JPS63163926A - Data form conversion system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain parallel data on plural scanning lines with a simple constitution by dividing serial data every scanning line, sequentially inputting to hold it in plural shift registers and outputting it in parallel after the whole data are complete. CONSTITUTION:Shift registers S1-S8 whose number are as same as that of the printing means of a printing head are provided to a data conversion circuit 10 and a write signal W and a reading signal R are given to the respective shift registers S1-S8 from a control part 11. The respective shift registers S1-S8 can store the data corresponding to one scanning line and the displayed data are inputted in serial in the inputs. When the data corresponding to an n-th (n=1-8) scanning line is inputted, the write signal W is given to the shift register Sn. When the data are complete in the shift registers S1-Sn, the reading signal R is given to the respective shift registers S1-Sn and inputted in a latch circuit 12 to be a parallel signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data format conversion method that is suitably supported by devices including a display device such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) and a hard copy device.

Prior Art Conventionally, so-called video devices and so-called captains (
CAPTAIN) system, for example, C
A hard copy function is used to print out the images displayed on RT (infii AI tube) as they are. The print heads used in printing devices that perform such print output include impact type (wire dot type, etc.),
It is known that there are non-impact types (thermal recording method, inkjet method, etc.).

In any of these types of print heads, printing is performed dot by dot, and moreover, it is configured to print a plurality of dots, such as 12 dots or 24 dots, at the same time. While printing a plurality of dots at the same time, the print head moves in a fixed direction to obtain a printed output of, for example, characters or figures. Further, a CRT screen is generally composed of 525 horizontal scanning lines, that is, the screen is composed of 525 consecutive dot rows in the horizontal scanning direction and 525 adjacent dot rows in the vertical scanning direction.

When trying to obtain a hard copy from a CRT screen as described above, if the print head is configured to print 8 dots at the same time, data for 8 vertical scanning lines of the CRT screen will be captured in parallel and converted to serial data. There is a need to.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is that in the past, when performing such parallel data acquisition and data format conversion, for example, if 8 dots worth of data were required in the vertical scanning direction, such a problem could be solved. In the means for storing images displayed on a display screen, signals corresponding to eight vertical scanning lines that are adjacent to each other are respectively captured, and these 8-bit data captured in parallel are converted into, for example, a digital signal by program processing. They were converted into 1-byte CRT data using a computer such as 7 Torenostar. In such conventional technology, the program that converts the data format as described above is very sophisticated (
Therefore, the memory capacity for storing such programs increases unnecessarily, and
There is a problem in that this kind of program processing takes an unnecessarily long time, reducing the overall processing speed.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and provides a data format conversion method that can significantly reduce the amount of memory used and improve processing speed.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention provides a method for inputting each data string to a plurality of delay means in parallel for a plurality of data strings each consisting of a plurality of bits,
This data format conversion method is characterized in that serial data having a number of bits corresponding to the data string is constructed.

According to the present invention, each of a plurality of data strings each consisting of a plurality of bits is inputted to a plurality of shift renostas, and output as serial data at the backward bit position after the shift operation. Therefore, this data format conversion can be realized by the hardware configuration of the shift recorder, etc., and high-speed processing can be realized without imposing an excessive burden on software such as programs.

Embodiment FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the configuration of this embodiment will be described.This embodiment includes a display device 1, such as a CRT (cathode ray tube), and a printing device! ! The display device 1, which is equipped with 2 and 6 and is intended to realize a so-called hard copy function at high speed, stores the display contents displayed on the display device 1 in dot units, and has RAM (random access memory), etc. The stored contents of the six display storage units 3 to which the display storage unit 3 is connected are displayed as they are on the display device 1. These display devices 1 and upstream display storage section 3 are connected to a control device 4 realized by a microcomputer or the like.

A printing device 2 is also connected to the control device 4, and the printing device 2 includes a printing plate 5 and a printing drive unit 6. The print head 5 may be of any type, such as an impact type (wire dot type, etc.) or a non-impact type (thermal type, ink drop type, etc.). , printing is performed on the recording paper 7, but this printing output is performed in units of dots of minute area.Therefore, the print head 5 has a print travel direction of the print head 5 relative to the recording paper 7 (the arrow mark in FIG. 2). A plurality of (eight in this embodiment) printing means 8 are provided in a direction perpendicular to the printing means (indicated by A 1 and A 2 ).

This printing hand a8 is a printing wire in a wire dot printer, and a dot-shaped heating element in a thermal head.

That is, the print drive g6 needs to simultaneously drive, for example, eight printing means 8 of the print head 5, and 8-bit data for this purpose is output from the control device 4 in parallel.

On the other hand, the display screen of the display device (I!1) is generally composed of 525 horizontal scanning lines, so the display storage unit 3 stores 525 data columns 9. One column of data The columns have memory contents corresponding to one horizontal scanning line of the display vcll!1, and by taking out eight data columns 9 in parallel, the printing means 8 of the RAD 5 can be simultaneously used for printing as described above. For this purpose, the control device 4 changes the data format as described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of data conversion circuit 10 included in control 1114. The configuration of the data conversion circuit 10 will be explained with reference to FIG. As described above, the data conversion circuit 10 is provided with shift registers 81 to 88 as many as there are printing means 8 of the printing pad 5. These shift registers 81 to 88 are control wings fi4
A write signal W is output to each shift register 81 to 88 in parallel, and a read signal R is also provided.

