JPH06176141A - Data output device and data rotation method of data output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To speed up a data rotation processing without using a two-dimensional memory mechanism. CONSTITUTION:A rotation control part 2 reads data at every block from a data memory 7 and stores it in a work memory 5. Then, a data inversion table 6 is referred to and the respective bits of MSB-LSB are rearranged into LSB- MSB in a one byte unit with data of the work memory 5 as an object. Rearranged data of the work memory 5 are sequentially read in a lateral n-byte unit and they are written into the write address of a scan direction conversion mechanism 3 (in memory 9) in the one byte unit from backward. Data is read from the read address of the scan direction conversion mechanism 3 in the one byte unit and the data is stored in an output memory 4. Data of the output object is rotated in a 90 deg. unit by the above processing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is used for an output device (for example, a printer) of various information processing systems, and more particularly to a data output device and a data output device used when rotating data to be output. The present invention relates to a data rotation method of an output device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a printer has been used as an output device of an information processing system. This printer may rotate and output data. in this case,
Data rotation processing was performed by the following method.

A method of rotating data using a two-dimensional memory mechanism. This method is a method of rotating data by writing the data in the two-dimensional memory and reading the data from a direction different from the writing direction.

A method of rotating data by software processing. In this method, the data once written in the memory is read by software in 1-bit units, and when the read data is written in another memory, the bit position to be written is changed to rotate the data. Is.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above-mentioned conventional devices have the following problems. : In the method of performing the data rotation processing using the two-dimensional memory mechanism, the circuit scale becomes large. Therefore, the output device becomes large and the cost becomes high.

In the method of performing data rotation processing by software processing, since processing is performed in 1-bit units, the processing speed becomes slow. That is, the processing time of the data rotation processing becomes heavy.

It is an object of the present invention to solve such a conventional problem and to speed up data rotation processing without using a two-dimensional memory mechanism having a large circuit scale.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention, FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an output device, and FIG. 1B is a process diagram.

In FIG. 1, 1 is an output device, 2 is a rotation control unit,
3 is a scanning direction conversion mechanism, 4 is an output memory, 5 is a work memory, 6 is a data inversion table, 7 is a data memory, and 9 is a data memory.
Indicates a memory in the scanning direction conversion mechanism.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has the following configuration. (1), comprising an output memory 4 for storing output data,
A data output device that rotates data to be output and stores it in the output memory 4 and outputs the data from the output memory has an internal memory 9 and writes data to the memory 9. And a scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 for automatically converting the scanning direction (vertical / horizontal direction) at the time of reading, and for rearranging each bit of MSB to LSB of 1-byte unit data into LSB to MSB. A data reversal table 6 storing data, a work memory 5, a data reversal table, a scanning direction conversion mechanism, and a work memory are provided with a rotation control unit 2 for performing various controls during the rotation processing, and the rotation is performed. Under the control of the control unit 2, the data to be output can be rotated by 90 ° and output.

(2) In the data output device having the configuration (1): Data is read from the data to be output for each block and stored in the work memory 5. : Next, referring to the data inversion table 6, the data in the work memory 5 is targeted in 1-byte units, MSB to.
Reorder each bit of LSB into LSB to MSB.
: The data in the work memory 5 rearranged as described above is sequentially read in n (n: integer) byte units (horizontal 1-byte unit), and this data is read in 1-byte units from the back in the scanning direction. Write to the write address of the conversion mechanism 3. : Next, read from the read address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 in 1-byte units, and store this data in the output memory 4. The above processing is performed under the control of the rotation control unit (2), and the output target data is set to 90 °.
It was configured to rotate in units.

[0012]

The operation of the present invention based on the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. The rotation control unit 2 reads one block of data (data to be output) from the read address of the data memory 7 and writes it in the work memory 5.

Next, the rotation controller 2 refers to the data inversion table 6 to take out the data in the work memory 5 byte by byte, and rearranges each bit of MSB to LSB into LSB to MSB.

After that, the rotation control section 2 causes the horizontal n-byte data (a11, a12, ...
n) is read and sent to the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3. And
From the back of the memory 9 is written to the write address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 in 1-byte units (writing from the back in the vertical direction).

