saved, for example, area 21a. At this time, the macro file created in job 1, phono
Leave the data etc. without erasing it.

If there is no free space in the parameter save area 21, a flag is set in step S6, and the job
1 is not interrupted and processing continues as is.

When the parameter data is saved, step S
If NO is obtained in step 6, the process proceeds to the next step S7, where a flag is set, and the parameter data is saved in step S8. Thereafter, the switch 15 is switched to the reception buffer 14 side by the reception buffer switching section 17, and the data of job 2 received at the input port 12 in step S9 is sent from the reception buffer 14 to the data analysis processing section 16.

In this way, as shown in FIG.
When printing of the page is completed and a form feed (page break) command FF is obtained at time t3, processing is switched to job 2, and data processing and printing of job 2 are started.

If the priority of the input port is switched to the manual port 11 side again during this process, the process is similarly interrupted with the feed form command for page break in job 2, and the print parameters are saved in area 21. . If the priority is not changed, job 2 continues processing until the end of the file (END 0
1' JOB command).

If the processing of job 2 ends at time t4 in FIG. 6 and no more data is sent from the input port 12 to the reception buffer 14, the switch 15 is switched to the input port 11 side with lower priority. , processing of the data of job 1 held in the reception buffer 13 is restarted.

The operation of restarting the processing of job 1 from time t4 in FIG. 6 will be explained with reference to FIG. 5(b). Step S in FIG. 5(a)
If YES is obtained from the END OF JOB check in step 2, proceed to step SIO and save parameter save area 2.
It is checked whether the parameter data of job 1 is saved in any of the files in job 1.

For example, if parameter data is saved in the parameter save area 21a, the process advances to the next step S11,
A reception buffer 14 is connected to a data analysis processing section 16 via a switch 15.

In this state, the saved print parameter data is restored from the area 21a in step S12, and the interrupted printing process for the fifth page of job 1 is restarted. Accordingly, the process proceeds to the next step 313, and the flag indicating the parameter save state is reset.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, in a data processing device having a plurality of input ports, the priority of the manual port is changed at any time, high priority data is processed, and low priority data is processed. Data processing is interrupted at a page break, print parameters are saved, and processing can be resumed immediately.This allows high-priority data processing to be performed without delay, and also to ensure that the data being processed is not discarded. Therefore, it is possible to provide a data processing device that can process data extremely efficiently in response to set priorities without being overloaded.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main parts of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control system of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the mechanical section of this embodiment. figure,
FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of the sub CPU management section in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5(a). (b) is an operation flowchart of the main CPU management section in FIG. 1, and FIG. 6 is a second timing chart explaining the operation of this embodiment. ]1, 12...Input port, 13.14...Reception buffer, 15...Priority changeover switch, 16...
Data analysis processing unit, 17... Receive buffer switching unit, 18. Control panel, 20... Print parameter data, restore control unit, 21... Parameter save memory, 22... Page memory, 23... video interface. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 4

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) It has a first input port and a second input port that has a higher processing priority than the first input port, and the priority for these first and second input ports can be changed. In the data processing device, means for detecting that data has been received from the second input port while receiving data from the first input port; means for stopping execution of the file being executed after processing a file being executed based on data from an input port up to a predetermined unit; a memory for storing parameters set in the file; and storing the parameters in the memory. and means for starting processing of data from the second input port. (2) It has a first input port and a second input port that has a higher processing priority than the first input port, and the priority for these first and second input ports can be changed. In the data processing device, means for detecting that data has been received from the second input port while receiving data from the first input port; means for stopping execution of the file being executed after processing a file being executed based on data from an input port up to a predetermined unit; a memory for storing parameters set in the file; and storing the parameters in the memory. a means for starting processing of data from the second input port; and a means for restoring the parameters stored in the memory after completing data processing from the second input port; A data processing device comprising: means for restarting receiving and processing file data.