JPH06149498A - Page printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform data processing by plural high order devices simultaneously to obtain one print result and to improve the print data processing speed by enabling one page printer to receive print data from plural high order devices at the same time and synthesizing those received data in one page memory. CONSTITUTION:Print data from a high order device 3A after being read in a print data control part 5 through a data input circuit part A1 are written in the page memory 6. Print data from a high order device B4, on the other hand, are read in the print data control part 5 through a data input circuit part B2, thereafter, written in the page memory 6. A paint data output circuit 7 outputs the data in the page memory 6 to a printing mechanism part in response to printing start codes from the high order devices A3 and B4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a page printer,
In particular, it relates to a data reception method of a higher-level interface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional page printer has a plurality of upper interface connection connectors, a plurality of data input circuit sections corresponding to the plurality of upper interface interfaces, and read received data from these data input circuit sections into print data. It has a print data control unit for conversion and a page memory in which print data is written by the print data control unit.

Next, the operation of this conventional example will be described. When data is received from one of a plurality of upper interfaces, the data input circuit section corresponding to the upper interface notifies the print data control section of data reception. The print data control unit that has received the notification outputs the reception disable signal to the other data input circuit unit. Then, the data input circuit unit that has received the reception disable signal issues the reception disable signal to the upper interface.

By this operation, the page printer is exclusively used by the host device that first issued the print data. In this state, all received data is printed out, and for a certain period of time,
It continues until data reception stops. After that, when data reception is interrupted for a certain period of time, the print data control unit releases the reception disable signal to each data input circuit unit and enters a data reception waiting state.

[0005]

In this conventional page printer, even though a plurality of upper interfaces can be connected at the same time, when data is received from one upper device, all other upper interfaces are in the unreceivable state. Since the upper device that first outputs the data occupies the page printer, even if multiple upper interfaces can be connected simultaneously, one unit of print data generation processing can be performed by only one upper device. However, there is a problem in that the other higher-level devices have to wait for output of print data.

[0006]

A page printer according to the present invention includes a plurality of data input circuit sections corresponding to a plurality of host interfaces capable of simultaneously connecting a plurality of host apparatuses and data received from the data input circuit section. A print data control unit for reading and converting the print data into print data, one page memory into which the print data from the print data control unit is written, and print data for transmitting the print data on the page memory to the print mechanism unit. And an output circuit.

When the print data control unit receives a data reception notification from each of the data input circuit units, if the received data read from the data input circuit unit is character data, it is expanded into dot matrix print data. And control the writing to the page memory, and the print data output unit outputs from the print data control unit when the print data for each one page from the plurality of higher-level devices is all written to the page memory. According to the output start notification, all the data on the page memory is read and transmitted to the printing mechanism unit.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a page printer of the present invention.

In this embodiment, two host devices A3 and B4 are used.
On the other hand, each has a host interface, and the received data from these host devices A3 and B4 are input to the data input circuit units A1 and B2, respectively. Host device A
The operation of this embodiment when print data is output from B3 and B4 almost simultaneously will be described.

First, when print data is input from the host device A3 to the data input circuit unit A1, the data input circuit unit A1
1 enables the busy signal a to the host device A3 and disables data transmission of the host device A3. Subsequently, the data input circuit unit A1 notifies the print data control unit 5 of the data reception notification a
When the data is output, the print data control unit 5 reads the print data from the data input circuit unit A1, and if the data is character data, expands it into dot matrix print data and writes it in the page memory 6.

After that, the print data control section 5 outputs a reception enable notification a to the data input circuit section A1, and when the data input circuit section A1 receives this reception enable notification a, the busy signal a is invalidated and the upper level device A3 of the upper level apparatus A3. Enables print data output.

Similarly, when print data is input from the upper device B4 to the data input circuit unit B2, the data input circuit unit B2 makes the busy signal b to the upper device B4 valid and disables the data transmission of the upper device B4. . Subsequently, when the data input circuit unit B2 outputs the data reception notification b to the print data control unit 5, the print data control unit 5 reads the print data from the data input circuit unit B2, and if the data is character data, it is in a dot matrix form. And is written in the page memory 7.

After that, the print data control unit 5 outputs a reception enable notification b to the data input circuit unit B2, and when the data input circuit unit B2 receives this reception enable notification b, the busy signal b is invalidated and the higher level device B4 of the upper device B4. Enables print data output.

By repeating the above operation procedure, the host device A
3 or the print data from the higher-level device B4 is simultaneously developed on the page memory 6 or 7.

When all the print data for one page from the host device A3 is expanded on the page memory 6,
The print data control unit 5 receives the print start code from the higher-level device A3, outputs the reception enable notification a to the data input circuit unit A1, and stops the transmission of print data from the higher-level device A3. When all the print data for one page from the host device A3 is expanded on the page memory 6, the host device A3
3 outputs a print start code.

The print start code is also output from the higher-level device B4 by the same procedure. The print data control unit 5 is a higher-level device A.
When the print start codes from B3 and B4 are received, an output start notification is output to the print data output circuit 7. When the print data output circuit 7 receives this output start notification, it reads all the data on the page memory 6 (print data for each page from the higher-level devices A3 and B4) and sends it to the printing mechanism section.

It should be noted that although the present embodiment has been described assuming that there are two host devices, the present invention can also be applied to the case where there are three or more host devices.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of data input circuit sections corresponding to a plurality of upper interfaces and print data from the plurality of data input circuit sections are combined on one page memory. As a result, a plurality of host devices can input print data to one page printer, so that complicated processing that takes time can be processed in parallel by a plurality of host devices, and the print data processing speed can be increased. Has the effect of improving.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Data Input Circuit Unit A 2 Data Input Circuit Unit B 3 Upper Device A 4 Upper Device B 5 Print Data Control Unit 6 Page Memory 7 Print Data Output Circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of data input circuit units corresponding to a plurality of host interfaces capable of simultaneously connecting a plurality of host devices, and a print data control unit for reading received data from the data input circuit unit and converting the received data into print data. And a page memory to which the print data from the print data control unit is written, and a print data output circuit for transmitting the print data on the page memory to a print mechanism unit. . 2. When the print data control unit receives a data reception notification from each of the data input circuit units and the received data read from the data input circuit unit is character data, it is expanded into dot matrix print data. 2. The page printer according to claim 1, wherein write control to the page memory is performed. 3. The print data output unit is configured to output the page in response to an output start notification output from the print data control unit when print data for each one page from the plurality of upper level devices is written in the page memory. 3. The page printer according to claim 1, wherein all the data on the memory is read and transmitted to the printing mechanism unit.