JPH07244572A - Parallel plotting processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To responsibility by speeding up plotting operation of the painting most noticed by a user. CONSTITUTION:A priority display flag 2-5 and an window identifier (ID) 2-6 for priority display are set up and stored in accordance with an instruction for specifying priority plotting, the existence of priority plotting of optional plotting data is identified from plural plotting data obtained by the calculation results of plotting instructions processed in parallel based upon the flag 2-5 and the ID 2-6, priority plotting data and non-priority plotting data are stored in respective plotting data buffer 2-7-1, 2-7-2, and plotting data 2-8-1, 2-8-2 are prepared. The plotting data of the prior painting are preferentially transferred to a plotter in accordance with the lists 2-8-1, 2-8-2 and plotted in an window pointed out by the ID 2-6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drawing processing apparatus that executes a plurality of drawing operations in parallel, and more particularly to an apparatus suitable for processing that requires high-speed response of arbitrary drawing data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a drawing control program sequentially processes drawing commands for windows and graphics. The drawing control program receives and analyzes drawing commands,
Performs modeling and clipping calculation processing to calculate drawing data. The drawing data obtained as a result of the calculation is stored in a buffer secured in the main memory, and the data of the instruction for which the calculation has been completed is sequentially transferred to the frame memory. The display controller converts the data in the frame memory into an image signal and draws it on the CRT screen. This is described in "Parallel Graphic Processing", Noriyuki Sagishima / Sadaji Nishizawa / Shigeo Asahara, Corona Publishing Co., P12, P75-82. As one of the methods of executing a plurality of drawing commands, there is also a method of generating a process for each process for each drawing command and executing the processes in parallel. Each process is operating
By the control of the system, it is assigned to the processor at an arbitrary time slice. In this case, the result obtained by the drawing command whose calculation is completed in a short processing time or the result obtained by the drawing command which is preferentially allocated and processed is transferred to the frame memory. About this, "Operating system", Maekawa Mamoru, Iwanami Shoten, P39-40; "M
INIX operating system ", ANDREW
S TANENBAUM, ASCII Publishing, P109-
110. Drawing in such technology, especially as multi-window drawing processing technology,
"Multi-window display device for drawing a window having an urgent attribute on the foreground (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-326396)",
"Multi-window management device for measuring and controlling CPU load of application program operating in each window (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-296196)", "Multi-window for displaying and operating the priority and display hierarchy of all windows three-dimensionally" Display method (JP-A-4-18282)
4) ”, etc., and technologies for realizing these may already be applied to products.

[0003]

By using the above-mentioned conventional technique, a plurality of application programs that generate and draw windows and continuously draw in the windows are executed, and one window is used. When commands such as commands and commands with few drawings are executed at the same time, the drawing data for all windows are drawn one after another, so that the responsiveness of the window with which the user is currently interacting is poor during drawing of other windows. Also, if you move the window below to the top and enter commands etc.,
Even if the redrawing in the top window is finished, the input command characters are not drawn until the redrawing in the other windows is finished, and the user has to wait for that time. If each drawing process is set as a process and executed in parallel with priority, the drawing in the priority process will be displayed first, but the process will occupy the processor unless it requests a wait state or ends. Is likely to cause another problem. In addition, a process including window drawing often involves a drawing synchronization process between windows, and if the synchronization process occurs frequently in a process that is prioritized, there is a problem that the overall performance is deteriorated. An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, to achieve high-speed drawing which is most noticed by the user at that time, and to improve responsiveness.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is provided with one or more processors, and the processor executes a process for a plurality of drawing instructions operating on the processor in parallel to provide a drawing device. In the parallel drawing processing device for drawing, priority drawing is performed according to an instruction that specifies whether or not priority drawing is performed in which the target window itself and drawing data in the target window are drawn with priority over other windows and drawing data. Whether or not the priority drawing is executed and whether or not the priority drawing target is to be executed is determined from the means for setting and storing the window for execution and the priority drawing target, and the plurality of drawing data obtained as a result of the calculation by the drawing commands processed in parallel. Means to identify the presence / absence of preferential drawing of arbitrary drawing data based on the identifier of the window and to draw the drawing data of non-priority drawing in the window To include a means for drawing the drawing data of the priority drawing in the window priority drawing, and to perform the priority drawing any rendering data. Further, when the drawing data of the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data are separately stored and managed, and the drawing data of the priority drawing is stored, the drawing data of the priority drawing is preferentially read and drawn. And means for transferring the drawing data of the priority drawing to the window of the priority drawing. Further, it comprises means for separately storing and managing the drawing data for the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data, and means for reading the drawing data for the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data at an arbitrary ratio and transferring them to the drawing device. The drawing data of the priority drawing is drawn in the window of the priority drawing. Further, there is provided a means for the user to specify the presence / absence of preferential drawing of arbitrary drawing data and a means for the user to specify the window for preferential drawing. Further, regarding exclusive control of the operation of the window during drawing, a means for performing exclusive control of the entire window and a means for performing exclusive control for each window are provided. Further, the user is provided with means for designating an arbitrary ratio between the drawing data of the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data.

