JPH06301553A - Output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decide the priority by the output quantity, and to execute in order from a request whose priority is high without issuing an interruption request, in the case an output processing of a large quantity of data is being executed. CONSTITUTION:Whether an interruption is appropriate or not with respect to an output request is decided (S5), whether an interruption processing is executed by the data quantity whose output is requested or not is decided (S6), and in the case the interruption output processing is executed, the output which is being executed is suspended (S7), the output by an interruption is executed preferentially (S7-S10), and the suspended output is restarted (S11-S12).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an output device used for efficient use of an output function for sharing a printer due to the spread of a network such as a LAN.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional output device outputs data by either executing requests in the order in which they are issued or performing interrupt processing by prioritizing the processing. is there. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-6
Japanese Patent No. 5721 discloses a detection means for detecting an output request by an interrupt, a storage means for storing input data for output by an interrupt, and interrupting an output being executed when a request for output by an interrupt is detected during output. Then, the technology of the print server is disclosed, which has restarting means for restarting the interrupted output after preferentially processing the output by the interrupt.

[0003]

In the conventional output device,
When a large amount of data output processing is being executed, there is a drawback in that output cannot be performed until the output being executed ends unless a special interrupt request is issued.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and this mechanism does not issue a special interrupt request from the request side when a large amount of data output processing is being executed. It is an object of the present invention to obtain an output device that can determine the priority based on the output amount and can execute requests in descending order of priority.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and interrupt processing is performed depending on the remaining output data amount of data during output processing or the data amount requested to be output. And a determination means for determining whether or not to perform, and when the interrupt processing is performed as a result of the determination, the output being executed is interrupted, the output by the interrupt is preferentially executed, and the interrupted output is restarted. Equipped with execution means.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the determination means interrupts the normal data output request when the output remaining data amount of the data being output is large or when the output requested data amount is small. Determine the need for processing. Therefore,
When a large amount of data output processing has been executed, it is possible to determine the priority based on the data amount without issuing a special interrupt request from the request example, and execute the output processing in order from the request with the highest priority.

[0007]

【Example】

Example 1. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment according to the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a resource sharing system by LAN including a terminal or a terminal with an output mechanism having a CPU function.

In FIG. 1, 1, 2 and 11 are terminals, and 3 is C.
A terminal with an output mechanism having a PU function, 4 is a printer connected to the terminal 3 with an output mechanism having a CPU function,
5 is a LAN.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a terminal 3 with an output mechanism having a CPU function which constitutes the shared resource system of the present embodiment. In the figure, 6 is a program stored in the ROM 11 (for example, a figure described later). 3 and the program of FIG. 5), a CPU for controlling the terminal with an output mechanism, 7 for controlling data input / output of the LAN and the terminal with an output mechanism.
/ O port, 8 is a printer I / O port for controlling output data from a terminal with an output mechanism to a printer, 9 is a buffer A for temporarily storing output data when executing interrupt output, and 10 is a normal output The buffers B and 12 for storing output request data when executing is a storage unit that stores information as to whether or not interrupt output is permitted.

FIG. 3 is an example of a flowchart of a program used when information is stored in the storage unit 12 shown in FIG. This program sets whether or not to permit interrupt processing to a terminal with an output mechanism having a CPU function. First, in step S1, it is determined whether or not the sound that activates this program is made by a person who has the privilege of system management. This determination is made, for example, by checking the terminal ID that started the program and inputting a password. If the person has the privilege, the interrupt permission mode is input in step S2. The input interrupt enable mode is determined, and if the mode is the mode that allows the interrupt, in step S3, the threshold value of the remaining output data amount of the data being output for the determination when the interrupt is performed is input. . Then, the interrupt permission mode threshold value is stored in the storage unit 12 shown in FIG. 2 as the interrupt permission information. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the interrupt permission information. In FIG. 4, the interrupt permission mode shows a mode of permitting, and the output remaining data amount threshold value shows a value of 10. It should be noted that if it is determined in step S1 and step S2 that information need not be stored, the process ends.

Next, a control procedure of a terminal with an output mechanism having a CPU function as a component of the resource sharing system of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the terminal 3 with the output mechanism has already set the interrupt permission information shown in FIG. 4 by the program shown in FIG. 3 after the resource sharing system by the LAN is started up.

LAN I / O for the terminal 3 with an output mechanism
When an output request is issued through the port, step S4
Then, the CPU determines whether or not there is a job whose output is currently being executed. If there is no job in execution of output, the output request data is stored in the normal output data storage buffer B in step S9. If there is a job in execution of output, the interrupt output permission mode is stored in step S5. Judge from the interrupt permission information of the copy. If interrupt output is not permitted, in step S13, an error response is returned to the terminal that issued the data output request,
It returns to step S4.

When the interrupt output is permitted, in step S6, the threshold value relating to the output residual data amount stored in the storage portion and the output residual data amount relating to the data currently being output are compared and judged. As a result of the determination in step S6, if the threshold value regarding the remaining output data amount is larger than the remaining output data amount, the interrupt output request is not issued, and an error is issued to the terminal that issued the data output request in step S13. A response is returned, and the process returns to step 4.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the remaining output data amount threshold value is 10 and the remaining output data amount of the data currently being output is 7 pages, the interrupt output request is not issued. . On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S6,
If the output remaining data amount is larger than the threshold value related to the output remaining data amount, the output process is interrupted when the process of the page currently being output is completed in step S7. For example, when the output remaining data amount threshold value is 10 and the output remaining data amount being output is 13 pages, the output process is interrupted when the output process of the page currently being output is finished.

