JPH0561617A - Printing control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the efficiency of a machine by making it possible to simultaneously receive signals from plural receiving interfaces and quickly release a host computer. CONSTITUTION:A receiving buffer 7 stores receiving data received from interfaces 2a to 2d. At the time of receiving data from another interface in the printing processing state of data received by the buffer 7, a receiving data saving buffer 8 stores the data of the interface in order to execute temporary saving. At the time of receiving data from another interface in the printing processing state of data received from the first interface by using the buffer 7, a data reception control part 6 stores the data received afterward in the buffer 8, and at the time of completing the printing processing of the initial data, transfers the receiving data received from the succeeding interface and stored in the buffer 8 to the buffer 7 to execute its printing processing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control system, and more particularly to a print control system used as an output device in an information processing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of printing control system cannot receive data from a plurality of receiving interfaces at the same time.
When using a plurality of receiving interfaces, the other receiving interfaces are used after waiting for the printing output of the data received from one receiving interface to be completed.

Further, when reception is started by one receiving interface, the receiving interface is preferentially used, and other receiving interfaces cannot be used for a certain period of time.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional print control method, since it is not possible to receive from a plurality of receiving interfaces at the same time, the host computer using the waiting receiving interface must send the data. However, it has a drawback that it takes time to release the machine and the machine efficiency is lowered.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a print control system capable of simultaneously receiving from a plurality of receiving interfaces, releasing the host computer in a short time, and improving the machine efficiency.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control system, wherein a print control system is connected to an interface of a plurality of host devices and prints out data received from the interfaces of the plurality of host devices. A) a receive buffer for storing received data from the interface,
(B) When the reception buffer receives data from the first interface of the interfaces and prints the data and further receives data from the second interface which is another interface, the second buffer A received data save buffer for temporarily storing the data of the interface of (1), (C) a state of storing the data received from the interface in the receive buffer, receiving the data from the first interface, and performing a printing process When the data is received from the second interface, the data received from the second interface is stored in the received data save buffer, and when the print processing of the data from the first interface is completed,
A data reception control unit that transfers the received data from the second interface stored in the received data save buffer to the receive buffer and prints the received data is configured.

The printing control method of the second invention is the first
In the print control method of the invention described above, when storing the data received from the interface in the received data saving buffer, means for adding identification information indicating the order of receiving from the interface to the header part of the received data saving buffer; And means for controlling the order of print output of data from each of the interfaces based on the identification information.

The printing control method of the third invention is the first
And in the second print control method, the end of the output of the data received from the first interface is judged by a job end command from the higher-level device, and the print output of the data received by the second interface is started. It is configured to include means for doing.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

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

In the print control system of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a receiving buffer 7 for storing received data from a plurality of interfaces 2a to 2d, and the receiving buffer 7 receives data from one of the interfaces 2a to 2d. When data is received from another interface while it is being received and printed, the received data save buffer 8 stores the data of the subsequent interface for temporary saving, and the data received from the interface is received in the receive buffer 7. When data is received from the subsequent interface in a state of storing and receiving data from the previous interface and performing print processing, the data received from the subsequent interface is stored in the reception data save buffer 8,
When the print processing of the data from the first interface is completed, the data reception control unit 6 that transfers the received data from the second interface stored in the received data save buffer to the receive buffer and prints the data, If the control unit 6 is inquired about the presence or absence of data, and if the data is in the reception buffer 7, the data is printed out, and if a job end command from the host computer is detected during printout, the reception of data from the interface ends The print control unit 5 notifies the data reception control unit 6 to the effect.

Next, the operation will be described.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the internal management of the received data save buffer 8 of this embodiment.

3 and 4 are flow charts showing an example of the operation when the data reception control unit 6 of the present embodiment receives data.

In FIG. 1, first, the data reception control unit 6
When receiving data, the interface registration unit 16 in the receiving buffer 7 checks whether or not the receiving buffer 7 was in a state of being used for storing the data received from the interface before that (step 21). Then, in the unused state, the interface from which the received data is sent is registered in the interface registration unit 16 (step 32), and the data is stored in the reception buffer 7 (step 33).

When another interface is already using the receive buffer and the receive buffer 7 is in use, the receive data is not stored in the receive buffer 7,
Save to the received data save buffer 8 (step 2
2). At this time, the header section 17 of the received data saving buffer 8 checks whether or not the previous information of the interface that has transmitted the received data is already stored in the received data saving buffer 8 (step 23). Then, if there is the received interface information, the queue information in the header section 17 shown in FIG. 2 is checked. Since the queue information includes the block numbers of the plurality of data storage blocks 18a to 18j in which data is stored,
Data is stored in the block (step 27).