[0005]

[Function] The presence / absence of preferential drawing and the window for preferential drawing are set, and when the calculated drawing data is the object of preferential drawing, the preferential drawing of this drawing data is carried out in the preferential drawing window. Even if a window other than the drawing window is performing a time-consuming process for drawing, drawing in the specified window is given priority. The user can arbitrarily specify the presence or absence of priority drawing and the window to be preferentially drawn, and wait for all other windows to be drawn while drawing in the specified window according to the user's request. You can give priority to drawing. When the drawing data is transferred to the drawing device, the priority data and the non-priority data can be transferred at an arbitrary ratio, and the degree of priority drawing can be adjusted. Exclusive control in window units allows priority drawing in a specified window after guaranteeing the drawing order even in multi-process execution.

[0006]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The input of the keyboard 1-1-1 or the pointing device 1-1-2 is performed by the input device controller 1-1.
Receive at. The input request is passed to the control program 1-3-1 in the main memory 1-3 via the bus controller 1-2, interpreted, and executed by the processor 1-4. The output (drawing) data is the data area 1- in the main memory 1-3.
Once stored in 3-2, the graphic processor 1-5 processes it again and sends it to the frame buffer 1-6. The display controller 1-7 reads the frame buffer 1-6 and displays the drawing data on the CRT 1-7-1. All of these processing controls are performed via the bus controller 1-2.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the main memory 1-3 to which the present invention is applied. At least the application program 2-1 and the control program 1 are included in the main memory 1-3.
An operating system 2-2, a drawing control program 2-3, and a device control program 2-4 are present as 3-1. Drawing control program 2-3
Among them, the priority drawing control processing unit 2-3-1 is
A drawing queue control processing unit 2-4-1 exists in the control program 2-4. Also, the data area 1-
In the area 3-2, there is provided a flag area 2-5 provided in the system for indicating whether or not priority display is performed in addition to the conventional data.
And an area 2-6 for storing the identifier of the window for preferential drawing, and two kinds of drawing data buffer groups 2-7-1 to 2-7-1
2 and 2 types of drawing data cuelists 2-8-1 and 2-2
Exists.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the structure of the drawing data queue list and the notification information designated by the list. In this example, the drawing queue is a pointer 3-1 to the drawing request notification information 3-2.
(Indicates the top address of the storage address of each notification information). The drawing request notification information 3-2 is at least plane information (plane identifier) 3-2-1 that is the drawing destination of the drawing data, and drawing attribute information 3-2- such as color.
2, the drawing data size 3-2-3, and the drawing data buffer 2-7-1 address value 3-2-4. There are multiple buffers that store drawing data, and pointer 3-3
Connect continuously and use continuously. There are two types of drawing data queue lists, each managing a queue of data for priority drawing and a queue of data for non-priority drawing.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a state when processing a drawing command. In order to efficiently execute a plurality of window drawing and graphics drawing requested by a plurality of application programs 2-1, the drawing control program 2-3 performs each drawing process in a separate process group 4-1.
Generate as. The operating system 2-2 executes the plurality of generated process groups in parallel.