When the output process is interrupted, the remaining output data is stored in the temporary storage buffer A in step S8.
Further, the output request data is stored in the normal output data storage buffer B in step S9, and the normal output is executed from the buffer B in step S10. When the output from the buffer B is completed, it is determined in step S11 whether or not there is information in the buffer A. If it is present, the output is executed from the buffer A in step S12, and the process returns to step S4 to request the output. It will be in a waiting state.

For example, as described above, when the output process is interrupted when the remaining output data amount of the data currently being output is 13 pages, the data of 13 pages remains in the buffer A. , The remaining data is output from the buffer A. If there is no information in the buffer A in step S11, the process directly returns to step S4.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
When a terminal with an output mechanism having a CPU function, which constitutes a resource sharing system by LAN, receives another output request while executing a data output process from a terminal connected to the LAN, the request Even if no special interrupt output request information is added to, it is determined whether or not to perform interrupt output automatically depending on the remaining output amount of the information currently being output, and if necessary, the current output It is possible to temporarily suspend the output, output the information for which the interrupt output request is generated, and then restart the suspended output.

Example 2. In the above-described first embodiment, the case has been described in which it is determined whether or not the interrupt processing is automatically performed according to the size of the remaining output amount of the information currently being output. However, the determination is made based on the remaining amount of the currently outputting data. Instead, it may be determined whether or not to perform the interrupt processing depending on the size of the data amount requested to be output. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of interrupt permission information in the case of determining whether or not to perform an interrupt process according to the output request data amount. In this figure, 2 is set as the output request data amount threshold value. When such interrupt permission information is set in the storage unit FIG. 12, when a new output request is received, and when the new output request has a data amount of two pages or less, interrupt processing is performed. To judge. On the other hand, when the data amount of the output request is 3 pages or more, the interrupting process is not performed and the currently output data is continuously output. As described above, according to this embodiment, whether or not to perform the interrupt output is automatically determined according to the size of the data amount of the newly received output request.

Example 3. In the above-described first embodiment, the case where the determination is performed based on the size of the remaining output amount of the data being output is shown, and in the above-described second embodiment, the determination is performed based on the size of the output-requested data amount. Alternatively, the determination may be performed using both of them. FIG. 7 shows a case where the output remaining data amount threshold value is 10 and the output request data amount threshold value is 5 as the interrupt permission information. When the threshold value is set in this way, interrupt processing is performed only when the remaining output amount of data currently being output is 10 pages or more and the data amount of a new output request is 5 pages or less. To determine. Alternatively, the interrupt output may be determined when either the remaining output data amount is 10 pages or more, or the output request data amount is 5 pages or less, whichever is satisfied.

Example 4. In the above embodiment, the case where the interrupt output is determined based on the size of the remaining output amount of the data being output and / or the size of the data requested to be output has been described. It is also possible to determine the interrupt processing by using the relative relationship between the output-requested data amount. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which the threshold value α of the difference between the output remaining data amount and the output request data amount is set to 3 as the interrupt permission information. When the output remaining data amount is larger than the output request amount data amount + α, it is determined to perform the interrupt output process. On the other hand, when the remaining output data amount is less than or equal to the output request data amount + α, the process currently being output is continued. Set the value of threshold α to 0
In the case of, the output remaining data amount is simply compared with the output request data amount, and if the output remaining data amount is larger than the output request data, the interrupt process is performed. Further, if the threshold value α is set to a large value, it means that the currently output data is preferentially continued to be output. On the other hand, if the value of the threshold value α is set to a negative value, the output of the data requested to be output is prioritized. As described above, in this embodiment, whether or not the interrupt processing is performed is determined by using the relative difference between the remaining output data amount and the output request data amount.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a large amount of data is output, priority is automatically set according to the amount of data without issuing a special interrupt output request. It is possible to make a judgment and execute the requests in descending order of priority.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a LAN-based resource sharing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of a terminal with an output mechanism having a CPU function according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a program used to store information for determination regarding execution of interrupt output.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of interrupt permission information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the terminal with an output mechanism having the CPU function shown in the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of interrupt permission information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of interrupt permission information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of interrupt permission information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 terminal 2 terminal 3 terminal with output mechanism having CPU function 4 printer 5 LAN 6 CPU 7 LAN I / O port 8 printer I / O port 9 output data storage buffer 10 output data storage buffer 11 terminal 12 for interrupt judgment information storage Memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an output device for performing data output processing, when there is a request for output of other data during the data output processing, there is at least the output remaining data amount of the data during the output processing and the output request. A determination unit that determines whether to perform an interrupt process that preferentially outputs the requested data based on one of the data amounts, and an interrupt process that is performed based on the determination result by the determination unit. ,
An output device comprising: an execution unit that interrupts output during output processing, preferentially executes output by interrupt processing, and then restarts the interrupted output processing.