JPH0764873A - Electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a mechanism which preserves operational information stored in a volatile variable storage means such as a RAM even when a power source is turned off by a simple structure in an electronic equipment such as a label printer by copying the storage data of the volatile variable storage means whose update is detected by an update detecting means in a non-volatile variable storage means by a data copying means. CONSTITUTION:In a label printer 1, the update detecting means which periodically detects whether or not the storage data of the update area of a DRAM 23 are updated by comparing the storage data with the storage data of a comparison area, is formed out of a CPU 16 or the like. Then, the data copying means which copies the storage data of the update area of the DRAM 23 whose update is detected by the update detecting means of the CPU 16 or the like to the comparison area and the preservation area of an EEPROM 24 being the non-volatile variable storage means is formed out of the CPU 16 or the like. Thus, even when a battery 28 is turned off in an arbitrary timing, necessary working data are preserved in the EEPROM 24, so that each kind of data processing can be easily and quickly resumed when the battery 28 is turned on.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic device for copying work data temporarily stored in a volatile variable storage means and storing it in a nonvolatile variable storage means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, electronic devices such as label printers are
For example, setting data and print data are temporarily stored in a work area of a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), which is a volatile variable storage means, and various data processing is executed based on the stored data. .
However, since the volatile variable storage means such as the DRAM described above is adapted to temporarily store various data by the power supplied from the main body power supply of the electronic device, for example, when the main body power is turned off, the volatile variable storage means such as the DRAM. The stored data of will be automatically lost.

In this case, in order to turn on the power supply of the main body and restart the data processing, it is necessary to set various data again in the volatile variable storage means such as DRAM. However, the adjustment amount of the label sheet feed and the thermal head are required. In some cases, the stored data such as the travel distance of the vehicle cannot be reproduced, so that it may be difficult to restart the data processing work.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, for example, when the power supply of the main body is detected to be off, the remaining voltage of the capacitor or the like is used as the driving power to store various data to be stored from the volatile variable storage means such as DRAM. EEPROM
(Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memo
An electronic device adapted to copy to a non-volatile variable storage means such as ry) has been put to practical use.

By doing so, even if the power of the main body of the electronic device is turned off, the necessary data is saved in the nonvolatile variable storage means such as the EEPROM, so that the resumption of the data processing work can be made extremely easy. You can

[0006]

In the electronic equipment as described above, the required data is copied by copying the predetermined data from the volatile variable storage means such as DRAM to the nonvolatile variable storage means such as EEPROM when the main body power is turned off. To facilitate the resumption of data processing work.

However, the EEPROM generally used as the nonvolatile variable storage means as described above requires a processing time of about 10 (msec) to store data of about 1 (byte), for example. If the data to be stored has a large capacity, the required time becomes long, and the remaining voltage of the capacitor may cause a shortage of the drive power for the EEPROM or the like, making it impossible to save some data.

Therefore, in order to solve such a problem,
For example, an electronic device that operates an extremely large-capacity device as the capacitor as described above is implemented, but this would hinder the downsizing and weight reduction of the electronic device and improve the productivity, and also increase the price.

Also, an electronic device in which a timer circuit is started when a power-off operation of the main body is detected and the main body power is turned off by a software switch after a predetermined time has passed is also implemented. In order to realize it, it is necessary to form a dedicated device, and the structure thereof is complicated, so that reduction in size and weight of an electronic device and improvement in productivity are significantly hindered.

[0010]

SOLUTION: A volatile variable storage means for temporarily storing various data updatable by power supplied from a main body power source is provided, and various data can be temporarily stored updatable without requiring power supplied from the main body power source. Nonvolatile variable storage means is provided, and update detection means for periodically detecting whether or not predetermined storage data of the volatile variable storage means is updated is provided. A data copying means for copying the stored data to the nonvolatile variable storage means is provided.

