JPH09290549A - Refresh control method of volatile memory - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To lower the power consumption by a method wherein only a necessary memory is refreshed when needed. SOLUTION: A controller has a CPU 1 as a main processor, a non-volatile memory (ROM) 3 in which a system program is stored, a volatile randam access memory(RAM) that can be read and written to, a font storing memory (FONTROM) 5 and others. Data received via a HOST I/F 7 are developed to dot images on a page memory that is a part of the RAM, a print start signal is issued to an engine after the development is complete. The dot images are sent to an engine part according to the synchronous signals issued from the engine. The RAM of the non-volatile memory has a large capacity, and refreshment of the page memories that are unnecessary to be refreshed is prohibited during standby time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a volatile memory refresh control system, and more particularly, to a volatile memory in a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires a refresh operation, such as a color printer controller or a page printer controller. Regarding a refresh control method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a device equipped with a volatile memory which requires refreshing, all banks are always refreshed. Particularly, even in a printer controller having a large-capacity page memory, all banks are refreshed similarly, and power is wasted.

[0003]

As described above, as described above,
In a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, all the memories are always refreshed, and especially in a color printer controller equipped with a large-capacity memory, all the memories are similarly refreshed. Power wasted in vain. The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and is to reduce power consumption by refreshing only a necessary memory when necessary.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, a refresh operation of a device that does not access the memory is prohibited during a power save mode of the device. The feature is that the power consumption is kept low.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, the device is provided with hardware that enables control of start / prohibition of refreshing in units of banks of the memory. So,
The power consumption is kept low.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a color printer controller is equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, and an apparatus having a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black is refreshed in units of color memory planes. It is characterized in that it is provided with hardware capable of controlling the start / stop of the above, and thus it is possible to perform refresh only on a necessary color memory plane.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect, the refresh operation of the color memory plane that does not access the memory is stopped depending on the state of the printer. It is possible to control the stop, and it is possible to refresh only the necessary color memory plane depending on the printer status (for example, in standby mode,
The refreshing of all memory planes is stopped, the refreshing of other memory planes is stopped at the time of printing when printing only BLACK), and the power consumption is kept low.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the color printer controller is equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, and has a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black, and is required for data processing and printing. In a device having a signal for selecting a color memory plane, only the color memory plane selected by the select signal is refreshed. Therefore, the color memory plane required for printing is selected from the drawing data transmitted from the host. Signal is used to control the start / stop of the refresh, and only the required memory plane can be refreshed without the intervention of software, and the power consumption is kept low.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a volatile memory that requires refreshing is mounted on the color printer controller, and a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black are provided, and each memory plane is a gradation. An apparatus configured with a memory plane is characterized by having hardware capable of controlling the start / stop of refresh in units of gradation memory planes. Therefore, the control of start / stop of refresh for each gradation memory plane is performed. This makes it possible to refresh only the necessary gradation memory plane.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the sixth aspect, the refresh operation of the grayscale memory plane that is not accessed is stopped depending on the state of the printer. Therefore, the refresh start / stop is performed for each grayscale memory plane. It is possible to control only the required gradation memory plane depending on the printer state (for example, stop refreshing all memory planes during standby, and when printing a binary image, other The refreshing of the gradation memory plane is stopped) and the power consumption is kept low.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, a color printer controller is equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, and has a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black, and each memory plane is a gradation. A device including a memory plane has a gradation selection signal, and refresh is controlled by the gradation selection signal. Therefore, a gradation memory plane required for printing from drawing data transmitted from a host. The start / stop of refreshing is controlled by a signal for selecting, so that only the required memory plane can be refreshed without software intervention, and the power consumption is kept low.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a general printer controller to which the present invention is applied.
The controller is the main processor CPU1.
An ASIC 2 for controlling the system bus, a non-volatile memory (ROM) 3 in which a program is stored, a readable / writable volatile random access memory (RAM) 4, and a font storage memory (FONTRO).
M) 5, a memory (NVRAM) 6 that can hold data even when the power is off, and a HOST I / F as an external I / F.
7 and engine I / F8, HOSTI /
The data received from F7 is developed into a dot image in the page memory which is a part of RAM4, after the completion of the development, a print start is issued to the engine, and the dot image is sent to the engine unit in accordance with the synchronization signal sent from the engine. The operation is performed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a bank structure of a non-volatile RAM. The RAM of the non-volatile memory is a large-capacity memory, and as shown in FIG. Have capacity. This memory is logically divided into a system memory, a work memory and a page memory used by the system, most of which is the page memory. Therefore, if the page memory that does not need refreshing is prohibited from refreshing in standby mode,
It is an effective means to keep the power consumption low.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a hardware structure for controlling the refresh operation. The register 9 is a 4-bit register, the bit r1 is a bit for controlling start / inhibit of the refresh operation of the bank 1, and Writing "1" prohibits writing, writing "0" starts. Similarly, r2
Is a bit for controlling bank 2, r3 is for controlling bank 3, and r4 is for controlling bank 4.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the operation of the present invention. After power is turned on or printing is completed,
If there is no reception from the HOST I / F after a certain period of time,
The controller is in power save mode. This time,
The controller prohibits the refreshing of the memory banks that make up the page memory. Specifically, 1 is written in r2-y4 of the register 4 in FIG. The return from the normal operation mode is triggered by the reception from the HOST I / F, the refresh of the bank in which the refresh is prohibited is started, and the memory is initialized to enter the normal operation mode. After the printing is completed, if there is no reception from the HOST I / F after a lapse of a certain time, the power save mode is entered.