As described above, after all the data in the work memory 5 is written in the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3, the data is read byte by byte from the reading address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 (read in the horizontal direction). Stored in the output memory 4.

The above processing is performed on all the data to be output, and the data rotated by 90 ° is output to the output memory 4
To store. After that, the data in the output memory is output by printing or the like.

In this way, since the data rotation processing is performed in 1-byte units, high speed processing can be performed. Further, the scanning direction converting mechanism 3 is
The circuit scale can be small.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 2 to 10 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIGS. 2 to 10, the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. 1A is a printer, 7A is a character generator (hereinafter referred to as "CG") data memory, and 8 is a print control unit.

Description of Printer (Data Output Device)-See FIG. 2 This embodiment is an example in which the data output device is a printer, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the printer.

As shown in the figure, the printer 1A includes a rotation control unit 2, a scanning direction conversion mechanism 3, an output memory 4, a work memory 5, a data inversion table 6, and a CG data memory 7.
A, the print control unit 8 is provided, and the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 is provided.
The memory 9 is provided.

-1: The rotation control unit 2 performs various controls when performing rotation processing of output data, and is composed of firmware. -2: The scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 is a mechanism (hardware) that internally includes the memory 9 and automatically changes the scanning direction between the time of writing and the time of reading of the memory 9.

That is, the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 of this embodiment.
Is a mechanism set by hardware so that writing is performed in the vertical direction and reading is performed in the horizontal direction. -3: The output memory 4 is a memory for storing the output data after the rotation processing.

-4: The work memory 5 is the rotation controller 2
Is the memory used for work. -5: The data inversion table 6 is M of 1-byte data.
It is a table referred to when rearranging each bit of SB to LSB into LSB to MSB.

-6: CG data memory 7A is a CG
(Character Generator) A memory that stores data (character font data). -7: The print control unit 8 controls the printing. That is, by the control of the print control unit 8,
The data sent from the output memory 4 is sent to the printer engine section for printing.

Description of Data Inversion Table ... See FIG. 3 An example of the data inversion table 6 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, FIG. 3A shows the original data, and FIG. 3B shows the converted data. Note that in FIG. 3, the data is shown in binary and hexadecimal numbers.

The data inversion table 6 stores the 1-byte data (8 bits) MSB to LSB as LSB to MSB.
It is a data table for inverting. When performing the data inversion process using this table, if the converted data (FIG. 3B) corresponding to the corresponding original data (FIG. 3A) is read, it becomes the inversion data.

For example, the original data is "00000001"
If the converted data corresponding to this data is read, it becomes “10000000”. If the original data is “00000010”, if the converted data corresponding to this data is read, “01000”
000 ".

In this way, using the data inversion table, the MSB to LSB of 1-byte data (8 bits)
Can be inverted to LSB to MSB. : Description of Correspondence between Data to be Rotated and Front and Back Positions when Rotated Left 90 ° ... See FIG. 4 FIG. 4 shows a front and rear position correspondence diagram when rotated left 90 °. Figure 4
A shows the position before rotation, and FIG. 4B shows the position after rotation. The data shown in FIG. 4A is the CG data memory 7A.
(See FIG. 2), and the data in FIG. 4B is the data stored in the output memory 4 (see FIG. 2).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the order of division processing when a character of 48 × 48 dots is rotated 90 ° to the left and the position after the processing. The data amount of one rotation processing is
It is a data block of horizontal 3 bytes x vertical 1 byte.

For example, horizontal 3 bytes × vertical 1 shown in FIG. 4A.
When the byte data blocks A, B, ... L are each rotated 90 ° to the left, the positions are as shown in FIG. 4B. In the following explanation, the above 48 × 48 dot character is
A description will be given of the processing when vertically writing by rotating 90 ° to the left.

In this case, since the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 has a memory capable of converting 3 bytes × 8 = 24 bytes, the character is converted into each data block A, B, C ...
・ Divide into K and process. In the following description, the left 90 ° rotation processing of the data block A will be described, but other data blocks can be processed in the same manner.

Description of MSB to LSB rearrangement processing in 1-byte units at the time of 90 ° rotation to the left ... See FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of MSB to LSB rearrangement processing in 1-byte units. FIG. 5A shows a position before rearrangement, and FIG. 5B shows a position after rearrangement. The data in FIGS. 5A and 5B are
FIG. 5 is a detailed diagram of a data block A (3 bytes horizontally × 1 byte vertically) shown in FIG. 4.

