JPH07195760A - Control device of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve particularly bit map expansion processing efficiency to bands each without expanding a band sphere. CONSTITUTION:A band size of a frame memory 106 is set up and controlled so that the band size of the bands each and/or expanding leading address of the band are set up variably by comparing an expansion time derived by a CPU 102 and an expandable time of the band with each other.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer control device for analyzing input print information, executing bitmap processing in band units, and outputting print data to a printer engine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printer controller of this type, code data sent from a host computer or the like is expanded in a memory as bit information in band units, and the expanded bit information is transferred to a storage means at any time. In the configured printer control device, the head address of the band in the memory and the height of the band (the number of lines in the recorded image) are predetermined, and the bit information to be transferred to the recording means is alternated from each band. The transfer control is performed by replacing with.

[0003]

However, in such a device, since the head address of the band and the height of the band are determined in advance, when the bit expansion of each band is performed, for example, the bit of the first band is extracted. When the data is transferred to the recording device and the code data is bit-expanded in the second band, the transfer of the first band is completed even if the bit expansion work in the second band is completed in a short time. Until then, bit expansion of the next code data cannot be started.

Further, if there is a complicated process that takes a long time to develop, the output image is adversely affected unless the second band is completely expanded before the transfer of the first band is completed. Therefore, assuming such a case, if a configuration is adopted in which the height of the band is secured to be large and the time required to transfer one band is extended, a large amount of memory is consumed, resulting in high cost. There was a drawback that it would end up.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and by variably setting the band size or / and the band expansion start address of each band,
An object of the present invention is to provide a printer control device capable of significantly improving the efficiency of bitmap expansion processing for each band without expanding the band area.

[0006]

A printer controller according to the present invention comprises a band memory for storing bit map data to be transferred to a recording unit in band units, a receiving buffer for storing code data received from an external device, Converting means for converting the code data read from the receiving buffer into predetermined command data; band expanding means for expanding the bit map into the band memory based on the command data converted by the converting means; and the command data Deriving means for analyzing the expansion time of each band and the expansion time derived by this deriving means and the band expansion possible time are compared to variably set the band size or / and the band expansion start address of each band. And a control means for setting and controlling the band size of the band memory. Than it is.

The band expanding means is composed of a band expanding logic section and a main control section.

Further, the converting means is configured to convert into predetermined command data which can be interpreted by the main control section.

[0009]

In the present invention, the control means compares the expansion time derived by the deriving means for deriving the expansion time of each band by analyzing the command data with the band expansion possible time, and the control means determines the band size or // And the band size of the band memory is set and controlled so that the band expansion start address is variably set, and bitmap expansion processing is performed on the variable band area.

Further, the band expansion logic section and the main control section perform bitmap expansion processing to shorten the bitmap expansion processing time for each band.

Further, the converting means converts into predetermined command data which can be interpreted by the main control section, and improves the bit map expansion efficiency by the main control section.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of a printer control device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 102 is a CPU, 104 is a page buffer memory for storing code data sent from a host, 108 is a font memory, and 106 is a frame buffer memory for storing character data expanded into bit images. , 101 is an input I / F (interface) unit for exchanging data with the host, 1
Reference numeral 07 is a firmware memory in which firmware is stored, and 108 is a font memory in which fonts are stored.

Reference numeral 105 is a page buffer for storing print information in page units, and 106 is a work buffer for the CPU 10.
2. Used as a work area for the control unit 109. 1
A frame memory 06 stores the bitmap image data output to the storage unit 110 in band units. The control unit 109 controls the frame buffer memory.

Reference numeral 103 is an I / F (interface) unit for communicating with the recording unit, and 111 is a conversion logic circuit for expanding command data into a bit map.

In the printer controller thus constructed, the control unit 109 compares the expansion time derived by the CPU 102 with the band expansion possible time, and the control unit 109 variably sets the band size or / and the band expansion start address of each band. As described above, the band size of the frame memory 106 is set and controlled, and the bitmap expansion processing is performed on the changed band area.

In addition, the band expansion logic unit 111 and the CP
U102 (main control unit) performs bitmap expansion processing to shorten the bitmap expansion processing time for each band.

Further, the conversion means is a main control unit (CPU1
02) is converted into a predetermined command data that can be interpreted,
It is intended to improve the bitmap expansion efficiency by the main control unit.

FIG. 2 shows the frame memory 10 shown in FIG.
6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a variable bank area state of No. 6; FIG.

As shown in this figure, for example, the frame memory 106 is divided into two banks A and B, and the shaded area in the figure shows how much the code data is expanded into the bank A and the bank B into a bit map. is there.

Band 1, band 2, band 3, ...
... indicates the order of transfer. In addition, the recording unit 110
The transfer speed of the video signal transferred to the
Defined as T (S), the time required for all video signals in bank A (or bank B) to be transferred, as they are unique by zero.

The variable band processing operation in the printer controller according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing an example of a variable band processing procedure in the printer control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (1) to (7) indicate each step.

First, when code data is transferred from the host computer (1), the page buffer 1
The code data stored in 04 is sequentially read,
The command data to be expanded by the logic circuit 111 and the command data to be converted by the CPU 102 are converted (2), and the combined command data is created.

When the command data is created in this way, the band 1 which is the first transfer data in the bank A is
The CPU 102 and the conversion logic circuit 111 are operated to expand the command data into a bitmap. When the band 1 is expanded, the controller side is the recording unit 1
The video signal transfer to 10 is started.