[0011]

The update detection means periodically detects whether or not the predetermined storage data in the volatile variable storage means has been updated, and the storage data in the volatile variable storage means whose update is detected by the update detection means is stored in the nonvolatile variable storage means. When the data copying means makes a copy, the data stored in the volatile variable storage means can be periodically copied to the nonvolatile variable storage means in a normal operation state.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the label printer 1 which is this electronic device
As shown in FIG. 1, a CPU (Central Processing Un) is a data processing unit that executes various data processes.
It) 16, a printer unit 6 including a sensor 17, a thermal head 18, a stepping motor 19, etc., an LED (Lig)
operation panel 8 including an ht emitting diode) 20, a keyboard 21 and the like, a ROM 22 which is a nonvolatile fixed storage means for fixedly storing various data such as control data in advance, and various data such as print data and work data that can be opened and closed temporarily. Connected is a DRAM 23 which is a volatile variable storage means for storing, an EEPROM 24 which is a non-volatile variable storage means for temporarily storing predetermined data which needs to be saved renewably, a communication I / F (Interface) 25 which controls data communication, This communication I /
It has a structure in which a connection connector 27 connected to a host computer (not shown) is connected to F25.

Then, the DR of the label printer 1
The AM 23 is composed of an image buffer (not shown) that temporarily stores print data in an updatable manner and a work buffer 29 that temporarily stores work data in an updatable manner.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the work buffer 29 includes:
An update area 30 in which work data actually used by the CPU 16 is temporarily stored in an updatable manner, and the update area 30.
Comparison area 31 to which the work data temporarily stored by
And are set in a predetermined storage area.

Here, in the update / comparison areas 30 and 31 of the DRAM 23, N (one byte) storage areas for temporarily storing work data are formed, and "0" to
A serial number of "N-1" is set, and a storage area (not shown) having the same structure as the update / comparison areas 30 and 31 is also formed in the EEPROM 24.

Therefore, in the label printer 1, the update detection means for periodically detecting whether or not the storage data in the update area 30 of the DRAM 23 is updated by comparing with the storage data in the comparison area 31 is described above. CPU16
And the like, and the update area 3 of the DRAM 23 in which the update detection means such as the CPU 16 detects the update.
The stored data of 0 is stored in the comparison area 31 and the EEPR.
Data copying means for copying to the storage area of the OM 24 is also formed by the CPU 16 and the like. In addition, this CPU1
6 includes a timer circuit (not shown) for interrupting at a predetermined cycle set as 20 (msec), and the DRAM 23 stores N pieces of stored data in the update / comparison areas 30 and 31. A counter circuit (not shown) is provided for sequential comparison.

In such a configuration, the label printer 1 receives D from the host computer, for example.
The printer unit 6 issues the barcode label 33 based on the print data temporarily stored in the image buffer of the RAM 23, the work data appropriately stored in the work buffer of the DRAM 23, the control data stored in the ROM 22 in advance, and the like. It has become. Then, in this label printer 1, when the interrupt timing of a predetermined cycle set in advance in the CPU 16 arrives, the CPU 16 interrupts data processing such as printing work and saves work data in the DRAM 23. Has become.

The processing operation of the label printer 1 will be described below in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the label printer 1 starts supplying power from the battery 28 to the printer unit 6 and the CPU 16 when the power is manually operated by the keyboard 21 or the like, so that the CPU 16 executes the initial setting. At this time, the CPU 16 copies the data stored in the storage area of the EEPROM 24 to the update / comparison areas 30 and 31 of the DRAM 23 as an initial setting, so that various data necessary for data processing such as printing work is stored in the update area 30. The setting is promptly made, and the label printer 1 can quickly resume the data processing such as the printing work executed before the suspension even immediately after the activation.

At this time, the label printer 1 can execute various data processing such as printing work.
Whether the CP process is in progress or stopped
U16 is designed to detect an interrupt timing of a predetermined cycle such as 20 (msec), and the CPU 16 which has detected this generates an interrupt even during the data processing and the DRAM 2
The work of saving the work data of No. 3 is started.

Therefore, the CPU 1 of the label printer 1
6 first sets the count value n, which is the stored numerical value of the counter circuit, in the variable a, and compares the nth stored data in the update / comparison areas 30 and 31 of the DRAM 23. Therefore,
When the CPU 16 detects that the stored data match, the CPU 16 adds “1” to the count value n to update the comparison / comparison area 30,
The count value n is initialized to "0" by comparing with the number N of stored data 31. Next,
The CPU 16 of the label printer 1 compares the count value n updated by the above-described count or initialization with the variable a, and if this mismatch is detected, the update / comparison areas 30, 3 are performed.
It returns to the comparison state of the nth stored data of 1.