In FIG. 5, A1 to A24 are 1-byte data before rearrangement, and a1 to a24 are 1-byte data after rearrangement. By the way, if the above data blocks A, B, C, ... K are rotated left 90 ° as they are, the arrangement of data must be the arrangement of MSB to LSB, and the arrangement of LSB to MSB will occur. That is, since the data is inverted in 1-byte units, the data is inverted in 1-byte units as shown in FIG.

As described above, 1 at the time of 90 ° counterclockwise rotation
When performing the MSB to LSB rearrangement processing in byte units, the CG data table 7 is controlled by the rotation control unit 2.
Read CG data from A in data block units,
The data is written in the work memory 5, and then the data is rearranged in the work memory 5 with reference to the data inversion table 6.

For example, the 1-byte data A1 in FIG. 5A is
MSs are lined up like "d7, d6, ... d0"
When B = d7 and LSB = d0, referring to the data inversion table in FIG. 3, the data after inversion is “d0, d1,
... d7 ", and as shown in FIG.
LSB is inverted.

After rearrangement, in the state of FIG. 5B,
The MSB is treated as the LSB, and the LSB is treated as the MSB (this is the structure of the memory). When other data are rearranged in the same manner, the rearranged data becomes as shown in FIG. 5B. The work memory 5 has
In addition to the data block A, other data blocks B, C, ... K are rearranged and stored.

: Description of Scanning Direction Conversion Process ... See FIGS. 6 and 7A. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the scanning direction conversion process. FIG. 6A is a schematic explanatory diagram of the scanning direction rewriting processing, and FIG. 6B is an explanatory diagram of the writing / reading order at the time of scanning direction conversion.

FIG. 7 shows an example of write / read address arrangement at the time of scanning direction conversion. 7A shows a write side address, and FIG. 7B shows a read side address. As shown in FIG. 6A, during the scanning direction conversion processing, the rearranged data (horizontal data in 1-byte units) shown in FIG. 5B is placed in the vertical direction, and this data is read out in the horizontal direction. The address at this time is as shown in FIG. 7A. Specifically, it is as follows.

-1: Description of Writing Data to Memory 9 of Scanning Direction Conversion Mechanism 3 The rearranged data shown in FIG. 5B is stored in the work memory 5. Therefore, the rotation control unit 2 reads the data (data in 1-byte units) from the work memory 5, sends the data to the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3, and writes the data in the write address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3.

In this case, the 3-byte data on the side of the work memory 5 (for example, 3 bytes of a1, a2, a3) is sequentially written from the rear of the memory 9 of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 in 1-byte units.

Then, the horizontal 3-byte data is sequentially read and written vertically in the memory 9 of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3. Specifically, it is as follows. -1-1: First, FIG. 5B (data in the work memory 5)
3 byte horizontal data (a1, a2, a3) of FIG.
From the left of (data of memory 9), it is written as vertical 3-byte data. In this case, a1 and a in 1-byte units
Writing from the back of the memory 9 in the order of 2 and a3.

The write address at this time is as shown in FIG. 7A. That is, when the addresses of the memory 9 for writing the above 3-byte data are N, N + 1, and N + 2, 1-byte data a3 is written to the address N, 1-byte data a2 is written to the address N + 1, and 1-byte data a3 is written to the address N + 2. write.

In this case, for example, 1-byte data a1,
a2 and a3 are "d0, d1, ... d7A", respectively.
5B, the left side is d0 in FIG. 5B.
The right side is d7.

When these 1-byte data are written in the memory 9, the 1-byte data a1, a2,
For a3, the lower side of the figure is d7 and the upper side is d0. -1-2: Next, FIG. 5B (data in the work memory 5)
3 byte horizontal data (a4, a5, a6) of FIG.
The data is written as the second vertical 3-byte data from the left of (memory 9 data). In this case, a4 in 1-byte units
Writing from the back of the memory 9 in the order of a5 and a6.

The write address at this time is as shown in FIG. 7A. That is, when the addresses of the memory 9 for writing the above 3-byte data are N + 3, N + 4, and N + 5, the 1-byte data a6 is written to the address N + 3, the 1-byte data a5 is written to the address N + 4, and the address N
Write 1-byte data a3 to +5.

