JPH0773922B2 - Graphic output controller - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention intervenes between a graphic output control device, more specifically, a host machine and finally a graphic output device such as a printer or a display, and receives from the host machine. The present invention relates to a graphic output control device that controls a graphic output device based on data.

2. Description of the Related Art In a graphic output device, a graphic to be output such as a character or a symbol is displayed as a dot pattern having a dot matrix configuration.
There is one that is stored in the ROM, searches for a dot pattern corresponding to the data received from the host machine, and sends it to the figure output control device. Here, the "graphic" is to be interpreted in a broad sense including characters and symbols.

The ROM storing the dot pattern, that is, a so-called font memory has a cartridge structure and is detachably attached to the graphic output control device, which is advantageous in that the type of character font can be selectively used.

However, in the conventional device, the mechanical and electrical configurations of the font ROM cartridge are often different. Even if they are the same, the dot pattern data stored in the font ROM often has a different data format depending on the printer model, that is, the type, control method, performance, etc. There is no. Therefore, it may be difficult for the supplier side and the user side of these devices to manage and operate the font ROM.

For example, a laser printer has a particularly high pixel density,
Many of them have a high data transfer rate, and for that reason, various ideas are often made, for example, in the structure and reading method of font data. Therefore, it is difficult to make a series of models while maintaining compatibility with those having various specifications.

Further, even in printers of various systems such as wire dot, thermal, and inkjet, it is often required to form a plurality of types of fonts if the pixel density is high. Incorporating all those fonts into the printer device
The device configuration becomes complicated and the initial price increases. Therefore, it is strongly required that the font ROM cartridge can be widely shared.

It is an object of the present invention to solve the above drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a graphic output control device capable of sharing various font ROM cartridges.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is configured such that a first storage means accumulating dot pattern data for forming a character is detachably attached, and receives first character information for specifying a character. The graphic output control device having a control means for reading the corresponding dot pattern data stored in the above and outputting it to the graphic output device has a second storage means for storing the dot pattern data, and the first storage means: The control unit includes identification information for identifying the configuration of the dot pattern data stored in the first storage unit, and the control unit reads the identification information and outputs the configuration of the dot pattern data stored in the first storage unit as a graphic output. If it is determined that it is not compatible with the device, the dot pattern data is converted to dot pattern data with a data structure compatible with the figure output device according to the identification information. And accumulates the converted dot pattern data in the second storage means, upon receiving the character information, second
The corresponding one of the converted dot pattern data is read out from the storage means and output to the figure output device. Hereinafter, a specific description will be given based on an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown an embodiment in which the graphic output control device according to the present invention is applied to a printer. This embodiment basically comprises a printer controller 100 and a font cartridge ROM 200. Printer controller 100
In the present embodiment, is a host machine 202 as a computer.
And a printer engine 204 which is a print head driving unit of the printer. Font cartridge ROM20
The 0 has a connector 206 as shown and is engageable with a corresponding connector 208 of the controller 100. This achieves the electrical and mechanical connection between them.

The printer controller 100 has a system bus 102 as shown in the figure, and a CPU 104, a program ROM 106, a font ROM 108, an auxiliary RAM 110, a buffer memory 112, a video buffer 114, a host interface 116, an engine interface. 118 and bus buffer 120 are connected. The bus buffer 120 is connected to the connector 208.

The CPU 104 is a processing device that controls and controls the control device 100, and a microprocessor is advantageously used. The control program and fixed data used in the
Accumulated in 106.

The font ROM 108 stores graphic pattern data of character fonts that are always used in a firmware form.
A desired one can be selectively mounted in the font cartridge ROM 200, and for example, a fixedly stored font that is not stored in the font ROM 108 can be used as needed. .

The auxiliary RAM 110 is used for various purposes such as a work area for realizing the functions of the control device 100. For example,
The graphic pattern from the host machine 202 can be temporarily stored and held, and this can be newly used as a font. Further, the form data received from the host machine 202 can be temporarily stored and held, and can be used repeatedly. Furthermore, the graphic data received from the host machine 202 can be temporarily stored and held, and this can be used for image printing. Further, in the present embodiment, the configuration of the font data read from the font cartridge ROM 200 can be converted into a data configuration suitable for this apparatus and held, and this can be used as a new font. This will be described in detail later.