Next, in steps (3) and (4), it is calculated whether or not the band 2 is developed within the above time T (S), and if it is determined that the time is T (S), (4), In step (6), band 2 is developed in bank B.

Next, in step (7), it is determined whether or not the bitmap development for one page has been completed. If not completed for one page, the process returns to step (3) and the next bank 3 Calculate the deployment time.

On the other hand, in the judgment of step (4), the time T
If it is determined that the bit map expansion is not possible within (S), the process proceeds to step (5), and the band height that can be expanded within the time T (S) (1/1 of the normal band in this embodiment). Set to 2 height). When the height of the band is changed, the process proceeds to step (6) and is expanded into a bitmap.

Next, from (7) and (3), band 3 is 1 /
Since it has only 2 video data, 1 / 2T
The height of the bank is changed so that the band 4 can be expanded in (S) (in this embodiment, the height is set to 3/4 of the normal height).
When the band height is set, (6),
Go to (7) and (3) and band 5 within 3 / 4T (S) time
If can be expanded, proceed from (4) to (6). This operation is repeated, and when the development for one page is completed in (7), the process ends. [Other Embodiments] In the above embodiment, the band height is variably controlled according to the expansion time. However, as shown in FIG. 4, the frame memory is divided into three banks, and bank A and bank B are normally alternated. Although the data is transferred, the part that seems to take a long time to expand is expanded to bank C using the free time after expanding bank A or bank B, and when the transfer timing comes, the recording unit 110 By transferring to, the useless free time can be effectively used.

According to the above embodiment, in the printer control device having the means for expanding the code data in band units, the start address and the band height are variably controlled to improve the efficiency of the expansion time and The code data is converted into command data that can be expanded by the logic circuit 111, and only complicated processing is performed by the CPU (main control unit) 102.
The deployment time can be shortened by entrusting it to.

The configuration of the laser beam printer to which this embodiment can be applied will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the structure of the recording unit (printer engine) 110 shown in FIG. 1, which corresponds to the case of a laser beam printer, for example. Note that the data source (not shown) can be used to register character patterns and fixed forms (form data).

In the figure, reference numeral 1000 denotes a laser beam printer (LBP) main body (hereinafter simply referred to as a main body),
Character information (character code) supplied from an external device such as the host computer shown in FIG. 1 or the like, which is connected to the outside, form information, a macro command, or the like is input and stored, and a corresponding character is stored according to the information. A pattern, a form pattern, etc. are created, and an image is formed on a recording sheet which is a recording medium. An operation panel 1112 is provided with a switch for operation and an LED display or an LCD display for displaying the status of the printer. Reference numeral 1101 is a printer for controlling the entire LBP1000 and analyzing character information supplied from the host computer. The printer control unit 1101 which is a control unit mainly converts character information into a video signal having a corresponding character pattern and outputs the video signal to the laser driver 1102. Laser driver 11
Reference numeral 02 denotes a circuit for driving the semiconductor laser 1103, which corresponds to the semiconductor laser 110 depending on the input video signal.
The laser light 1104 emitted from 3 is switched on / off. As a result, a character pattern electrostatic latent image is formed on the electrostatic drum 1106.

This latent image is developed by a phenomenon unit 1107 around the electrostatic drum 1106 and then transferred to a recording sheet. A cut sheet is used as the recording sheet, and the cut sheet is the sheet cassette 11 mounted on the main body 1000.
No. 08, and is taken into the apparatus by the paper feed roller 1109 and the conveyance roller 1111 and is electrostatic drum 11
06.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where band processing is performed with an arbitrary bandwidth from the head advice as shown in FIG. 2 has been described, but the band processing may be started from an arbitrary address.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The control means variably sets the band size or / and the band expansion start address of each band by comparing the expansion time derived by the derivation means for analyzing the command data and deriving the expansion time of each band with the band expansion possible time. Since the band size of the band memory is set and controlled as described above, the bitmap expansion processing can be performed on the changed band area.

Further, since the bit map expansion processing is performed by the band expansion logic section and the main control section, the bit map expansion processing time of each band can be shortened.

Further, since the converting means converts into the predetermined command data which can be interpreted by the main control section, it is possible to improve the bitmap expansion efficiency by the main control section.

Therefore, without expanding the band area,
The effect is that the bitmap expansion processing efficiency for each band can be significantly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a variable bank area state of the frame memory shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a variable band processing procedure in the printer control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating another variable bank area state of the frame memory shown in FIG.

5 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a recording unit shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 102 CPU 104 page buffer 105 work buffer 106 frame buffer 107 firmware memory 109 control unit 110 recording unit 111 conversion logic circuit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Ken Onodera 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Kenji Oki 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Incorporated (72) Inventor Atsushi Torizaki 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Takashi Ohno 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. ( 72) Inventor Toru Wakana 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A band memory for storing bit map data to be transferred to a recording unit in band units, a reception buffer for storing code data received from an external device, and code data read from the reception buffer as predetermined command data. A conversion means for converting into a band, a band expansion means for expanding a bitmap on the band memory based on the command data converted by the conversion means, and a derivation for deriving the expansion time of each band by analyzing the command data. Means and the expansion time derived by the deriving means and the band expansion possible time are compared to set and control the band size of the band memory so as to variably set the band size or / and the band expansion start address of each band. A printer control apparatus comprising: a control unit. 2. The band expanding means comprises a band expanding logic section and a main control section.
The printer control device described. 3. The conversion means converts into predetermined command data which can be interpreted by the main control section.
The printer control device described.