The data storage blocks 18a-18j
Is composed of a queue pointing to the next block and an area for storing data. Then, when the received data does not fit in the block, the data is stored in another empty block, so the queue is updated to point to the empty block number. Further, while the data is being stored, the area of the queue stores the number of the block itself.

If the received interface data does not exist in the received data save buffer 8 as determined in step 23, the newly received interface is registered in the received data save buffer 8. Therefore,
Data storage block 18 in the received data save buffer 8
A vacant data storage block in a to 18j is searched (step 24). Further, an area that is in an empty state is sequentially searched from the beginning of the header section 17 of the received data save buffer 8 and a block number is set in the empty area of the header section 17 (step 2
5). Then, the block number of the empty block itself is set in the block queue of the empty block (step 26). By doing this, the empty block is changed from the empty state to the used state (when the block queue is "00", the empty block is in the empty state). Then, the received data can be stored in the data storage block (step 27).

In this way, the received data is stored in the data storage block, and it is determined whether or not the data storage block is filled with the received data (step 2).
8) When the data storage block is filled with received data, another empty data storage block is searched (step 29), and the block queue is rewritten to point to the block number of the empty block (step 30). In FIG. 2, the dotted line connecting the data storage blocks is
A state in which each data storage block is connected by a queue is shown. Then, when the block queue of the empty block is pointed to the number of the empty block itself, it indicates that it is the final block (step 31).

When the data reception control unit 6 receives the job end command from the print control unit 5, the data reception control unit 6 determines the end of the output of the data received from the preceding interface, and clears the interface registration unit 16 of the reception buffer 7. Then, the reception buffer 7 is set to the unused state. And
The header section 17 of the received data save buffer 8 is checked from the beginning to see if there is an area pointing to the received data storage block, and there is data received from another interface, which points to the received data storage block. If there is an area, the interface number is registered in the interface registration unit 16 of the reception buffer 7, the data in the block connected by the queue is transferred to the reception buffer 7, and the print output of the transferred data is sent to the print control unit 5. Let it start. Then, after the transfer, the queue in each reception data storage block is cleared. In addition, the information of the data received by the other interface stored in the header section 17 is reset so as to be sequentially packed from the beginning.

As described above, the reception data save buffer 8 is provided to store the subsequently received data in the temporary reception data save buffer 8.
To the plurality of receiving interfaces 2a to 2 by performing the printing process by taking out the received data from the received data saving buffer 8 after the printing process of the previously received data is completed.
Data can be received simultaneously from d, the host computer can be released in a short time, and the machine efficiency can be improved.

In the above description, when the data received from the interface is stored in the received data save buffer 8, a means for adding identification information indicating the order of receiving from the interface to the header section 17 of the received data save buffer 8 is provided. It is also possible to configure the system by providing means for controlling the order of print output of data from each interface based on the identification information.

[0023]

As described above, according to the print control method of the present invention, the reception data save buffer is provided to save the subsequently received data in the temporary received data save buffer, and the print processing of the previously received data is completed. Later, by taking out from the received data save buffer and performing print processing, it is possible to receive from multiple receiving interfaces at the same time, it takes less time to release the host computer, and machine efficiency can be improved. have.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a print control system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing internal management of a received data save buffer 8 of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation when the data reception control unit 6 of the present embodiment receives data together with FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation when the data reception control unit 6 of the present embodiment receives data together with FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2a to 2d interface 5 print control unit 6 data reception control unit 7 reception buffer 8 reception data save buffer 16 interface registration unit 17 header unit 18 data storage block

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A print control system, which is connected to interfaces of a plurality of host devices and prints out data received from the interfaces of the plurality of host devices, comprising: (A) a reception buffer for storing data received from the interfaces; (B) When the reception buffer receives data from the first interface of the interfaces and prints the data and further receives data from the second interface which is another interface, the second buffer A received data save buffer for temporarily storing the data of the interface of (1), (C) a state of storing the data received from the interface in the receive buffer, receiving the data from the first interface and performing a printing process Then, when the data is received from the second interface, The data received from the second interface is stored in the received data save buffer, and when the printing process of the data from the first interface is completed, the data received from the second interface stored in the receive data save buffer is received. A print control method comprising: a data reception control unit that transfers data to the reception buffer and prints the data. 2. The print control method according to claim 1,
Means for adding identification information indicating the order of reception from the interface to the header part of the received data saving buffer when storing the data received from the interface in the received data saving buffer; and each interface based on the identification information. And a means for controlling the order of print output of data from the print control method. 3. The print control method according to claim 1, wherein the end of the output of the data received from the first interface is judged by a job end command from the host device, and the second end is output. A print control method comprising means for starting print output of data received by the interface.