The buffer memory 112 is a buffer in which data including the character code input from the host machine 202 is temporarily stored. The storage capacity is at least the printer engine 204
Is a printing unit, for example, one page for a page printer and one printing line for a serial printer and a line printer.

The video buffer 114 is a temporary storage device that temporarily stores graphic pattern data that is printed out by the printer. The storage capacity is, for example, 1 for a page printer.
Although the number of pages may be set, a plurality of units of the video buffer 114 may be arranged in parallel, and the output operation to the printer engine 204 and the pattern data development may be alternately repeated. The same applies to serial printers and line printers.

The control device 100 is interfaced with the host machine 202 by the host interface 116, and data and control signals are exchanged between them. The printer engine 204 is also interfaced with an engine interface 118, which has a control function of reading the state of the engine 204 and controlling the execution of printing.

The bus buffer 120 is a buffer device that is interposed between the connector 208 and the bus 102 and temporarily stores the address and font data of the font cartridge ROM 200.

The graphic output control device of this embodiment, in which a graphic including characters is formed by dots and printed by a printer, converts the character code received from the host machine 202 into a corresponding graphic pattern,
A figure is formed on the recording paper in synchronization with the printer engine 204. Of course, it is not always necessary to directly output the data to the printer, but the graphic dot pattern data may be transmitted to another station via a transmission line as needed.

The operation will be described. When data is received from the host machine 202 via the host interface 116, when the data includes a character code, the print position information and font type information are added and stored in the buffer memory 112. When the print unit data of the printer engine 204 is accumulated in the buffer memory 112, the CPU 104 causes the font ROM
108, and optional font cartridge ROM 200
To extract the graphic dot pattern data of the designated font corresponding to those character codes, block-transfer this data to the video buffer 114, and store it.
This block transfer is repeated for the required number of print characters. The graphic pattern data accumulated in the video buffer 114 is sequentially read out under the control of the engine interface 118, transferred to the printer engine 204, and printed out as characters on the printer.

The graphic pattern data applicable as the font cartridge ROM 200 can have various data structures. The data configuration category includes the font ROM storage order of pattern data determined by each printing method, the rotation state of the graphic pattern, the unit configuration (number) of the font ROM, and the like.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a graphic pattern forming one character has a rectangular area 300 indicating dots (pixels) in the main scanning H direction and the sub scanning V direction on the recording paper.
Bit RO of each character and font RO
Stored in M 108 and font cartridge ROM 200.

In the “band scanning type” shown in FIG. 2, the rectangular area 300 has a data format 302 having a width of one dot in the main scanning H direction and a length of a plurality of dots in the sub-scanning V direction as a unit and in the direction of arrow 304 Read out. In this embodiment, the length in the V direction is, for example, 8 bits (type I) to 32 bits (type IV) in units of 8 bits. In other words, depending on the type of the font cartridge ROM 200, depending on the type I to IV, the font cartridge ROM 200 can be written in any of four types of data formats of 8 bits, 16 bits, 24 bits and 32 bits in the V direction. The graphic pattern is read by one access.

In the "line scan type" shown in FIG. 3, the data format 310 having a width of one dot in the sub-scanning V direction and a length of a plurality of dots in the main scanning H direction is read in the direction of arrow 312 as a unit. In this embodiment, the length in the H direction is, for example, 8 bits (type V) to 32 bits (type VIII) in units of 8 bits. In other words, depending on the type of font cartridge ROM 200, depending on types V to VIII,
A graphic pattern is read out in one of four types of data formats of 8 bits, 16 bits, 24 bits and 32 bits in the H direction by one access to the font cartridge ROM 200.

The graphic pattern data read from the font cartridge ROM 200 in this manner is expanded in the video buffer 114. The data format types I-VIII are
It is selectively applied according to the printer system and printing speed used. The band scanning type and the line scanning type can be used regardless of the rotation state of the figure pattern, regardless of the rotation state of the figure pattern.

A memory map structure stored in one font cartridge ROM 200 is shown in FIG. In this example, the area 320 stores the font index table,
This includes data indicating attributes such as the configuration type of the graphic pattern, the number of characters, and the font name. CPU 10
4 can get the necessary information by specifying its specific address. In other embodiments, for example
Provide other semi-fixed storage means such as DIP switch,
The PU 104 may access and determine the data structure of the font cartridge ROM 200.

