JP5284076B2 - Printing apparatus, control method therefor, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to parallel processing using parallel control means.

  Conventionally, there are many systems that shorten processing completion time by performing processing using a plurality of processors. One example is distributed printing in which one printing job is printed by a plurality of printing apparatuses.

  For example, there are cases where the input data is equally divided and distributed, or the input data is divided at logical divisions of the input data and distributed to each device. In the above-described distributed printing, a technique is known in which processing is distributed in units of printing paper and printing data processing is performed by each printing apparatus (for example, Patent Document 1).

On the other hand, many techniques for performing printing data processing at high speed by mounting a plurality of processors in one printing apparatus are also known (for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 2004-288071 A JP 2007-152623 A

  However, since the conventional technique aims to perform each process at high speed, there has been no consideration of speeding up the entire process by simultaneously executing a plurality of processes in one printing apparatus.

  Therefore, for example, when printing data processing, network processing, user interface processing, and the like are executed in parallel by a plurality of control units installed in the printing apparatus, the following problems occur.

  First, when the control means for performing printing data processing and the control means for performing other processing are fixed, network processing and user interface processing in the printing apparatus do not occur frequently. In other words, it cannot be said that a plurality of control means are used.

  On the other hand, when printing data processing, network processing, and user interface processing are executed in a time-sharing manner by a plurality of control means by the time sharing method or the like, the priority of each processing can be set. Here, if a number of threads equal to the number of control means is generated for one print data process, and all the generated threads are set to have priority over the other processes, during the print data process, Network processing or the like is not performed, and the processing speed is remarkably reduced. Conversely, if the print data processing is set not to have priority over other processing, when the network processing or the like is executed by a plurality of threads, there is a period in which the print data processing is not executed by any control means. May occur, and printing data processing may not be accelerated.

  On the other hand, if some of the print data processing threads are set to have priority over other processes, and the remaining threads are set so as not to have priority over other processes, the above-mentioned problem will occur. Solve. However, it is important to assign which print data processing is preferentially set and which print data processing is not preferentially set.

  Since the order in which printing is finally performed on the paper is the normal page order, it is preferable that the print data processing is performed from the top of the normal page. However, if the print data processing time on each page is different when the pages are assigned to a plurality of control units in order from the first page, the order of pages on which the print data processing ends is likely to vary.

  Although it is conceivable to allocate pages so that the order of pages for which printing data processing is finished by predicting the processing time of printing data processing in advance is the order in which printing is actually performed on paper, the processing time It is often difficult to predict accurately. When user interface and network processing are involved, it is more difficult to accurately predict processing time.

  In order to perform print data processing in the order of pages to be actually printed, it is desirable to determine in advance a group of pages to be processed by each print data processing thread so that continuous pages are processed by one print data processing thread.

  However, if the processing time of each page is not constant, the mounted control means may not be used efficiently.

  For example, in a printing apparatus equipped with first control means and second control means, pages 1 to J (J is an integer of 1 or more) are used as the first control means, and pages from J + 1 to the last page are used as the second control means. Consider the case of scheduling to process. In this case, pages 1 to J are processed by a first print data processing thread having a higher priority than network processing and the like, and J + 1 and last are processed by a second print data processing thread having a lower priority than network processing and the like. Can be processed.

  However, if the processing of pages 1 to J ends earlier than the processing of J + 1 to the last page, the printing data processing is practically performed by only one control means after the processing of pages 1 to J is completed. Will not be done.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the problem, and an object of the present invention is to efficiently process a plurality of print data processes as a whole when they are executed in parallel.

In order to achieve the above object, the method according to the present invention comprises:
A printing apparatus control method comprising a plurality of control means capable of executing printing data processing using printing data and other processing in parallel,
An input step for inputting the printing data;
An allocation step of assigning to said plurality of control means by dividing the print data processing into a plurality of portions,
Wherein in any of the plurality of control means, when it is completed to the print data processing assignment is part of the print data processing, the print data processing other than termination portion, again, a plurality and re-allocation step of allocating to the control means,
According to the reassignment in the reassignment step, each of the plurality of control means executes the print data processing, and as a result of the reassignment, a portion having the highest priority among the plurality of portions of the print data processing An execution step of causing the control means other than the control means assigned to execute the other processing in preference to the print data processing ;
A printing step for executing printing based on the printing data for which the printing data processing has been executed by the plurality of control means;
It is characterized by including.