Also in this case, the 1-byte data a4, a5,
When a6 are arranged in the horizontal direction in the order of "d0, d1, ... d7", the left side is d0 and the right side is d7 in FIG. 5B.

When these 1-byte data are written in the memory 9, as shown in FIG. 6, the 1-byte data a4, a5,
Regarding a6, the lower side of the figure is d7 and the upper side is d0. -1-3: The same processing is performed thereafter, and finally FIG.
Horizontal 3 byte data (a2 in the work memory 5)
2, a23, a24) in FIG. 6B (data in the memory 9).
The data is written as the eighth vertical 3-byte data from the left.

In this case, a22, a2 in 1-byte units
Writing from the back of the memory 9 in the order of 3 and a24. The write address at this time is as shown in FIG. 7A. That is, the memory 9 for writing the above 3-byte data
Address of N + 21, N + 22, N + 23,
The 1-byte data a24 is written to the address N + 21, the 1-byte data a23 is written to the address N + 22, and the 1-byte data a22 is written to the address N + 23.

Also in this case, the 1-byte data a22, a2
When 3 and a24 are arranged in the horizontal direction in the order of "d0, d1, ... d7", the left side is d0 and the right side is d7 in FIG. 5B.

When these 1-byte data are written in the memory 9, the 1-byte data a22 and a2 are written as shown in FIG.
3 and a24 are d7 on the lower side and d0 on the upper side, respectively.
Becomes

As described above, the data shown in FIG. 5B is read laterally by 3 bytes and these data are sequentially written in the memory 9 in the vertical direction. The arrangement shown in FIG. 6B is obtained by sequentially writing from the back in 1-byte units.

The above processing is performed for all the data blocks shown in FIG. 4A, and the data blocks are placed in the same positions as shown in FIG. 4B. -2: Explanation at the time of reading data When reading data, the data is sequentially read in the horizontal direction in the state of FIG. 6B. That is, "READ (1)" and "R" in the figure
EAD (2) ”,“ READ (3) ”...
Data is read in 1-byte units (1 byte in the horizontal direction), and this data is sequentially written in the output memory 4.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 6B, the memory address on the read side is M, M + 1, M + 2, M + 3.
... M + 23, and when this read side address is read from the address M in order of 24 bytes and arranged in the output memory in order, the position after rotation (9
It is a position rotated 0 ° left).

The direction of reading data from the memory 9 is determined by the structure of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3.
Similar to the data block A, the rotation processing is performed on all the other data blocks B, C, ...
When the character is arranged as shown in FIG.

Description of Data Rotation Processing Based on Flowchart ... See FIGS. 8 and 9 Data rotation processing flowcharts are shown in FIGS. The data rotation processing will be described below with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. In addition, S1-S12 of a figure show a process number.

S1: The rotation control section 2 judges whether or not the character rotation processing is completed, and if so, stops the processing. S2: The rotation control unit 2 sets the read address of the CG data memory 7A and the write address of the work memory 5.

S3: The rotation controller 2 reads one block of CG data (character data) from the read address of the CG data memory 7A and writes (stores) it in the work memory 5.

S4: The rotation control section 2 refers to the data inversion table 6 to take out the data (see FIG. 5A) in the work memory 5 byte by byte, MSB to L
The SB is replaced with the data rearranged into LSB to MSB (see FIG. 5B).

S5: The rotation controller 2 sets the address of the work memory 5 and the address of the memory 9 in the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3. S6: The rotation control unit 2 determines whether or not the processing for one block has been completed.

S7: If the processing in S6 is not completed,
The rotation control unit 2 reads the 3-byte data in the work memory 5 and sends it to the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3. And memory 9
Is written in bytes from the back to the write address (memory 9) of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3.

S8: After the processing of S7 is completed, the rotation control unit 2
Updates the address of the work memory 5 and the write address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism, and returns to the process of S6. S9: When the process of one block is completed in the process of S6, the rotation control unit 2 sets the read address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 and the write address of the output memory 4.

S10: After that, the rotation control unit 2 determines whether or not the processing for one block is completed. as a result,
If the processing has been completed, the process returns to S1. S11: If the processing is not completed in the processing of S10, 1 byte is read from the read address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 and stored in the output memory 4.

