JPH05155110A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To receive data from a plurality of computers and process simultaneously by providing an output image selection control means that selects data to be outputted for printing out of plurality of image buffers. CONSTITUTION:As computers 1A, 1B, 1C...1N send printing data simultaneously, a wireless multiple transmitter/receiver 2 receives such data, and a transmission/ receiving control means 3 controls transmission to and receiving from the computers while checking remaining capacities of receiving buffers 4A, 4B, 4C...4N, and stores the printing data in the receiving buffers. Then the data in the receiving buffers 4A, 4B, 4C...4N are expanded into dot images with image expansion processing means 5A, 5B, 5C...5N, each of which corresponds with each of the receiving buffers 4A, 4B, 4C...4N. Then the expanded data are stored in image buffers 6A, 6B, 6C...6N corresponding to the image expansion processing means. A control means 7 selects images expanded sufficiently to fill one page of printing out of the image buffers, and sends the data containing such images one after another to a print output control means 8, and thereby output is made for printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a data output printer commonly used by a plurality of computers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, printers are used in offices or the like for printing computer data on paper or the like. However, even if a plurality of computers operate individually, a printer is required only for printing, so one printer may be installed and the printer may be shared by manually switching the input selector.

A block diagram of an example of a conventional printer of this type is shown in FIG. This conventional printer includes a plurality of computers 1A to 1N, a transceiver 10 including a wireless transceiver 12, a transmission / reception control means 3 and an input switch 11, a reception buffer 4, an image development processing means 5, an image buffer 6, The printer 9 comprises the print output control means 8.

Computer 1A connected wirelessly
1 to 1N is selected by the input switching device 11 and the signal is passed to the printer 9. The printer 9 receives a signal from one of the computers 1A to 1N and stores it in the reception buffer 4. When the remaining capacity of the reception buffer 4 becomes low, the transmission / reception control means 3 notifies the wireless transceiver 12 and the wireless transceiver 12 sends a message to any of the computers 1A to 1N wirelessly connected. Signal interruption Further, the data accumulated in the reception buffer 4 is converted into characters and figures by the image development processing means 5 and accumulated in the image buffer 6.
The data in the image buffer 6 is printed out on paper or the like by the print output control means 8. The data processing printed in this way can handle only input data from one computer.

[0005]

Since this conventional printer cannot receive data from two or more computers at the same time, it can only process data from one computer. Further, since the selection of the input data is also switched manually, the mounting area of the connector for individually connecting the computers is large, and the number of connecting cords is also large.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of simultaneously receiving data from a plurality of computers and simultaneously processing the data.

[0007]

According to the printer of the present invention,
In a printer having a function of receiving a signal sent from a host device, a function of converting the received signal into an image such as a character, and a function of printing the converted image on paper or the like, A wireless multiplex transceiver capable of simultaneously receiving signals, a plurality of reception buffers corresponding to the plurality of host devices, and a plurality of image development processing means corresponding to the reception buffers for converting code data in the reception buffers into visual dot patterns. And a plurality of image buffers corresponding to the image development processing means for storing the converted dot pattern data, and output image selection control means for selecting data to be printed out from the plurality of image buffers. Further, it has an image expansion allocation control means for allocating the code data from the host device accumulated in the reception buffer to the image expansion processing means other than the corresponding image expansion processing means with the page break code as a boundary.

[0008]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. The printer 9 of this embodiment includes a wireless multiplex transmitter / receiver 2, a transmission / reception control unit 3, and a plurality of reception buffers 4A to 4A.
N, a plurality of image development processing means 5A to 5N, a plurality of image buffers 6A to 6N, an output image selection control means 7, and a print output control means 8 and are connected to the computers 1A to 1N by a wireless multiplex transceiver 2. ing.

The computers 1A to 1N are host devices of the printer. The wireless multiplex transceiver 2 is a computer 1A-
It is an interface between the 1N and the printer 9, and simultaneously transmits and receives with a plurality of computers 1A to 1N. The transmission / reception control means 3 monitors the storage capacity of the reception buffers 4A, 4B, 4C to 4N, and instructs the wireless multiplex transceiver 2 to stop the communication when the capacity is exhausted. The plurality of reception buffers 4A to 4N are for storing the code data from the computers 1A to 1N, and the wireless multiplex transceiver 2
There are the same number of lines that can send and receive at the same time. The image development processing means 5A to 5N have the same number as the reception buffers 4A to 4N, and convert the code data into a dot pattern visible to humans. The image buffers 6A to 6N are also the reception buffer 4
There are the same number as A to 4N, and the dot pattern data is stored. The output image selection control means 7 selects data to be printed out from the plurality of image buffers 6A to 6N.
The print output control means 8 controls the print output of dot pattern data.