FIG. 5 is a processing flow of the drawing control program to which the present invention is applied. When the drawing control program inputs a command from the application program (5-
1) Interpret the contents of the command (5-2), and execute the corresponding process (5-3) unless the command is a designation command for the presence / absence of preferential drawing or a drawing command. If it is a command to specify the presence / absence of preferential drawing, the presence / absence of the specified preferential drawing is checked (5-4), and if it is specified not to perform preferential drawing, 0 is set to the flag secured in the main memory (5-5). If it is specified to be performed, 1 is stored in the flag (5-6), and the identifier of the window to be the preferential drawing that applies to the specified contents included in the command is managed in the drawing control program. One is detected from the information and stored in the area secured in the main memory (5-7). If the command is a drawing command, the drawing control program calculates drawing data for each received drawing command (5-8). Before issuing a drawing request, the priority drawing flag is checked (5-9), and if it is 1, priority drawing control is performed. First, it is determined whether the drawing target is the priority drawing window by comparing the identifier of the window of the priority drawing target stored in the main memory with the identifier of the window which is the current drawing target (5-10). If the window is the drawing designated window, the drawing data is stored in the priority drawing data buffer (5-11). If it is not the priority drawing designated window, it is stored in the non-priority drawing data buffer (5).
-12). If there is no priority drawing designation, the drawing data is stored in the drawing data buffer defined by the system, which is the non-priority drawing data buffer in this example. Then, the device control program that executes the data transfer to the frame memory is requested to transfer the data (5
-13).

FIG. 6 is a control flow in the device control program. The device that received the request
The control program analyzes the received content (6-1), and if it is a data transfer request, determines the start address of the transfer data in the sent drawing information notification information (FIG. 3) (6-2). ), If the address value is in the range of the address of the data for priority drawing (6-3), it is in the list of the priority drawing queue (6-4). Connect to the list of priority queues (6
-5). If the received content is data transfer execution, 2
The data is read out and transferred to the frame buffer by one of two transfer methods described later based on the type of queue list (6-6). If the received content is neither a data transfer request nor an execution, the corresponding process is executed (6-7). It should be noted that the determination as to whether the display data is the priority display data is not made by the above-described method of determining the start address of the drawing data,
It is also possible to add information as to whether the data is priority display data in the notification information transfer data from the drawing control program to the device control program, and the device control program judges the content and connects it to the cue list. good. When the device control program reads data from the cue list and transfers it to the frame buffer, at least the method of transferring from the priority display data if there is a cue list of priority display data and the priority display data And a method of transferring data at an arbitrary ratio including alternately reading from the queue list of non-priority display data. The user selects which of these methods is selected by using a dedicated command or system variable to set the identifier of the priority method provided by the drawing control program. When a dedicated command is used, the program is also prepared by analyzing the command and reflecting the contents of the priority method identifier in the area in the main memory.

FIG. 7 is a processing flow in the operating system or the command analysis program controlled by the operating system when the system variable is used. It is judged whether the input command is a designated command of the priority method (7-1), if it is a designated command, the command argument is analyzed (7-2), and a specific system variable that can be identified by the drawing control program is generated (7). -3), storing the priority method identifier (7-4). The drawing control program reads the contents and reflects them in the area in the main memory.
If the entered command is the priority display cancel command (7
-5), clear the value of the system variable (7-6). If it is a command other than the designation / cancellation of priority display, the corresponding process is executed (7-7).

The priority window is set to the window designated by the user with the pointing device. When the user specifies a window with the pointing device, the drawing control program obtains its coordinate values from the input device program, searches for the window displayed at that coordinate position, and sets its identifier in an area in main memory. To do. If it is not set by the pointing device but priority display is specified, the window displayed at the top is set as the priority window and its identifier is set in the area in the main memory.

FIG. 8 shows the exclusive control of windows which is performed when the priority display control is performed. The drawing instruction is analyzed (8-1), and if it is a window operation instruction, exclusive control (hereinafter referred to as lock processing) is performed so that all windows are not used in other drawing processing processes before execution. Run. If any one window is already locked, wait until the lock is released. Then, the clipping of the window is calculated (8-3), the priority drawing flag is checked (8-4),
If 0 (no priority drawing is specified), the device control program is requested to transfer drawing data in the order specified by the window management information (8-5), and all windows are unlocked (8-6). ). If 1 (priority drawing is specified), the priority drawing window and its descendant windows which are the priority drawing data are detected from the calculated data (8-7), and the drawing data is transferred to them in the device control program. Request (8-
8) Unlock the priority drawing window and its descendant windows (8-9). After that, drawing requests for all windows are issued to the device control program (8-10), and the remaining windows are unlocked (8-11). When executing graphics drawing processing on a window, lock processing is performed on the target window before calculation (8-1).
2). If the target window is already locked, wait until it is released. Execute drawing data calculation (8-13),
The device control program is requested to transfer the drawing data (8-14), and the target window is unlocked (8-15). By this exclusive control processing for both all windows and arbitrary windows, window redrawing processing when performing priority drawing control during multi-process execution and area information of the target window itself during graphics processing and arbitrary It is possible to realize the protection of the overlapping order of a plurality of graphics drawings in a window. Also, by this exclusive control process, if the graphics drawing process to the priority drawing window is being executed in another process at the same time as the window operation process, the priority drawing window is in the waiting state during the calculation / drawing process, After the window unlock processing is executed, the execution is restarted immediately. The restarted process is executed at the same time as the process of requesting drawing of windows other than the preferential drawing.