The area 322 includes a character address table, and the start address of the storage area 324 of the graphic pattern corresponding to each character code is stored. Therefore, in each area 324, the graphic pattern data of the corresponding character is stored in a series of storage positions from the head address.

FIG. 5 shows a control flow of the CPU 104 when the font cartridge ROM 200 is attached to the printer control device 100. First, font cartridge ROM 200 is connector 2
When connected to 08, the CPU 104 accesses the font index table 320 and checks whether the data structure conforms to the standard structure of this device (400). If so, the font cartridge ROM 200 can be used without conversion processing of the data structure.

If they do not match, the CPU 104 first checks whether there is a free area in the auxiliary RAM 110 (402), and if there is no free space at that time, determines that the font cartridge ROM 200 cannot be used for the time being. If there is a space, the data structure conversion process can be performed, so the CPU 104 accesses the font index table 320 of the font cartridge ROM 200 and determines which type the data structure is (404, 406, 408). The CPU 104 converts the data structure according to the type thus determined (410, 412, 414).

The data structure conversion process is performed using the auxiliary RAM 110 as described above. The CPU 104 accesses the graphic pattern storage area 324 in accordance with the character address table 322 of the font cartridge ROM 200, and stores the graphic pattern data in the auxiliary RAM 11 with the data structure corresponding to the type judged above.
Read to 0.

According to the determined type, this reading is performed by the data format 302 having the data length of the above-mentioned integer multiple of the byte unit.
Or 310 by scanning arrows 304 or 312 respectively. At this time, the CPU 104 converts the data read in this way into the standard data structure of this device and converts it to the auxiliary RAM.
Accumulates and holds 110 free areas. After that, each time a character font read request is issued, the CPU 104 accesses this area of the auxiliary RAM 110, reads the converted graphic pattern data corresponding to the character code, and performs the same operation as in the normal operation in the video buffer 114. Transfer to. The subsequent operation is the same as the normal operation described above.

In this way, the present apparatus can appropriately convert the data structure and form the graphic pattern even if the font cartridge ROM having a different data structure is used. Therefore, as long as the font cartridge ROM has the same mechanical and electrical configuration, the font cartridge ROM having various data configurations can be commonly used.

Effect According to the present invention, when a font ROM cartridge having a different data structure is used, the data structure is converted into the one suitable for the printer to form the graphic pattern. Therefore, as long as the font ROM cartridge has the same mechanical and electrical configuration, various data configurations can be commonly used. Therefore, the device configuration is simplified, the font ROM cartridge can be shared in a wide range, and the total device price is lowered.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which a graphic output control device according to the present invention is applied to a printer, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show examples of graphic patterns forming one character, which are a band scan type and a line scan type, respectively. FIG. 4 is a memory map showing an example of a memory data structure stored in one font cartridge ROM, and FIG. 5 is a font cartridge ROM mounted in the printer controller of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the control flow of CPU in the case. Description of main part code 100 …… Printer controller 104 …… CPU 106 …… Program ROM 108 …… Font ROM 110 …… Auxiliary RAM 112 …… Buffer memory 114 …… Video buffer 200 …… Font cartridge ROM

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-59-177635 (JP, A) JP-A-53-148922 (JP, A) JP-A-57-89184 (JP, A) JP-A-57- 137980 (JP, A) JP 58-18741 (JP, A) JP 58-82378 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first storage means accommodating data of a dot pattern for forming a character is detachably attached to the first storage means.
In the graphic output control device having a control device for reading the dot pattern data stored in the storage device and outputting the dot pattern data to the graphic output device, the first storage device stores the dot pattern data in the first storage device. Identification information for identifying the configuration of the dot pattern data is set, and the graphic output control device further includes second storage means, and the control means of the graphic output control device is When the identification information set in the first storage means is read and it is determined that the configuration of the dot pattern data stored in the first storage means is not suitable for the figure output device, the identification information is stored in the identification information. Accordingly, the dot pattern data is converted into dot pattern data having a data structure suitable for the graphic output device, and the converted dot pattern data is stored in the second storage unit. When the character information for storing the character is received, the dot pattern data corresponding to the character information is read from the second storage means and output to the figure output device. apparatus.