JPH11284821A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To flexibly and efficiently share a memory by dividing a storage part into a 1st and a 2nd memory space, and using the 1st memory space as an image processing area for input and output of an image scanner and a printer and the 2nd memory space as an image processing area for transmission and reception, and copy image storage in common. SOLUTION: The common memory 14 of the facsimile equipment is connected to a memory control part and optionally accessible through a common bus 16. The address space of the common memory 14 is divided to proper size according to a program to be executed and data processing. For example, the memory is divided into the image processing area 30 for scanner read/printer output data storage and the image processing area 31 for data compression/ expansion processing. Therefore, image data written in the common memory 14 by a transmission-side control part is read out by a reception-side control part, so that image data processed by the respective control parts can be exchanged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a plurality of control units,
The present invention relates to a facsimile machine having a memory commonly accessed by these control units.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facsimile apparatus in which a host control unit, an image processing control unit, and other control units are separated, memories and I / Os are fixedly connected to a master bus in each control unit. ing. Therefore, a dedicated interface is used when data stored in the memory of each control unit is transferred between the memories or when data is transferred between the bus masters of each control unit.

In a conventional facsimile apparatus, an image processing area for input / output of an image scanner or a printer and an image processing area for transmission / reception, or an image storage area for copying and an image storage area for facsimile communication are independent. It is realized with the memory which was done.

In a conventional facsimile apparatus, image data of facsimile transmission / reception is compressed in accordance with an encoding method of ITU-T group 3 or 4 and stored in a memory.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the data transfer between the control units is performed by the dedicated interface, the I / O for controlling this interface is used.
Is required in each control unit, and there is a problem that an overhead affecting communication setting such as an operation setting of I / O for controlling an interface and handshaking occurs.

An image processing area for input / output of an image scanner or a printer, an image processing area for transmission / reception or an image storage area for copying, and an image storage area for facsimile communication are provided by independent memories. In this case, each memory needs to be controlled separately.
The hardware configuration becomes large, and the path of image data and control data between each control unit and each memory is determined centrally, making it difficult to configure a system with a high degree of freedom.

Further, when facsimile transmission / reception data is compressed in accordance with an encoding system such as ITU-T group 3 or 4, the compression ratio may be reduced depending on the type of image and the number of pages of the stored image may be reduced. there were.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus that can flexibly and efficiently share a memory when a plurality of control units perform respective processes.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a facsimile apparatus having a plurality of independent control units and a storage unit shared by the control units, wherein the storage unit is a first memory. Space and a second memory space.
The memory space is used as an image processing area for input / output of an image scanner or a printer commonly used by the plurality of control units, and the second memory space is commonly used by the plurality of control units. Used as an image processing area for receiving and storing copy images.

The plurality of control units include a host control unit for controlling a service operation of the apparatus and a line interface, an image processing control unit for controlling compression / decompression and resolution conversion of image data, an image scanner and a printer, etc. And an input / output control unit for controlling the input / output unit.

More preferably, the image data is transferred to the second memory space during copying and facsimile communication.
TU-TT. 82 standard or T.82 standard. JB according to 85 standard
In the case of copying, the image data read by the scanner is transferred to the first memory space, and at the same time the compressed data is JBIG-coded and stored in the second memory space. In accordance with the method, the compressed data is decoded, the image data is transferred to the first memory space and printed out, and in the case of facsimile transmission, the JBIG encoded compressed data is decoded and then transmitted. According to the above, the decoded data is facsimile-coded and transmitted, and in the case of facsimile reception, after decoding the received facsimile-coded data, the decoded data is JBIG-coded and the compressed data is converted into the second data. The image data is stored in a memory space, and the compressed data is decompressed in accordance with a reception output method to store image data in a first memory space. It is transferred to the printed output.

With the above arrangement, the first memory space of the storage unit shared by a plurality of independent control units is used as an image processing area for input / output of an image scanner or a printer commonly used by the plurality of control units. It is possible to use the second memory space as an image processing area for transmission / reception and copy image storage commonly used by the plurality of control units.