In order to achieve the above object, an apparatus according to the present invention provides:
An input means for inputting print data;
A plurality of control means capable of executing print data processing using the print data input by the input means and other processes in parallel;
And assigning means for assigning to said plurality of control means by dividing the print data processing into a plurality of portions,
Wherein in any of the plurality of control means, when it is completed to the print data processing assignment is part of the print data processing, the print data processing other than termination portion, again, a plurality and re-allocation means for allocating the control means,
According to the reallocation by the reallocation unit, each of the plurality of control units executes the print data processing, and as a result of the reallocation , the highest priority portion among the plurality of portions of the print data processing Execution means for causing the control means other than the control means assigned to execute the other processing in preference to the print data processing ;
Printing means for executing printing based on the printing data for which the printing data processing has been executed by the plurality of control means;
It is characterized by including.

  According to the present invention, when a plurality of print data processes are executed in parallel, the overall process can be efficiently performed.

  Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the constituent elements described in this embodiment are merely examples, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to them. Here, the printing data processing refers to processing from when image data is transmitted to the printing apparatus until before printing is actually performed on the paper surface. The result of the printing data processing is held in a storage unit provided in the printing apparatus, and is actually deleted from the storage unit after printing on the paper surface.

<System configuration>
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printing system as an image processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printer controller 1000 includes a network I / F 1001, CPUs 1002 and 1003 as control means, a RAM 1004, an HDD 1005, an operation unit I / F 1006, a device I / F 1007, and a RIP 1008. They are connected by an internal bus 1009. The PC 1100 is a host computer represented by a personal computer. The operation unit 1200 is a user interface and includes various buttons and a touch panel (not shown). The operation unit 1200 is connected to the operation unit I / F 1006. A printer unit 1300 is an image output device that prints image data formed by a printer controller on a sheet. The printer unit 1300 is connected to the device I / F 1007. The scanner unit 1400 is an image input device that optically scans a document placed on a document table (not shown) and reads an image. Similarly to the printer unit 1300, the scanner unit 1400 is also connected to the device I / F 1007.

  A network I / F 1001 is an interface for performing various communications with the PC 1100 connected to the LAN 1101. The CPU 1002 and the CPU 1003 execute various programs stored in the RAM 1004. The RAM 1004 is used as a work memory necessary for each CPU to operate in addition to various programs. The RAM 1004 can temporarily store various data. The HDD 1005 can store programs and various data before being loaded into the RAM. An operation unit I / F 1006 is an interface connected to the operation unit 1200, and when the user operates the operation unit 1200, the information is transmitted to the printer controller 1000. The operation unit 1200 also has a function of displaying various statuses output from the printer controller 1000. The RIP 1008 is hardware for converting document data in a specific format into bitmap data.

  Next, the printing operation of the printing system of FIG. 1 will be described using the flowchart of FIG. First, document data to be printed is transmitted from the PC 1100 (S2001). This document data is, for example, PDL (Page Description Language), and is generated by a printer driver installed in the PC 1100. The document data transmitted (input) from the PC 1100 is stored in the RAM 1004 via the network I / F.

  The document data stored in the RAM 1004 is converted into first intermediate data that can be processed in parallel in page units by the document data analysis program loaded in the RAM 1004 (S2002). The document data analysis program operates on either of the CPUs 1002 and 1003 or both of the CPUs 1002 and 1003 in a time division manner. The data generated as described above is stored in the HDD 1005 or the RAM 1004.

  Subsequently, the first intermediate data stored in the RAM 1004 or the HDD 1005 is converted into second intermediate data that can be interpreted by the RIP 1008 by the intermediate data analysis program loaded in the RAM 1004 (S2003). The intermediate data analysis program creates two threads so as to be executed by the CPU 1002 and the CPU 1003, respectively. Each intermediate data analysis thread is instructed not to overlap the page range to be processed. The second intermediate data generated by each intermediate data analysis thread is stored in the RAM 1004 or the HDD 1005. After the second intermediate data is generated, the corresponding first intermediate data may be deleted.

  Subsequently, the second intermediate data stored in the RAM 1004 or the HDD 1005 is converted into a bitmap using the RIP 1008 (S2004). The first intermediate data and the second intermediate data corresponding to the page converted into the bitmap may be deleted after the bitmap is formed. The bitmap generated in S2004 is transmitted to the printer unit 1300 via the device I / F 1007, where it is printed on a medium such as paper (S2005).

  Note that the print data received in S2001 may be deleted after generating the second intermediate data of all pages, or the print data may be deleted in units of pages after the corresponding second intermediate data is generated.

  Further, the process of S2003 may be executed after generating the first intermediate data for all pages. Alternatively, when the first intermediate data for one page is generated, the intermediate data analysis program may be requested to perform analysis processing according to the page range to be processed by each thread determined as described above. In this case, the intermediate data analysis program preferably includes a FIFO queue.

  Next, the first intermediate data will be described with reference to FIG. There are various formats for document data (PDL), and there are also formats that cannot be processed in parallel in page units. For example, there is document data including a print setting command for designating a line width of a line to be drawn and a drawing command for drawing a line. For document data that does not require a print setting command to be set for each page, the print setting for the previous page is generally inherited by the next page. In this case, the print settings specified until the drawing command for page 1 is completed must be valid for page 2 as long as it is not overwritten.

  3000 in FIG. 3 represents print data in a format that cannot be processed in parallel in page units. Reference numeral 3001 denotes a print setting command set before the end of page 1, and reference numeral 3002 denotes a drawing command for page 1. Since there is no print setting for page 2, the drawing process for page 2 is executed according to the print setting of 3001. Since page 3 has a print setting indicated by 3004, the drawing command 3005 of page 3 is processed according to the print setting.

  In order to enable parallel processing in units of pages with document data having such a specification, the print setting command executed up to the end of the previous page may be copied to the start of the next page. That is, as shown by 3100 in FIG. 3, the print settings of the previous page are copied for each page. Reference numeral 3101 denotes first intermediate data of page 1, which includes a print setting 3001 and a drawing command 3002. Reference numeral 3102 denotes first intermediate data of page 2, which includes a print setting 3001 and a drawing command 3003. Reference numeral 3103 denotes first intermediate data of page 3, which includes a print setting 3004 and a drawing command 3005. By performing such conversion processing, it is possible to convert the first intermediate data that can be processed in parallel. That is, the first intermediate data 3100 as print data includes a plurality of print data portions (first intermediate data of page 1, first intermediate data of page 2, first intermediate data of page 3). The print settings and drawing commands of 3000 and 3100 do not have to be in the same format. The print setting and drawing command 3100 may be a printing setting command and drawing command unique to the printing apparatus.

  Next, the configuration of software executed by the printer controller 1000 in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The operating system 4000 is software that exposes various APIs (application interfaces) to various software and controls the execution of each software. In the present embodiment, software operating on the operating system 4000 is a network control unit 4100, a user I / F control unit 4200, a copy operation control unit 4300, a printing operation control unit 4400, and other software. Each software has at least one thread. The operating system 4000 assigns the CPU 1002 or the CPU 1003 to these software threads at an appropriate timing, and executes each thread. The CPU is assigned to each application thread of the operating system 4000 according to the priority order of the threads set using the API for each thread. Priorities can be set dynamically not only during startup but also during software operation.

  The network control unit 4100 is software that analyzes various protocols transmitted via the network I / F 1001 of FIG. The printer controller 1000 supports not only protocols such as LPR and RAW used for document data transmission, but also HTTP for displaying the status of the printer controller 1000 and the printer unit 1300, SNMP for monitoring communication devices, and the like. The consultation data analyzed by the network control unit is delivered to appropriate software. For example, data transmitted by LPR or RAW is delivered to the printing operation control unit 4400, and HTTP data is delivered to WWW server software (not shown) to perform various processes.

  The user I / F control unit 4200 performs processing in accordance with user operation information input from the operation unit 1200 of FIG. 1, and also displays the status of the printer controller 1000 and the printer unit 1300 on a display device provided in the operation unit 1200. Is displayed.

  When using the copy function with the printer controller 1000 of FIG. 1, the user operates the operation unit 1200. For example, a copy start button provided in the operation unit is pressed. At this time, the user I / F control unit 4200 instructs the copy operation control unit 4300 to start processing. Then, the copy operation control unit 4300 controls the operation of operating the scanner unit of FIG. 1 to read a document and printing the read image by the printer unit 1300.