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram of a general color printer controller to which the present invention is applied. The controller stores a CPU 11 which is a main processor, an ASIC 12 which controls a system bus, and a program. Non-volatile memory (ROM) 13, readable / writable volatile random access memory (DRAM) 14 for work, color memory planes 21 to 24 configured by DRAM, and a Grapic for controlling them
Control ASIC19 and font storage memory FO
NTROM 15, memory (NVRAM) 16 that can hold data even when the power is off, and HOST as an external I / F
It consists of I / F17 and engine I / F18.
Data received from STI / F17 can be transferred to the Graphic Contro
l Color memory planes 21 to 2 through the ASIC 19
The dot images corresponding to the respective colors are developed in 4, and after the completion of the development, a print start is issued to the engine, and the dot image is sent to the engine unit in accordance with a synchronization signal sent from the engine.

6 and 9 show the details of the color memory plane. In the case of a color printer, as shown in FIG. 6, the page memory has four color memory planes 21 to 24 of Yellow, Magenda, Cyan and Black. It is composed of. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, each color memory plane is composed of a gradation memory plane, and in the case of FIG.
It is composed of eight (8-bit) gradation memory planes in accordance with 256 gradations per pixel.

The constituent operations relating to the present invention will be described in detail below. The DRAM of this embodiment is refreshed by the RAS (row address strobe) only refresh method.

In the third and fourth aspects of the invention, as shown in FIG. 7, a RAS_MASK register is provided so that the DRAM control signal row address strobe (hereinafter referred to as RAS) of the color memory plane can be masked. . The software control in this case will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 12, power O
N. After system initialization, this system is in the print ready state and waits for print data reception. At this time, all memory planes are not refreshed (the system work memory is naturally refreshed). After receiving the first word of data, the color information set on the operation panel or the like is acquired, and then the color memory plane is finally initialized. For example, if the color designation is black, BLAC
Only the Kmemory plane is refreshed and initialized. After that, it is the same as the normal operation. In this case, don '
Even with t care, the power consumption can be kept low without any problem for printed matter.

The invention of claim 5 is a system for automatically masking by hardware in a system having a color designation bit of a color memory plane for processing.
As shown in FIG. 8, when printing in a single color, refresh is masked by the color designation bit.

According to the sixth and seventh aspects of the invention, as shown in FIG. 10, a RAS_MASK register is provided so that each of the gradation memory planes of the color memory plane can be masked. The software control in this case will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 13, after the power is turned on and the system is initialized, the system enters the print ready state and waits for print data to be received. At this time, refresh is not performed for all the grayscale memory planes. After receiving the first word of data, the gradation set by the operation panel or the like is acquired, and then the gradation memory plane is finally initialized. For example, the gradation designation is 1 bit,
If the color designation is Yellow, the Yellow memory plan of FIG.
Only / RAS_Y_7 of e is started to be refreshed and initialized. After that, it is the same as the normal operation. In this case, even if the data in the memory plane that is not designated is don't care, the power consumption can be kept low without any problem for the printed matter.

The invention of claim 8 is a system for automatically masking by hardware in a system having gradation designating bits of a gradation memory plane for processing.
As shown in FIG. 11, in the case of printing with gradation designation, refresh is masked by the gradation designation bit.

