KR0183749B1 - A printer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a printer that improves the utilization efficiency of the page buffer memory. In the conventional printer, all the repeated data is stored in the page buffer memory, but the printer according to the present invention can efficiently use the page buffer memory by storing only the first data among the repeated data in the page buffer memory. The printer of the present invention stores data transmitted from a computer but stores only one information of repeated data, and reads the data of the page buffer memory, and the repeated data therein is different from one stored information. And a printer interface controller for receiving data from the DMA controller and outputting video data.

Description

printer

1 is a block diagram schematically showing a conventional printer structure.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a page buffer memory structure of the printer shown in FIG.

3 is a block diagram schematically showing the printer structure of the present invention.

4 is a block diagram specifically showing a DMA control unit of the printer shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the page buffer memory structure of the printer shown in FIG.

The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly, to a printer capable of printing the entire data by storing only a part thereof without storing all the repeated data in the page buffer memory.

As a method of outputting data generated by a computer, there are a monitor and a printer. A printer is used to keep the created data as a record. To print data created on a computer, give a print command to the computer. The data is then transferred from the computer and stored in the printer's page buffer memory. Then, the data is printed by a direct memory access (DMA) controller and a printer interface controller. In order to explain the above process in more detail, a conventional page buffer memory structure is shown in FIG. Looking at the structure, it receives the data from the page buffer memory 11 for temporarily storing the data transmitted from the computer, the DMA controller 13 for reading data from the page buffer memory 11 and the DMA controller 13. There is a printer interface controller 15 that outputs video data to print it.

Data stored in the page buffer memory 11 is stored in units of pages. In order to print the data, the DMA controller 13 accesses the page buffer memory 11 and reads the stored data in byte or word units to the printer interface controller 15. send. The printer interface controller 15 then converts this to video data and outputs the printed data on the print sheet.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a page buffer memory structure of the printer shown in FIG. There is a memory space 23 and there is an address 21 assigned to each room of the memory. In the memory space 23, data A to J are stored in order from address 1 to address 15. The data F stored from 6 to 10 of the data represents repeated data. As shown in FIG. 2, all repetitive data is stored in the page buffer memory.

As described above, data written on a computer when printing data is all stored in the page buffer memory regardless of whether some of its contents are repeated. In order to print the data on the printing paper, the data must be read through the DMA controller and transmitted to the printer interface controller. If the data has a large number of repetitive portions, the data occupies a large amount of space in the page buffer memory.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of printing the entire data by storing only the first data in the page buffer memory as repeated data among the data to be printed.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a page buffer memory for temporarily storing data, a DMA controller for reading data of the page buffer memory, and a printer interface controller for receiving data from the DMA controller and outputting video data. In the printer having, the control unit is an address manager for managing the address of the page buffer memory, a comparator for comparing the address of the address management unit and the first address of the repetitive data, a repetitive data manager for managing the number of repetitive data, iteration It provides a printer consisting of a repeat cycle manager for managing the number of cycles, a transfer frequency manager for managing the number of transfer of data and a DMA controller for controlling the repeat data manager and the repeat cycle manager.

The repeating data is preferably a pattern or a line. According to the present invention, the utilization efficiency of the page buffer memory of the printer can be improved.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a block diagram schematically showing the structure of the printer of the present invention. Specifically, the data is received from the page buffer memory 31 for temporarily storing data transmitted from the computer, the DMA control unit 33 for reading data from the page buffer memory 31 and the DMA control unit 33 and printed thereon. There is a printer interface controller 35 for outputting video data.

Data stored in the page buffer memory 31 is stored in a page unit, but repeated data stores only the first data and no other data. Next, in order to print the data, the DMA controller 33 accesses the page buffer memory 31 to read the stored data in units of bytes or words to the printer interface controller 35. send. Then, the printer interface controller 35 reads the data stored in the page buffer memory 31 through the DMA controller 33 according to the data sent from the computer, and then converts the data into video data to print.

FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram illustrating the DMA controller of FIG. 3. Specifically, the DMA controller is composed of a DMA controller 51, an address storage unit 53, an address comparator 55, a repeat cycle calculation unit 57, a repeat data storage unit 59 and a transfer calculation unit 61. It is. In order to print the data sent from the computer, it is necessary to read the data from the page buffer memory in which the data is stored and transmit the data to the print interface controller. In the case of repeated data, as described in FIG. If you read them in order, you cannot print complete data. Therefore, the comparator 55 compares the address of the address storage unit 53 with the first address of repeated data, and if there is a mismatch, the DMA controller 51 calculates the number of transfers and prints the data transmitted from the computer in order. Then, when the address of the address storage unit 53 and the first address of the repeated data coincide, the DMA controller 51 starts to transmit the repeated data to the printer interface controller. At this time, the repetition cycle calculation unit 57 calculates the number of repetition cycles, and the repetition data storage unit 59 transmits the repeated data to the printer interface controller according to the repetition cycle number. After the repetition cycle ends, the repetitive data transfer is completed and the data at the next address in the page buffer memory is read and transmitted. Here, the repetitive data corresponds to a pattern or a line.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a page buffer memory structure of the printer shown in FIG. The structure shows a page buffer memory having only 15 memory addresses for comparison with FIG. There is a memory space 93 and there is an address 91 designating each room of the memory space. Although 6 to 10 of the data stored in the page buffer memory are conventionally occupied by all the repeated data, in the present invention, only the first data of the data is stored and the rest of the data having the following information is sequentially It is stored. In other words, the repeated data occupies almost no page buffer memory.

As described above, when a large amount of repeated data among the data to be printed is conventionally all stored in the page buffer memory to occupy much of the page buffer memory unnecessarily, in the present invention, the repeated data is not stored in the page buffer memory. Since only the first data is stored therein, the utilization efficiency of the page buffer memory is improved.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and it is apparent that many modifications are possible by those skilled in the art within the technical idea of the present invention.

Claims (2)

A printer having a page buffer memory for temporarily storing data, a DMA controller for reading data of the page buffer memory, and a printer interface controller for receiving data from the DMA controller and outputting video data. An address manager that manages an address of the memory; A comparator for comparing an address of the address manager with a first address of repetitive data; A repeating data manager for managing the number of repeating data; A repeat cycle manager for managing the number of repeat cycles; A transmission frequency manager for managing the transmission frequency of data; And a DMA controller for controlling the repeat data manager and the repeat cycle manager. The printer as claimed in claim 1, wherein the repetitive data is a pattern or a line.