At the time of copying and facsimile communication, the image data is JBIG-encoded and stored as compressed data in the second memory space. At the time of copying, the compressed data is output and output to a printer. It is possible to provide a facsimile apparatus in which the compressed data is decompressed and then transmitted by facsimile encoding, and when facsimile is received, the received facsimile coded data is decompressed and JBIG-encoded and stored as the compressed data.

Further, by compressing the image data by the JBIG coding method, a higher compression ratio can be obtained as compared with the conventional compression method according to the ITU-T group 3/4 or the like, and the number of pages stored in the memory can be reduced. Many things become possible.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The facsimile apparatus of this embodiment has a main control unit 10, an image processing control unit 11, and an input / output control unit 12 which operate independently. And the main control unit 1
0 controls the service operation of the apparatus and the control of the line interface. The image processing control unit 11 controls the compression / decompression and resolution conversion of the image data.
2 controls input and output of the image scanner 20 and the printer 21.

Each of the control units 10, 11, and 12 includes a central processing unit (CPU) and a control unit (R) storing a control program and the like.
An OM, an I / O serving as a bus master, and the like are provided, and various processes are executed by executing a control program by a CPU, and the I / O serving as a bus master controls data processing.

This facsimile machine has a shared memory 14. This shared memory 14 stores, for example, R
It is composed of a semiconductor memory such as an AM, and is connected to a memory control unit 18 and can be accessed arbitrarily via a common bus 16.
Note that the address space of the shared memory 14 is divided into appropriate sizes according to the program to be executed and data processing. For example, it is divided into an image processing area 30 for scanner reading / printer output data storage, an image processing area 31 for data compression / decompression processing, and the like.

Therefore, the image data written into the shared memory 14 by the control unit on the transmission side is read out by the control unit on the reception side, so that the image data and the like processed by each control unit can be exchanged.

Next, a copy and communication operation of the present embodiment in the above configuration will be described.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a data flow in copy and facsimile communication.

First, when copying, image data of a document read by the image scanner 20 is stored as document data GD1 in the first memory space 30 of the shared memory 14 by the input / output control unit 12, and the image data is stored in the first memory space 30. The compression / decompression circuit 25 in the processing control unit 11 compresses the data into JBIG encoded data JBD1 and stores the data in the second memory space 31.

Next, the image processing controller 11 reads out the JBIG coded data JBD1 according to the contents of the copy operation, decodes the data and transfers the raw image data PD1 to the first memory space 30. 12 reads the raw image data PD1 and outputs it to the printer 21.

When transmitting a facsimile, image data of a document read by the image scanner 20 is stored as document data GD1 in the first memory space 30 of the shared memory by the input / output control unit 12, and The compression / decompression circuit 25 in the image processing controller 11
The data is converted into IG coded data JBD1 and stored as compressed data in the second memory space 31.

Next, the image processing control section 11 transmits the JBIG encoded data JBD according to a transmission method such as resolution conversion.
1 and, in some cases, resolution conversion is also performed. After decompression into raw image data RD1, the data is further converted to facsimile compressed data CD1, and the main control unit 10 reads out the compressed data CD1, and transmits facsimile data to be communicated. It is generated and output to the line via the modem 26 and the communication control unit 27.

Further, when facsimile reception is performed, the facsimile data received from the line is converted into facsimile compressed data CD2 by the main control unit 10 as second data.
At the same time, the data is converted into decompressed data GD2 by the compression / decompression circuit 25 in the image processing controller 11.

Next, the image processing control section 11 reads out the decompressed data GD2 and outputs the JBIG encoded data JBD2.
Then, the encoded data JBD2 is decoded according to a print output method such as image rotation or resolution conversion, and the raw image data PD2 is transferred to the first memory space 30. Next, the input / output control unit 12 sends the expanded data P
D2 is read out and output 21 to the printer.

In the above description and FIG. 2,
Original data read out from the scanner 20 and stored is stored in a JB
A case where IG encoding and decoding are performed after copying, a case where original data read and accumulated from the scanner 20 is JBIG encoded and then decoded and compressed to facsimile encoded data and transmitted, and a case where facsimile received from a line is received. An example has been described in which encoded data is decoded, JBIG-encoded, and then decoded and output to a printer.
The main control unit 10 adds character data to the original data GD1 and the decompressed data RD1 and PD2 in the shared memory 30, and the image processing control unit 11 adds the JBIG encoded data JBD1 and JBD2. The conversion process such as enlargement / reduction of the image is performed by the resolution conversion circuit in FIG.
Each of the control units 10, 11, and 12 has a common first memory space 3
0 or the second memory space 31 can be accessed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment,
By providing a memory for input / output of an image scanner or a printer and a memory for transmission / reception that can be commonly accessed by a plurality of control units, and performing data transfer between the control units using the two memory spaces. In addition, the hardware configuration can be reduced in size, and the interface between the control units can be performed at high speed.

