JPH08174924A - Printer apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To shorten the total printing time by setting a control part which controls so that bit map data of an image-processing part which have been finished to be developed earlier are output to a printing part during the standby time of the printing part. CONSTITUTION: In controlling printing, printing data received from a plurality of significant devices via respective input interfaces 1a-1c are temporarily stored in a first - a third buffer areas 2a-2c of a data buffer part. The printing data stored in the data buffer part 2 are developed to bit map data by a first and a second image-processing parts 3a, 3b independent of each other in parallel. The obtained bit map data are printed/output at a printing part 4. At this time, a control part 5 controls so that the bit map data of the image-processing part 3 which have been finished to be developed earlier are output to the printing part 4 during the standby time of the printing part 4. Accordingly, the standby state of the printing part is eliminated and the total printing time is shortened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device,
Particularly, the present invention relates to a printer device suitable for a network environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in offices, data sharing,
Computers are being networked to promote effective use of resources.

In particular, LAN (Local Area N)
It has become common to share one printer device with a plurality of computers due to cost reduction of construction, improvement of reliability, improvement of communication speed, commercialization of wireless LAN, and the like.

In the conventional printer, in order to process the data from the computer without being mixed, a plurality of data buffers are used to sequentially process the data received first.

Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-251130, an edit print process is performed every time one page of data is received, so that print information can be smoothly controlled without mixing information sent from a plurality of computers. Techniques that can be done are disclosed.

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the processing of the data that arrives first from the host device is completed and the data that arrives next is processed, However, if the data of (1) requires a great deal of processing time, there is a disadvantage in that a subsequent print request has to wait for a long time.

In addition, it may take several tens of minutes to develop complicated print data using the printer description language (page description language), and the image processing unit converts such print data into bitmap data. When unfolding
When another user on the network issues a simple print data print command, there is the inconvenience of having to wait until the processing of the complicated print data ends.

That is, there is a disadvantage in that the printing unit does not operate at all and is in a standby state, but the time required until the end of printing becomes long due to complicated print data expansion processing.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer apparatus which solves the disadvantages of the prior art and particularly has a short print waiting time even when a plurality of print requests occur.

[0010]

Therefore, in the present invention, a data buffer unit for temporarily storing print data from a higher-level device, and the print data stored in this data buffer unit are expanded into bitmap data. A plurality of independent image processing units, a printing unit that prints out bitmap data from these image processing units, and a printing unit that prints the bitmap data of the image processing units that have completed the expansion processing while the printing units are on standby. It is equipped with a control unit that controls to output to. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0011]

During operation of the printer device, first, the data buffer section temporarily stores print data from the host device.
Next, the image processing unit develops the print data stored in the data buffer unit into bitmap data.
At this time, the control unit controls to output the bitmap data of the image processing unit which has completed the expansion processing to the printing unit regardless of the destination after the reception if the printing unit is on standby.
The printing unit prints out the bitmap data from these image processing units. As a result, when it takes time to process the data that arrives first, the data that arrives later may be printed first, reducing the waiting state of the printing unit and shortening the overall printing time.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a printer apparatus according to this embodiment. The printer device includes input interfaces 1a, 1b, and 1c that receive print data from a plurality of upper devices, a data buffer unit 2 that temporarily stores print data from the input interfaces 1a, 1b, and 1c, and this data. A plurality of independent image processing units 3a and 3b for expanding the print data stored in the buffer unit 2 into bitmap data
A printing unit 4 for printing out the bitmap data from these image processing units 3a and 3b; and a bitmap unit 4 for printing the bitmap data of the image processing unit 3 whose expansion processing has been completed while the printing unit 4 is on standby. It is equipped with a control unit 5 for controlling the output to.

In the present embodiment, the printer device has three input interfaces 1a, 1b, 1c, and these input interfaces 1 independently receive print data from the host device. Further, the input interfaces 1a, 1b, 1c may each be provided with a connector so as to be directly connected from a higher-level device, or may be constructed so as to be connected to a LAN or the like so that print data can be received independently. .

The data buffer unit 2 has first to third buffer areas 2a, 2 corresponding to the input interface.
b, 2c. With regard to the data buffer unit 2, a buffer area may be allocated for each print data received according to the environment in which the printer device is used. In the present embodiment, the first buffer is configured to store only the print data from the input interface 1a, so that the opportunities of access from the host device are equalized.

The image processing units 3a and 3b are respectively provided with different microprocessors, and the expansion processing of two print data is independently performed in parallel. Further, the expansion processing may be made independent by multitask processing of a single processor. In this embodiment, the case where the number of image processing units 3 is two is taken as an example, but the number of image processing units 3 may be three or more. In that case, while the bitmap data of one image processing unit 3c is being printed out by the printing unit 4, the first image processing unit 3a and the second image processing unit 3c
When the image processing unit 3b of
Exclusive control and order control for preferentially printing the image processing unit 3a that has completed the expansion process are required.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

(1). First input interface 1a
When data is input from the first host computer (step S1), the data is stored in the corresponding buffer area 2a of the data buffer unit 2 (step S2).

Similarly, the second input interface 1b
When data is input from the second host computer (step S1), the data is stored in the corresponding buffer area 2b of the data buffer unit 2 (step S2).

Further, the third input interface 1c
When data is input from the third host computer (step S1), the data is stored in the corresponding buffer area 2c of the data buffer unit 2 (step S2).