S12: After the processing of S11 is completed, the read address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 and the address of the output memory 4 are updated. The data rotation processing is performed by the above processing.

: Description of Specific Example of Data Rotation Processing--See FIG. 10 A specific example of data rotation processing is shown in FIG. Note that FIG.
Then, the state of the process is indicated by.

: This state is the state before the data rotation processing and is the state stored in the work memory 5. In this example, the data of the character "E" is shown. : This state shows a state in which MSB to LSB are rearranged into LSB to MSB in 1-byte units in the work memory 5.

In this state, one block of data is
The state is shown in which the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 is set (vertical writing) in order from the back in units of 3 bytes. : Indicates that the scanning direction conversion mechanism 3 sequentially reads data (horizontal reading).

: This state shows the data stored in the output memory 4. As shown in the figure, in the state of being stored in the output memory 4, the character “E” is in a state of being rotated 90 ° to the left.

(Other Embodiments) Although the embodiments have been described above, the present invention can be implemented as follows. : The rotation process is not limited to the left 90 ° rotation as in the above-described embodiment, but can be performed at any angle in 90 ° units.

For example, if the rotation is 180 ° to the left, 90 ° to the left.
The rotation processing may be performed twice, and if the rotation is 270 degrees left (same as 90 degrees right), the 90 degree left rotation processing may be performed three times. : The data to be rotated is not limited to character data, but can be applied to arbitrary data (image data or the like).

Data block (A, B, ... In FIG. 4)
・) Can be similarly applied to a size different from the above embodiment. The data output device is also applicable to devices other than printers, such as display devices.

[0071]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. : Compared to the two-dimensional memory mechanism, the scanning direction conversion mechanism
The circuit scale can be small. For example, in the data output device of the above embodiment, the number of gates can be reduced to half or less as compared with the conventional device using the two-dimensional memory mechanism, and the cost of the device can be reduced.

For the above reason, the device can be made smaller than the conventional device using the two-dimensional memory mechanism. : When data rotation processing is performed by software as in the conventional case, the processing speed is slow because processing is performed in 1-bit units. However, in the present invention, by effectively utilizing the two-dimensional memory mechanism, processing can be performed in byte units.
The data rotation processing can be speeded up.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of a data inversion table according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front-back position correspondence diagram at the time of leftward 90 ° rotation in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a 1-byte unit MSB in the embodiment of the present invention.
It is an explanatory view of LSB rearrangement processing.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of scanning direction conversion processing according to the embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 7 is a write / read address arrangement example at the time of scanning direction conversion in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a processing flowchart (1) of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a processing flowchart (No. 2) in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a specific example of data rotation processing in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 data output device 2 rotation control unit 3 scanning direction conversion mechanism 4 output memory 5 work memory 6 data inversion table 7 data memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An output memory (4) for storing output data
In a data output device for rotating data to be output, storing the data in the output memory (4), and outputting the data from the output memory, the data output device has an internal memory (9). In contrast to (9), the scanning direction (vertical / vertical /
Scanning direction conversion mechanism (3) that automatically converts lateral direction)
And each bit of MSB to LSB of 1-byte unit data,
Data inversion table (6) storing data for rearranging to LSB to MSB, work memory (5), the data inversion table, scanning direction conversion mechanism, work memory, and various controls during the rotation processing And a rotation control section (2) for performing the above, and by the control of the rotation control section (2), the data to be output can be rotated in 90 ° units and output. . 2. The data output device, wherein: Data is read from the data to be output for each block and stored in the work memory (5). : Next, referring to the data inversion table (6), the bits in the MSB to LSB are rearranged into LSB to MSB in 1-byte units for the data in the work memory (5). : The data of the work memory (5) rearranged as described above is sequentially read in n (n: integer) byte units (horizontal n byte units), and this data is read from the back.
The data is written in the write address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism (3) in 1-byte units. : Next, read from the read address of the scanning direction conversion mechanism (3) in 1-byte units, and store this data in the output memory (4). The above processing is performed under the control of the rotation control unit (2),
The data rotation method for a data output device according to claim 1, wherein the data to be output is rotated in units of 90 °.