JPH07172002A - Font cash device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of memories and increase a treating speed by a method wherein information of in what part of an external memory means the outline information of a letter is stored is stored in a letter address information cashing memory while the letter outline information is stored in an outline information cash memory. CONSTITUTION:When the information of letter code, size and the like are inputted, a cash control unit 2 refers to outline address information cash memories 4, 5 sequentially and obtains a data found previously. When a point, whereat the data is obtained, is in an address information cash memory 5, an outline information, obtained from an external memory device, is registered in the outline information cash memory 4. On the other hand, data are not present and data are obtained from the external memory device 3, the outline information is registered into the outline information cash memory 4 and, at the same time, the address of letters of one block including specified letters are registered in the address information cash memory 5. An image is outputted by the obtained outline information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a font cache device, and more particularly to a word processor or a computer font cache device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a font cache device requires character data of an external storage device (hard disk etc.) with a slow access speed in order to output characters at high speed to a printer connected to a word processor or a computer or a display. According to the above, some character data is transferred to a memory with a high access speed, and the character data in the memory is used to output the character at high speed.

An example of the configuration and operation of a conventional font cache is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. In FIG. 3, the character input unit 1
Input character information from step 4 (step 20 in FIG. 4).
The cache management unit 15 searches the cache memory, and if the cache memory has character information (step 21 in FIG. 4), reads the data in the cache memory 17,
The drawing output unit 18 outputs to the output device 19. If there is no character, the address information in which the character is stored is read from the external storage device 16 (step 22 in FIG. 4), the character information is read from the external storage device 16 based on the read address (step 23 in FIG. 4), and drawing is performed. Characters were output from the output unit 18 to the output device 19 (step 2 in FIG. 4).
4).

[0004]

In the conventional font cache device, when there is no character information in the cache memory, the address where the character is stored is first read from the external storage device, and the character is read from the next read address. Since the external storage device is accessed twice, such as reading data from the external storage device, the processing speed becomes slower, and if the number of characters registered in the cache memory is increased to reduce the number of accesses, more memory will be stored. There was a drawback that was required.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks and to provide a font cache device with a memory having a high processing speed and a small capacity.

[0006]

A font cache device of the present invention comprises a character address information cache memory for setting only an address where character outline information is stored, and an outline information cache memory for setting outline information of each character. , Is constituted by means for managing the cache by the designated character information.

By doing so, even if there is no information in the character outline information cache memory, if the address information cache memory has address information, the number of accesses to the external storage device is reduced.
Since it is not necessary to take a large area of the outline information cache memory in order to increase the processing speed and increase the hit rate to the cache memory, a font cache device that does not require a large amount of memory can be obtained.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing.

Character information input unit 1 including a keyboard
Inputs information such as character code and size (step 8 in FIG. 2). The cache management unit 2 searches and acquires character outline information from the cache memory or the external storage device 3 based on the input information such as the code size (step 9 in FIG. 2). In addition, unnecessary information is deleted from the cache memory. The external storage device 3 stores character outline information. The outline information cache memory 4 stores character outline information, and the address information cache memory 5 stores information of where in the external storage device 3 the character outline information is stored. The information registered in the address information cache memory is performed in units of one block (for example, 94 characters in one section) including the input character. The drawing output unit 6 creates a character image from the acquired outline information and outputs it. The output device 7 outputs the image data created by the drawing output unit 6 (step 13 in FIG. 2).

Next, the operation of this cache device will be described. When information such as character code and size is input from the character information input unit 1 (step 8 in FIG. 2), the cache management unit 2 searches the outline information cache memory 4 and the address information cache memory 5 in that order ( In steps 9 and 10 of FIG. 2, the data is acquired from the place where the data was previously found (step 11 of FIG. 2). When there is no data in either cache, the data is acquired from the external storage device 3 (step 12 in FIG. 2). The drawing output unit 6 creates character image data based on the acquired outline information, and outputs the character image to the output device 7 such as a CRT display or a printer (step 13 in FIG. 2).

Therefore, when the data is acquired from the address information cache memory 5, the outline information acquired from the external storage device 3 including at least one type of device such as a fixed disk device or a flexible disk device is used as the outline information cache. Registration is performed in the memory 4, and when the outline information cache memory 4 is full, unnecessary outline information is deleted and then registered. When data is acquired from the external storage device 3,
The outline information is registered in the outline information cache memory 4, and at the same time, the address of one block of characters including the designated character is registered in the address information cache memory 5. By doing so, even if the next used character is input, if the character is registered in the block registered in the address information cache memory 5, the external storage device is accessed once. Since it ends with, processing speed can be increased.

[0013]

As described above, according to the font cache device of the present invention, it is possible to obtain the effect that the processing speed is fast and a large amount of memory is not required.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations of a conventional example.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 character information input unit 2 cache management unit 3 external storage device 4 outline information cache memory 5 address information cache memory 6 character drawing output unit 7 output device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A character address information cache memory for setting only an address in which character outline information is stored, an outline information cache memory for setting outline information of each character, and cache management by designated character information. A font cache device comprising a cache management means for performing the above.