This read signal R is transmitted from each data output DO, D1 . . . , D7 are outputted literally as described later, and the latch circuit 1 latches them.
2 is also given.

Further, each of the shift registers 81 to 68 described above is composed of eight stages of registers.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the data format conversion mode of this embodiment, and FIG. #4 is a timing chart explaining this data format conversion process. The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. As described above, the image information displayed on the display device 1 is stored in the display storage section 3 in the form of a displayed dot pattern. Here, as described above, eight data strings 9 m, 9 b, . . . corresponding to eight horizontal scanning lines are stored from the display storage unit 3, for example.
9h (indicated by the above-mentioned reference numeral 9), each of the data strings 98 to 9h is 8 bits,
The following explanation assumes that the contents are given as shown in FIG.

Each data string 9a-9h is individually input to shift registers 81-S8, respectively. As shown in the fourth rJA(1), at time t1, the control unit 11 provides a write signal W to the shift register S1. At this time shift register S
1 contains the data ``0.0.0'' of data 9a shown in FIG.
．． 0.0.0.0, IJ is taken. This state is shown in FIG. 4(3). After this, time t2 in FIG.
Then, the control unit 11 gives a write signal W to the shift register S2. At this time, the shift register S2 contains data "0.0.0.0.0.0." of the data string 9b shown in FIG.
1, IJ is taken in.

Thereafter, similar operations are performed for each shift register 83-88 in the dark from times 13 to L8.

Next, at time t9 in FIG. 4, the read signal R changes to low level. This falling edge is 9 edges, and each data that has been taken into each shift register 81-S8 is shifted by one stage within each shift register 81-S8. At this time, each shift register 81 to 88 outputs data DO to D.
7 is detected and stored in the latch circuit 12.

Next, at the rising edge of the read signal R at time tlo in FIG. 4, the control unit 11 reads the contents of the latch circuit and outputs the data.
l, 1.1.1.1.1.1.1, J, that is, data FFH (hexadecimal data) is obtained, and all eight printing means 8 of the RAD 5 are driven to print as shown in FIG. be done.

Next, at time tll in FIG. 4, the read signal R changes to a low level i2. At this falling edge, each data taken into each shift register 81 to S8 is transferred to each shift register 81 to S8.
It is shifted by one step within Trueno entry S1 to S8. At this time, the data DO to D7 are detected as described above, and the latch circuit 12
Next, at the rising edge of the read signal R at time t12 in FIG. 4, the control section 11 reads the contents of the latch circuit and outputs the data. At this time,
A data string [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, OJ, that is, data FEH (hexadecimal data) is obtained, and all the printing means 8 are driven again.

Thereafter, similar processing is performed every time the read signal R has a falling edge and a rising edge, and the data in the shift registers 81 to S8 are sequentially fetched into the latch circuit 12 at each falling edge, and at each rising edge. Then, the control section 11 reads out the contents of the latch circuit and drives the radar 5 for printing.

In this way, at the rising edge of the 8th pulse of the read signal R, at time t24, the data "o,
, o , o , o , o , o tl J is the data 8
When the conversion to 0H is completed, the control device 4 specifies (8 data strings) the nine data strings 9a to 9h in the display storage section 3, and performs the data format conversion process on these as described above. .

As described above, in this embodiment, the shift register 81
~ By simply using hardware consisting of S8 and latch circuit 12, data format conversion processing that converts 8-bit data captured in parallel to serial 8-bit data at the same bit position can be performed at high speed and in software. Don't put an excessive burden on yourself (it can be achieved).

Although the above-mentioned embodiment has been described based on a configuration in which a hard copy of the screen displayed on the display device 1 is made, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration.
The present invention can be widely implemented in a wide range of technical fields using a configuration in which multiple bits of data are captured in parallel and converted to serial data of the same bit position. Also,
In the above embodiment, eight data strings 9 are stored from the display storage section 3.
& Although we tried to import these data in parallel every ~9h, it is not limited to this, but in general, data can be imported from multiple parallel data columns), and the number of data columns to be imported at this time can be as many as the number of data columns. A shift register may be provided.

Effects As described above, according to the present invention, for a plurality of data strings each consisting of a plurality of bits, data at the same bit position for each data string is input to a plurality of shift registers, and after a shift operation, serial data is It is now output as . Therefore, this data format conversion process can be realized by hardware such as the shift register, and high-speed processing can be realized without imposing an excessive burden on software such as programs.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a configuration including a printing device 2 according to this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data format conversion mode of this embodiment. ,
FIG. 4 is a timing chart illustrating the data format conversion process of this embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Display device, 2... Printing device, 3... Display storage part, 4... Control device, 5... Print head, 8...
- Printing means, 9... Data string, 10... Data conversion circuit, 11... Control section, 12... Latch circuit, R.
...Read signal, 81-88...Shift register, W
...Written Signal Agent Patent Attorney Number of Strokes Keiichi Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] For a plurality of data strings each consisting of a plurality of bits, data at the same bit position of each data string is input in parallel to a plurality of delay means to construct serial data having a number of bits corresponding to the data string. A data format conversion method that is characterized by: