JPH0584987A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To indicate the status of progress of a processing, the capacity/rate of idle memories, or a printable amount when data is transmitted to a printer from a host device to be printed. CONSTITUTION:Data received from a host machine 15 is accumulated in an input buffer of a RAM 11. At this time, bytes of the data are counted by a CPU 9 and held by a counter. The accumulated amount of the data is found by an input pointer and an output pointer of the input buffer in which the data is accumulated. A numeric value obtained by a calculation in the CPU 9 based on these values is indicated on an LCD display of a control panel 18 by an arbitrary unit.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal device, especially a printer, which receives data from a host device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when data is transferred from a host device to a printer for printing, if the amount of data to be transferred (file size) is large, it takes time to transfer and print. In such a case, the user has to wait until the transfer is completed and the host device is released or the printing is completed, and the user is concerned about how much the transfer is currently completed or how much is left.

[0003]

Some conventional applications of the host device display how much has been transferred or how much remains, but on the printer side the amount of data files sent is transferred. The processing time varies depending on the contents of the sent data, but there is a problem that this point is not taken into consideration in the conventional display. Further, in the conventional printers, the operator can know the memory capacity of the printers by printing the test sheets on a summary sheet or the like. However, it is not possible to know how many characters or how large an image can actually be printed even if the memory capacity is displayed as numbers, and how much memory is left during printing. There was also the problem that I didn't know if I was there. The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and when transferring data from a host device to a printer and printing,
It is an object of the present invention to realize a printer that displays until the end of transfer or printing, or displays the remaining printability after converting it into the number of characters or the size of an image.

[0004]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a printer is provided with either one or both of the following means. (1) When receiving and processing the data transferred from the host device, display the number of bytes of the received data, or in the input buffer that stores the received data, display the number of bytes of unprocessed data or free space in the input buffer. Display, maximum input buffer capacity
Display the percentage of unprocessed data or free space in the input buffer as 100%. When the data from the host machine is in the text mode, the delimiter between files is detected, and the amount and rate of one processed and unprocessed data. 4 types of display are possible, and one of them is selected and displayed.

(2) Using the means for calculating the remaining amount of internal memory of the printer, convert the number of characters or the size of the image that can be printed for the page to be printed or the page being printed. Then, the host device is notified or the remaining memory amount is displayed on the display means.

[0006]

Therefore, according to the present invention, the following effects are provided. (1) When data is transferred from the host device to the printer and printed, it is possible to know how much processing has progressed between the host device and the printer, and it is possible to predict the transfer / print processing time. (2) The free memory capacity can be easily understood by the number of characters and the size of the image, and efficient printing can be realized without wasteful printing. Also, the memory usage status can be grasped in real time.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows the overall construction of a printer controller according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a printer controller 1 includes a host interface 2, a cartridge interface 3, and an IC.
It comprises a card interface 4, a control panel interface 5, a data control unit 6, an address control unit 7, a timer 8, a CPU 9, a ROM 10, a RAM 11, a video control unit 12 and an engine interface 13. It is also possible to provide a plurality of host interfaces 2, cartridge interfaces 3 and IC interfaces 4, and the cartridge interfaces 3 and IC card interfaces 4 may be omitted if not necessary.
In this embodiment, it is assumed that four host interfaces 2 are provided, one cartridge interface 3 is provided, and one IC card interface 4 is provided. The CPU 9 is a general-purpose 16-bit or 32-bit processing device that controls the printer controller 1 as a whole. The ROM 10 is a program memory, which stores microcode for controlling the CPU 9 and is software for directly controlling hardware (a) host interface handler, (b) printer engine handler, (c) control panel handler. Further, (d) diagnostic program, (e) test program, and (f) service program are stored as software that can be commonly used regardless of the printer software. The printer software is stored in the IC card 17 and loaded into the RAM 11 when necessary, but standard printer software can be stored in the ROM 10 from the beginning. Also, fonts are installed in this ROM 10. The RAM 11 is a large-capacity memory mainly used for an input buffer, page buffer, video buffer, system memory, font file, backup buffer, vector file, macro file, image file and print spooler file. The host interface 2 can select a parallel interface, a serial interface, or a local area network (LAN) interface according to various host machines 15. The control panel interface 5 is a serial interface connected to the control panel 18. Timer 8 is a system timer, engine interface
It is also used for timeout control of 13 and host interface 2. The data control unit 6 is used when creating a video buffer based on the data in the page buffer on the RAM 11. Also, the address control unit 7 uses the direct memory access (DM) when creating video data in the video buffer based on the data in the page buffer.
A) The address, the video address for sequentially outputting the video data created in the video buffer in synchronization with the video clock (WCLK), and the refresh address counter for controlling the refresh of the RAM 11 are switched as necessary. Performs control for output. The video control unit 12 processes the video data created in the video buffer on the RAM 11 by the CPU processing unit (for example, 32 bits if 32 bits).
Printer engine unit by converting the parallel video data read out bit by bit to serial video data
Output to 14.

In the printer controller 1 having the above configuration, the data fetched from the host machine 15 via the host interface 2 is temporarily stored in the input buffer of the RAM 11. The data stored in these input buffers are taken out in the order in which they are stored and the printing process is performed.The input pointer of the input buffer that stores the data from the host machine 15, and
The effective amount of data accumulated in the input buffer can be known from the input buffer output pointer when the data is fetched from the input buffer. The input buffer is a buffer that is set and managed in a rotary manner, and when the input pointer reaches the end of the input buffer, the input pointer is updated to the free end of the input buffer after the processing is completed. The number of bytes of data received from the host machine 15 can be obtained by counting the number of data input to the input buffer from the host interface 2 (hereinafter, this will be referred to as an input data counter). The number of data in the input buffer is (a) number of data = input pointer-output pointer, and when the output pointer is larger than the input pointer, (b) number of data = input buffer capacity- (output pointer-input pointer) The following numerical values can be calculated based on this data number. (C) Unprocessed data in the input buffer = number of data, (d) empty capacity of input buffer = capacity of input buffer-number of data, (e) ratio of unprocessed data in input buffer =
Number of data / capacity of input buffer, (f) empty capacity ratio of input buffer = empty capacity of input buffer / capacity of input buffer. When inputting data from the host interface 2 to the input buffer, check the end-off file (EOF) code and check this EOF
If the code separates one data file (job) transferred to the printer by the host machine, the size of the data file received by the printer can be known from the input data counter value until the EOF code is detected. From this data file size and the number of unprocessed data in the input buffer, the amount and rate of unprocessed data for one data file can be obtained. (G) Processed data amount for file size = input data counter-unprocessed data in input buffer, (H) Processed data rate for file size = processed data amount for file size / input data counter, (R) not processed for file size Processed data amount = input data counter Processed data amount for file size, (n) Unprocessed data rate for file size = Unprocessed data amount for file size / input data counter. Next, the means for displaying the numerical values obtained above will be described. FIG. 2 is an example of an external view of the control panel 18 of FIG. The obtained numerical value is displayed on the liquid crystal display (LCD) display of the control panel 18 in arbitrary units. The timing for outputting the numerical value which changes according to the host data reception and data processing to the control panel 18 is when the host data is received. The host interrupt process or the timer interrupt by the timer 8 (FIG. 1) can be considered. As described above,
The first embodiment is realized by displaying the numerical values of (A) to (N). In this case, the larger the capacity of the input buffer, the greater the effect. However, the larger the input buffer, the smaller the memory capacity required for others, so the memory needs to be expanded. Therefore, it is conceivable to use a large-capacity and relatively inexpensive medium of a hard disk drive (HDD) as a method of expanding the memory at a low cost.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of a printer controller according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a laser printer is shown. In FIG. 3, a laser printer 20 is a printer controller 21.
And a printer engine 30. The printer controller 21 includes a CPU 22, a program ROM 23, a font RO
M24, RAM25, host interface 26, operation panel
28 and an engine interface 29, the print data from the host machine 27 is converted into video data and output to the printer engine 30 according to the control mode set at that time and the control code from the host machine 27. The RAM 25 is a work memory used when the CPU 22 performs processing, an input buffer for fetching data from the host machine 27, and a page buffer for temporarily storing data from the input buffer as page layout information (relationship between print data and print area). , An image buffer for temporarily storing images, a video buffer for expanding the contents of the image buffer and the font ROM 24 according to the contents of the page buffer, a user area used by the user for downloading fonts, and the like. Print data and print control data are sent from the host machine 27 through the host interface 26, and the printer controller 21
Various statuses (status information) are sent to the host machine 27. The engine interface 29 also sends a video signal and a control signal from the printer controller 21 to the printer engine 30, and sends a status signal from the printer engine 30 to the printer controller 21. The printer engine 30 forms an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor by a video signal and a control signal from the controller, develops the electrostatic latent image, feeds a transfer sheet from a sheet feeding unit, and transfers and fixes the image to form an image. The operation panel 28 is composed of a display section showing the status of the printer and a switch section for switching various modes and fonts of the printer. The memory is normally used in the printer controller 21 as follows. Printer controller for work memory, input buffer and video buffer
A fixed size is secured when the power of 21 is turned on. However, if the video buffer is reserved for printing one page depending on the capacity of RAM 25 and the print mode (full bit map mode),
The size is different when printing pages separately (partial bitmap mode). These are never released. A fixed size area is secured in the page buffer when a print command is sent from the host machine 27, and another area of the same size is secured when the page buffer is full by the print command. The page buffers thus created are linked by internal link information. When the page buffer for one page is created, the contents of the page buffer are expanded in the video buffer, and when the expansion is completed and printing of the page is completed, the memory area of the page buffer is released. The image buffer is secured when an image print request is made, and is released when printing is completed. Further, the user memory is secured when a font load request is made and is held until an erase request or the power is turned off. The usage status of these memories is managed by a memory management program (hereinafter referred to as a memory manager). The memory manager manages the free area of the memory, and efficiently secures areas such as a page buffer and an image buffer and releases unnecessary areas. Therefore, the remaining amount of the memory can be known based on the data in the free area managed by the memory manager.

FIG. 4 shows a flow of operations in the second embodiment. First, the host machine 27 asks the printer controller 21 how many characters can be printed in advance between the host machine 27 and the printer, and how large an image can be printed.
Memory status request). When a memory status request is sent from the host machine 27 (S ₂₁ ),
The printer controller 21 reads out the amount of free memory memory manager manages (S _22). It is judged whether the memory status request is the number of characters or the image (S ₂₃ ). If the number of characters is the request, the number of characters is converted (S ₂₄ ). S
₂₅ ), the value calculated by each process is stored in the host machine 27
Return to. In the character number conversion process, the number of page buffers that can be secured is calculated from the free space of the memory and is multiplied by the number of characters that can be stored in one page buffer to calculate the request value. In the large image conversion process, a value (X) that represents the currently set print effective area width in the main scanning direction in bytes and a value that divides the remaining capacity by X (Y ... number of lines in the sub scanning direction) are calculated. To do. In this way, the host machine 27 can always obtain the necessary information for the printer. On the other hand, it is not known how much memory is consumed while data is being transferred from the host machine 27. Therefore, in the internal processing of the printer controller 21, an interrupt is generated in the CPU 22 at a fixed time which is an internal timer (not shown), and in the interrupt processing, processing for displaying the free space of the memory managed by the memory manager is performed. This makes it possible to know the current memory consumption in almost real time. FIG. 5 shows an example of the operation panel 28 for displaying the amount of consumed memory or the remaining amount of memory.

[0011]

The present invention has the following effects as is apparent from the first and second embodiments. (1) When transferring and printing data from the host machine to the print, it is possible to know how much processing has progressed between the host machine and the printer, and it is possible to predict the transfer / print processing time. Therefore, the waiting time for printing can be effectively used,
There is a psychological margin. (2) The free space of the memory in the printer controller can be easily understood by the number of characters and the size of the image, and efficient printing can be realized without wasteful printing. In addition, the usage status of the memory can be grasped in real time, and a guideline for data transfer can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printer controller according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the control panel of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a printer controller according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart in the second embodiment of the present invention.

5 is an external view of the operation panel of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 21 ... Printer controller, 2, 26 ... Host interface, 3 ... Cartridge interface, 4
... IC card interface, 5 ... Control panel interface, 6 ... Data control section, 7 ... Address control section, 8 ... Timer, 9, 22 ... CPU, 10 ... R
OM, 11, 25 ... RAM, 12 ... Video control unit, 13,
29 ... Engine interface, 14 ... Printer engine unit, 15, 27 ... Host machine, 16 ... Memory cartridge, 17 ... IC card, 18 ... Control panel, 20 ... Laser printer, 23 ... Program ROM,
24 ... Font ROM, 28 ... Operation panel, 30 ... Printer engine.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. When the printer receives and processes the data transferred from the host machine, it displays the number of bytes of the received data, or the unprocessed data or free space in the input buffer in the input buffer for accumulating the received data. It is possible to display the number of bytes, display the percentage of unprocessed data or free space in the input buffer when the maximum capacity of the input buffer is 100%, and set two modes in which data from the host machine can be treated as binary data or text data. In the mode, the end-of-file (EOF) code can be used to detect the separation of files and files, and it is possible to display four types of data, the amount of processed data and the ratio of unprocessed data for one file. Characterized by selecting and displaying one of them Printer that. 2. A printer is provided with means for calculating the remaining amount of internal memory, and the means for calculating the remaining amount of memory determines how much more printing is possible for a page to be printed or a page being printed. A printer characterized by converting it to the number of characters and notifying the host machine. 3. A printer is provided with means for calculating the remaining amount of internal memory, and by the means for calculating the remaining amount of the memory, how much more can be printed for a page to be printed or a page being printed. A printer characterized by converting to the size of an image and notifying the host machine. 4. The printer according to claim 2, wherein the remaining amount of the memory obtained by the means for calculating the remaining amount of the memory is sequentially displayed on the display means.