Further, even when an image scanner or a printer occupies and accesses one page of image data at a high speed in an input / output memory space, the transmission / reception image processing is performed for one transmission / reception image processing. It is possible to operate in parallel using the memory space.

It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied not only to the case where it is achieved by hardware but also to the case where it is achieved by software by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In addition, a storage medium such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a memory card, or a CD-ROM for storing software in this case is also included in the present invention.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A first memory space shared by a plurality of independent control units,
Used as an image processing area for input / output of an image scanner or a printer commonly used by the plurality of control units, and using a second memory space for copying and transmission / reception commonly used by the plurality of control units. It can be used as an image processing area.

Accordingly, even when an image scanner or a printer occupies the first memory space at a high speed for processing, the image processing of transmission / reception can operate in parallel using the second memory space. is there.

Further, by compressing the image data by the JBIG encoding method, a higher compression ratio can be obtained as compared with the conventional compression method according to the ITU-T group 3/4 or the like, and the number of pages stored in the memory can be reduced. Many things become possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a data flow in copy and facsimile communication in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Main control part, 11 ... Image processing control part, 12 ... Input / output control part, 14 ... Shared memory, 16 ... Common bus, 18 ... Memory control part, 20 ... Image scanner, 21 ... Printer, 25 ... Compression / expansion Circuits 26 Modem 27 Communication control unit 30 Image processing area 31 Image processing area

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus comprising: a plurality of independent control units; and a storage unit shared by the control units, wherein the storage unit includes a first memory space, a second memory space, And the first memory space is used as an image processing area for input / output of input / output devices commonly used by the plurality of control units, and the second memory space is shared by the plurality of control units. A facsimile apparatus used as an image processing area for transmission / reception and storage of a copy image to be used. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of control units include a host control unit that controls a service operation of the apparatus and a line interface; an image processing control unit that controls compression / expansion of image data and resolution conversion; A facsimile apparatus comprising: an input / output control unit that controls input / output devices. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input / output device includes an image scanner and a printer. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein image data is transmitted to the second memory space at the time of copy and facsimile communication. 82 standard or T.82 standard. A facsimile apparatus characterized in that it is JBIG-coded according to the 85 standard and is temporarily stored as compressed data. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein in the case of copying, the image data read by the scanner is transferred to the first memory space, and the compressed data is stored in the second memory space by JBIG encoding and then copied. According to the method, the compressed data is decoded, the image data is transferred to the first memory space and printed out, and in the case of facsimile transmission, after the JBIG encoded compressed data is decoded, according to the transmission method, The decoded data is facsimile coded and transmitted. In the case of facsimile reception, the received facsimile coded data is decoded, and then the decoded data is JBIG
Facsimile storing the encoded data as compressed data in the second memory space, decompressing the compressed data according to a reception output method, transferring the image data to the first memory space, and printing out the image data. apparatus. 6. A control method for a facsimile apparatus comprising: a plurality of independent control units; and a storage unit shared by the control units, wherein the storage unit includes a first memory space and a second memory space. Memory space, the first memory space is used as an image processing area for input / output of an input / output device commonly used by the plurality of control units, and the second memory space is used by the plurality of control units. A control method for a facsimile apparatus, wherein the method is used as an image processing area for transmission / reception and copy image storage commonly used by a unit. 7. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for controlling a facsimile machine, comprising: a plurality of independent control units; and a storage unit shared by the control units, wherein the storage unit includes: Is divided into a first memory space and a second memory space, and the first memory space is used as an image processing area for input / output of an input / output device commonly used by the plurality of control units, A storage medium storing a program that uses a second memory space as an image processing area for transmission / reception and copy image storage commonly used by the plurality of control units.