The CPU 1 of the label printer 1
6 repeats the processing operation as described above,
N pieces of stored data in the update / comparison areas 30 and 31 of 23 are sequentially compared. Therefore, this CPU16
However, when comparing all the N pieces of stored data in the update / comparison areas 30 and 31 of the DRAM 23, the count value n and the variable a match, so the CPU 16 that has detected this has not updated the storage data in the update area 30. The DRAM2
The work of saving the work data of No. 3 is completed and the initial state is restored.

Then, the CPU 1 of the label printer 1
6 is n in the update / comparison areas 30 and 31 of the DRAM 23.
If a mismatch is detected by comparing the second stored data,
The n-th storage data in the comparison area 31 and the storage area of the EEPROM 24 is updated with the n-th storage data in the update area 30. Therefore, the CPU 16 that has completed this data update adds “1” to the count value n
Compared with the number N of stored data in the comparison areas 30 and 31,
Only when this coincidence is detected, the count value n is initialized to "0", and then the work of storing the work data in the DRAM 23 is completed.

By doing so, when the stored data in the update area 30 of the DRAM 23 used for printing work is updated in the label printer 1, this is 20
Since it is copied to the EEPROM 24 with a short cycle interrupt such as (msec), necessary work data is stored in the EEPROM 24 even if the battery 28 is turned off at an arbitrary timing, and various kinds of work data are stored when the battery 28 is turned on. Data processing can be restarted easily and quickly.

That is, in the label printer 1, since it is not necessary to copy the large-capacity stored data of the DRAM 23 to the EEPROM 24 at the power-off timing as in the conventional case, a capacitor and a timer circuit for driving each part when the power is turned off. It is not necessary to provide a dedicated device such as, and it is possible to contribute to reduction in size and weight and improvement in productivity.

Moreover, in the label printer 1, when the update of the storage data in the update area 30 of the DRAM 23 is detected as described above, the operation is performed when this one storage data is copied to the comparison area 31 and the storage area of the EEPROM 24. Since the data saving operation is completed, this interruption does not require a great deal of processing time and does not hinder the work efficiency of the printing operation or the like.

When the storage operation of the work data is completed at the time when one stored data in the update area 30 of the DRAM 23 is copied to the EEPROM 24 as described above, the update / update
Since the data comparison in the comparison areas 30 and 31 is interrupted, the label printer 1 saves the count value n of the save work of the work data to be ended and the count value as the initial value of the save work of the next work data. n is set to the variable a.

[0026]

As described above, the present invention is provided with the volatile variable storage means for temporarily storing various data updatable by the power supplied from the main body power supply, and the various data can be updated without requiring the power supply from the main body power supply. Nonvolatile variable storage means for temporarily storing the data is provided, and update detection means for periodically detecting whether or not the predetermined storage data of the volatile variable storage means is updated is provided. By providing the data copying means for copying the storage data of the variable storage means to the non-volatile variable storage means, the storage data of the volatile variable storage means is periodically copied to the non-volatile variable storage means in a normal operation state. It is not necessary to execute such data copying at the timing of turning off the power supply, and it is possible to contribute to the reduction in size and weight and the improvement in productivity.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit structure of a label printer which is an embodiment of an electronic device of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a storage structure of a work buffer of a DRAM that is a volatile variable storage unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of the label printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Label Printer 16 Data Processing Means, Update Detecting Means, Data Copying Means 22 Nonvolatile Fixed Storage Means 23 Volatile Variable Storage Means 24 Nonvolatile Variable Storage Means 28 Main Power Supply

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A main body power source, a volatile variable storage means for temporarily storing various data updatable by the power supplied from the main body power source, and various data temporarily stored updatable without requiring the power supplied by the main body power source. Nonvolatile variable storage means, update detection means for periodically detecting whether predetermined storage data of the volatile variable storage means has been updated, and storage data of the volatile variable storage means for which the update detection means has detected an update. And a data copying means for copying the data to the non-volatile variable storage means.