[0023]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, the refresh operation of a device that does not access the memory is prohibited during the power save mode of the device. Therefore, the power consumption can be kept low.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, the device is provided with hardware capable of controlling start / prohibition of refreshing for each bank of the memory, and a power save mode. At this time, since the volatile memory which is not accessed is not refreshed, the power consumption can be kept low.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a color printer controller is equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, and an apparatus having a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black is refreshed in units of color memory planes. Since it is equipped with hardware that makes it possible to control the start / stop of refresh, it is possible to control the start / stop of refresh for each color memory plane.
Only the required color memory plane can be refreshed.

According to the invention of claim 4, in the invention of claim 3, the refresh operation of the color memory plane which does not access the memory is stopped depending on the state of the printer. It is possible to control the stop, and it is possible to refresh only the required color memory plane depending on the printer state (for example, in the standby mode, refreshing of all memory planes is stopped, and when printing only BLACK, other memory planes are also used. Power consumption can be kept low.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a color printer controller is equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, and has a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black, and is required for data processing and printing. In a device having a signal for selecting a color memory plane, only the color memory plane selected by the select signal is refreshed, and the drawing data transmitted from the host is refreshed by the signal for selecting the color memory plane required for printing. Since the start / stop of is controlled, it is possible to refresh only the required memory plane without software intervention.
The power consumption can be kept low.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a color printer controller is equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, and a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black are provided, and each memory plane is a gradation. In the device composed of the memory plane, the hardware for controlling the start / stop of the refresh for each gradation memory plane is provided, and the control of the start / stop of the refresh can be performed for each gradation memory plane. It is possible to refresh only the required gradation memory plane.

According to a seventh aspect of the invention, in the sixth aspect of the invention, the refresh operation of the grayscale memory plane that is not accessed is stopped depending on the state of the printer, and refresh start / stop control is performed for each grayscale memory plane. Therefore, it is possible to refresh only the required gradation memory plane depending on the printer status (for example, refreshing of all memory planes is stopped during standby, and when printing a binary image, other Power consumption can be suppressed to a low level, such as when refreshing the gradation memory plane is stopped.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, a color printer controller is equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, and a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black are provided, and each memory plane is a gradation. A device including a memory plane has a gradation selection signal, and refresh is controlled by the gradation selection signal,
Since the start / stop of refresh is controlled by the signal that selects the gradation memory plane required for printing from the drawing data sent from the host, it is possible to refresh only the required memory plane without software intervention. The power consumption can be kept low.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a printer controller to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a RAM bank.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a refresh mask register.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram of a color printer controller to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a color memory plane.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a refresh mask register.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a refresh mask based on a color select signal.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a yellow memory plane.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a refresh mask register of a yellow memory plane.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a refresh mask according to a gradation select signal of a yellow memory plane.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an example of control of information of a color memory plane.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of controlling gradation information of a color memory plane.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 11 ... CPU, 2, 12 ... ASIC, 3, 13 ... Code ROM, 4, 14 ... RAM, 5, 15 ... FONTR
OM, 6, 16 ... NVRAM, 7, 17 ... HOSTI /
F, 8, 18 ... Engine I / F, 9 ... Register, 19 ...
Graphic control ASIC, 21 to 24 ... Color memory plane, 25, 26 ... Register, 31 ... Gradation memory plane.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. In a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires refreshing, the refresh operation of a device that does not access the memory is prohibited during a power save mode of the device. control method. 2. A refresh control system for a volatile memory, which enables control of start / prohibition of refresh in units of banks of the memory in a device equipped with a volatile memory that requires refresh. 3. A color printer controller having a volatile memory that requires refreshing and having a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black can control the start / stop of refreshing in units of color memory planes. And a volatile memory refresh control method. 4. A refresh control system for a volatile memory according to claim 3, wherein the refresh operation of the color memory plane which is not accessed is stopped depending on the state of the printer. 5. A volatile memory that requires refreshing is mounted, a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, and Black are provided, and a signal for selecting a color memory plane required for data processing / printing is provided. A refresh control method for a volatile memory, characterized in that in a color printer controller, only the color memory plane selected by the select signal is refreshed. 6. A color printer controller having a volatile memory requiring refreshing, having a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, Black, etc., each memory plane comprising a gradation memory plane. In the above, a volatile memory refresh control method capable of controlling the start / stop of refresh for each gradation memory plane. 7. The refresh control method for a volatile memory according to claim 6, wherein the refresh operation of the grayscale memory plane that is not accessed is stopped depending on the state of the printer. 8. A color printer controller having a volatile memory that requires refreshing and having a plurality of color memory planes such as Yellow, Legenda, Cyan, Black, etc., each memory plane comprising a gradation memory plane. 2. A refresh control method for a volatile memory, comprising: a gradation selection signal, wherein refresh is controlled by the gradation selection signal.