Here, each buffer area 2a,
When there is no free space in 2b and 2c, the input interfaces 1a, 1b and 1c send a busy signal to the host computer to instruct the host computer to wait for transmission of print data.

The data buffer unit 2 sets a data storage flag corresponding to a buffer area in which data is stored.

For example, when there are three buffer areas as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the first buffer area is the first bit, the second buffer area is the second bit,
Using the data storage flag that allocates the third buffer area to the third bit, when it is "0", it is empty,
When it is "1", it can indicate that data is stored. The control unit 5 controls the operation of each unit by managing this flag.

That is, the data storage flag is "000".
, Then all buffer areas are empty and "01
It can be seen that data is stored only in the second buffer area if "0", and that there is no empty buffer area if "111".

(2). If the first image processing unit 3a is in the standby state (step S3), the first image processing unit 3a
With reference to the data storage flag, the data is read from the buffer area of the data buffer unit 2 in which the data is stored (step S4).

Then, the first image processing unit 3a sets the status flag to the operating state in order to notify the second image processing unit 3b that it is in the operating state. For example,
If the state flag is “0”, it is in a standby state, and if it is “1”, it is in an operating state.

When the data reading is completed, the first image processing section 3a resets the bit of the data storage flag corresponding to the buffer area to "0".

(3). The microprocessor of the first image processing unit 3a performs predetermined image processing on the data read from the data buffer unit 2 (step S5) to create bitmap data.

(4). When the image processing is completed (step S6), the first image processing unit 3a checks whether the printing unit 4 is in the standby state (step S7).

(5). When the first image processing unit 3a determines that the printing unit 4 is in the standby state, it outputs the print data to the printing unit 4 (step S8), but when it determines that the printing unit 4 is not in the standby state, the printing unit 4 Wait until is in a waiting state.

Whether or not the printing unit 4 is in the standby state is determined by a busy signal from the printing unit 4 or by the printing unit 4
Judgment is made according to the status flag.

(6). When the output of the print data to the printing unit 4 is completed, the first image processing unit 3a enters the standby state and returns to the process (2).

(7). In the processing of (2) above, the first
If the second image processing unit 3b is not in the standby state (that is, the state flag is “1”) (step S9), the data storage flag is referred to The data is read from the buffer area in which the data of the buffer unit 2 is stored (step S1
0).

The second image processing section 3b resets the bit of the data storage flag corresponding to the buffer area to "0" when the data reading is completed.

(8). The microprocessor of the second image processing unit 3b performs predetermined image processing on the data read from the data buffer unit 2 (step S11),
Create print data.

(9). When the image processing ends (step S12), the second image processing unit 3b checks whether the printing unit 4 is in the standby state (step S13).

(10). If the second image processing unit 3b determines that the printing unit 4 is in the standby state, it outputs the print data to the printing unit 4 (step S8), but if it determines that the printing unit 4 is not in the standby state, the printing unit 4 Wait until is in a waiting state.

(11). When the output of the print data to the printing unit 4 is completed, the second image processing unit 3b enters the standby state and returns to the process of (7) above.

(12). When the print unit 4 receives the print data from the first image processing unit 3a, the second image processing unit 3 receives the print data.
a busy signal to the second image processing unit 3b
When the print data is received from, the busy signal is output to the first image processing unit 3a.

Then, the printing section 4 releases the busy signal when the printing process is completed and the standby state is entered.

Alternatively, when the print unit 4 receives the print data, the print unit 4 sets the status flag to operating (for example, "1") and resets the status flag for ending the printing process to the standby state (for example, "0"). .

As described above, in the present invention, when it takes time to process the data that arrives first, the data that arrives later is printed first.

Further, although the embodiment of FIG. 1 shows the case where there are three input interfaces, the present invention is not limited to this. Also, the number of buffer areas is not limited to three.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, complicated print data that takes a long time is processed, such as outline font expansion processing and bitmap processing of tiff format image data with the resolution and line number of the printing unit. When receiving simple print data that can be processed at a relatively high speed by simply calling the bitmap font provided in the printer according to the character code, the simple print data is processed during image processing of complex print data. Can be printed out.

[0044]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to this, if the control unit is in the standby state, the image processing for which the expansion processing has been completed first regardless of the reception after the reception. Because the bitmap data of the copy is controlled to be output to the printing unit, when it takes time to process the data that arrives first, it is possible to print out the data that arrives later, and the standby state of the printing unit. Can be reduced to shorten the overall printing time. As described above, it is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent printer device capable of improving workability by reducing the data transmission waiting time to the host device and dramatically improving the throughput.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Input Interface 2 Data Buffer Section 3a First Image Processing Section 3b Second Image Processing Section 4 Printing Section 5 Control Section

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A data buffer unit for temporarily storing print data from a higher-level device, a plurality of independent image processing units for expanding the print data stored in the data buffer unit into bitmap data, and these. A printing unit that prints out the bitmap data from the image processing unit, and a control unit that controls to output to the printing unit the bitmap data of the image processing unit that has completed the expansion process while the printing unit is on standby. A printer device characterized by being equipped. 2. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit has a function of controlling the output of the print data stored in the data buffer unit to the image processing unit on standby. 3. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the data buffer unit is provided with a plurality of input interfaces for receiving a connection from a host device.