[0015]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION Even if the drawing itself takes time-consuming processing in another window, the drawing in the designated window can be preferentially performed. In particular, the user can interactively use any window. It is possible to improve the responsiveness of the case. In addition, the presence or absence of prioritized display can be designated by the user at the time of execution, and even an already executable program can be targeted for execution of prioritized display. Responsiveness (drawing priority) can be specified from the user side at the time of execution. Therefore, according to the user's intention, while any one window is drawn, all other windows are drawn. It is also possible to make it wait and display it with priority. Furthermore, by exclusive control for each window, the drawing order can be guaranteed and priority drawing of the specified window can be performed even in multi-process execution.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a main memory to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a cue list of drawing data and notification information designated by the list.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a state when processing a drawing command.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a drawing control program.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a device control program.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a processing flow in a command analysis program when system variables are used.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing exclusive control of windows when performing priority display control.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1-1 Input Device Controller 1-1-1 Keyboard 1-1-2 Mouse 1-2 Bus Controller 1-3 Main Memory 1-3-1 Control Program 1-3-2 Data Area 1-4 Processor Group 1-5 Graphic processor 1-6 Frame buffer 1-7 Display controller 1-7-1 CRT 2-1 Application program 2-2 Operating system 2-3 Drawing control program 2-3-1 Priority drawing controller 2-4 Device Control program 2-4-1 Drawing queue control unit 2-5 Priority display flag 2-6 Window identifier 2-7-1 and 2 Drawing data buffer 2-8-1 and 2 Drawing data queue list 3-1 Pointer 3-2 Notification information 3-2-1 Drawing destination plane information 3-2-2 Drawing attribute information 3-2-3 Data size 3-2-4 Data buffer address value

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Akuji Nakamura 1099, Ozenji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Inside the Hitachi, Ltd. System Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Eriko Koda 1099, Ozen-ji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. System Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Toshiyuki Kuwana 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Hitachi Ltd. Omika Plant (72) Inventor Masato Manta 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Bachi Co., Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd. Software Development Division

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A parallel drawing processing apparatus comprising one or more processors, wherein the processors execute processes corresponding to a plurality of drawing instructions in parallel on the processors and draw in the drawing apparatus, whether or not to perform preferential drawing. Whether or not priority drawing is executed in accordance with an instruction that specifies the priority drawing target window, and means for setting and storing the window for priority drawing, and the plurality of drawing data obtained as a result of calculation by the drawing commands processed in parallel, the priority drawing is performed. Means for identifying whether or not there is priority drawing of arbitrary drawing data based on the presence or absence of execution of the window for priority drawing and the priority drawing of the drawing data of the non-priority drawing in the window. A parallel drawing processing device comprising means for drawing data in a priority drawing window and performing preferential drawing of arbitrary drawing data. 2. The parallel drawing processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drawing data for the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data are separately stored and managed, and the drawing data for the priority drawing is stored. A parallel drawing processing device, comprising means for preferentially reading the drawing data of the preferential drawing and transferring it to a drawing device, and drawing the drawing data of the preferential drawing in the window of the preferential drawing. 3. The parallel drawing processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drawing data for the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data are separately stored and managed, and the drawing data for the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data are stored. A parallel drawing processing device, comprising means for reading out and transferring to a drawing device at an arbitrary ratio, and drawing drawing data of the preferential drawing in the window of the preferential drawing. 4. The parallel drawing processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a means for allowing a user to specify the presence / absence of preferential drawing of arbitrary drawing data and a means for specifying a window for preferential drawing. A parallel drawing processing device. 5. The parallel drawing processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for performing exclusive control of the entire window and means for performing exclusive control for each window regarding exclusive control of operation of the window during drawing. A parallel drawing processing device. 6. The parallel drawing processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising means for allowing a user to specify an arbitrary ratio between the drawing data of the priority drawing and the non-priority drawing data. apparatus.