The computers 1A, 1B, 1C-1N are
The wireless multiplex transmitter / receiver 2 of the printer 9 is a host device for sending data to the printer 9, and the computers 1A, 1B, 1C to
Data transmission / reception with 1N is performed simultaneously. Transmission / reception control means 3
Are receive buffers 4A, 4B, 4C to 4N of the printer 9.
The busy signal output is controlled in consideration of the remaining capacity and so on. The reception buffers 4A, 4B, 4C to 4N store the received code data until the image development processing is performed. Image development processing means 5A, 5B, 5C to 5N
Converts the code data stored in the reception buffers 4A, 4B, 4C to 4N into a visually readable form in the form of characters or figures. The image buffers 6A, 6B, 6C to 6N are
Store data in the form of characters and figures until printing. The output image selection control means 7 selects and controls one of the image buffers 6A, 6B, 6C to 6N whose image development has been completed for one page. The print output control means 8 prints an image as data on paper or the like.

Next, the operation of this printer will be described. When the computers 1A, 1B, 1C to 1N simultaneously transmit print data, the wireless multiplex transceiver 2 of the printer 9 receives the data, and the transmission / reception control means 3 receives the reception buffers 4A, 4B, 4C.
Computer 1 while checking the state of remaining capacity of 4N
It controls transmission / reception with A, 1B, and 1C to 1N. The data thus received simultaneously are stored in the reception buffers 4A, 4B, 4C to 4N corresponding to the wireless lines of the wireless multiplex transceiver 2. Image development processing means 5A, 5B, 5 corresponding to the data in the reception buffers 4A, 4B, 4C-4N.
By C to 5N, it is developed into a dot image that can be read by human eyes, and the data is stored in the corresponding image buffer 6
Store in A, 6B, 6C to 6N. The output image selection control means 7 includes image buffers 6A, 6B, 6C to 6N.
The data is sequentially transferred to the print output control means 8 from the one whose image has been developed for one page and is printed out.

Thus, the plurality of computers 1A, 1B,
Since data processing from 1C to 1N is performed at the same time and the data input selection is automatic, a connector and a cord are not required, so that a printer having a large degree of freedom of installation location can be realized.

Although an example in which the receiving buffers (4A to 4N), the image developing processing means (5A to 5N), and the image buffers (6A to 6N) are independent of each other has been described above, the receiving buffers are not limited to this. By using the image development allocation control means between the image development processing means and allocating even one data input to the empty image development processing means, the same effect can be obtained and the object of the present invention can be achieved.

[0015]

As described above, the present invention has an effect that data from a plurality of computers can be simultaneously received and data can be processed simultaneously. In addition, since data input selection is also performed automatically, there is no need for connectors or cords, so there is an effect that the degree of freedom at the installation location is large.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1A to 1N computer 2 wireless multiplex transceiver 3 transmission / reception control means 4A to 4N reception buffer 5A to 5N image expansion processing means 6A to 6N image buffer 7 output image selection control means 8 print output control means 9 printer 10 transmission / reception device 11 input switch 12 wireless transceiver

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printer having a function of receiving a signal sent from a higher-level device, a function of converting the received signal into an image of characters and the like, and a function of printing the converted image on paper or the like. Wireless multiplex transceiver capable of simultaneously receiving signals from the host device, a plurality of receive buffers corresponding to the plurality of host devices, and a plurality of receive buffers for converting code data of the receive buffer into a visual dot pattern. Image development processing means of
A plurality of image buffers corresponding to the image development processing means for storing the converted dot pattern data, and an output image selection control means for selecting data to be printed out from the plurality of image buffers. Printer to do. 2. An image expansion allocation control means for allocating the code data from the higher-level device stored in the reception buffer to an image expansion processing means other than the corresponding image expansion processing means with a page break code as a boundary. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printer is a printer.