  Next, the printing operation control unit 4400 will be described in detail. The printing operation control unit 4400 is software that executes the printing operation described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The print control unit 4400 includes a plurality of software modules 4401 to 4406. The document data is transmitted from the network control unit 4100 described above, but the document data may be buffered in the RAM 1004 or the HDD 1005 at that time.

  The first intermediate data generation unit 4401 is a software module that converts the document data in S2002 in the flowchart of FIG. 2 into first intermediate data.

  The parallel processing scheduler 4402 has a role of allocating the first intermediate data generated by the first intermediate data generation unit 4401 to the second intermediate data generation unit 4403a and the second intermediate data generation unit 4403b. Each second intermediate data generation unit has one thread. In addition, when the process allocated to each of the second intermediate data generation units 4403a and 4403 is completed, the parallel processing scheduler 4402 reallocates the second intermediate data generation process of the page that has not been processed. The parallel processing scheduler 4402 resets the priority order of the threads held by the second intermediate data generation units 4403a and 4403b.

  The second intermediate data generation unit 4403a and the second intermediate data generation unit 4403b are software modules that convert the first intermediate data into the second intermediate data in S2003 of the flowchart of FIG. Each second intermediate data generation unit sequentially converts the first intermediate data in a page range designated in advance into second intermediate data in units of pages. Alternatively, the first intermediate data conversion instruction in units of pages stored in the FIFO queue provided in each second intermediate data generation unit 4403a, 4403 is sequentially converted into second intermediate data.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the second intermediate data generation units 4403a and 4403b sequentially process the first intermediate data stored in the FIFO queue 5001, convert it into second intermediate data, and output the second intermediate data. Alternatively, the parallel processing scheduler 4402 stores the first intermediate data in the FIFO queue 5002.

  The RIP scheduler 4404 transmits the second intermediate data generated by the second intermediate data generation units 4403a and 4403b to the rendering control unit 4404 in the order of output by the printer unit 1300 in FIG.

  The rendering processing unit 4405 is a software module responsible for processing to generate a bitmap from the second intermediate data in step S2004 in the flowchart of FIG. Actually, the rendering processor 4405 executes the rendering process by controlling the RIP 1008 in FIG.

  The print processing unit 4406 is a software module that performs processing for printing the bitmap generated by the rendering processing unit 4405 on the paper surface in step S2005 of FIG. 2 using the printer unit 1300 of FIG.

<Parallel processing scheduling>
The operation flow of the parallel processing scheduler 4402 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in S6001, the priority of each second intermediate data generation unit is set. In step S6002, the number N of boundary pages of pages to be allocated to each second intermediate data generation unit is determined.

  In step S6003, a second intermediate data generation process is performed. In step S6004, the process waits for the end of any second intermediate data generation unit. In step S6005, it is determined whether the second intermediate data generation for all pages has been completed. If the generation of the second intermediate data for all pages has not been completed, a page boundary J for allocating a page for which the second intermediate data has not been generated to each second intermediate data generation unit is determined (S6006). Further, each second intermediate data generation unit changes the priority order of the threads and continues the second intermediate data generation process.

  The processes of steps S6003 to S6007 are repeated until the second intermediate data for all pages is finally generated.

  The generated second intermediate data is stored in the RAM 1004 of FIG. 1, but each second intermediate data generation unit processes pages that are continuous to some extent, so that the memory can be used efficiently. is there. That is, each second intermediate data generation unit reserves an area for storing intermediate data of all pages allocated from the continuous area of the RAM 1004 at the timing at which processing is allocated. Since each second intermediate data generation unit sequentially generates the second intermediate data, it is possible to arrange the second intermediate data of the next page immediately after the end of the second intermediate data of the previous page.

  Next, the inside of the processing of steps S6001 and S6002 of FIG. 6 will be described. These processes are processes in which the priority order of each second intermediate data generation unit is set, and the parallel processing scheduler 4402 allocates the first intermediate data. In order to simplify the description, a case where the second intermediate data is created after the first intermediate data of all pages is created will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a conventional technique for generating the second intermediate data by one second intermediate data generation unit. 10 is a time chart of generated second intermediate data 7000, rendered data 7100, and print processed data 7200. Since the rendering process is substantially performed by the RIP 1008 of FIG. 1, the generation of the second intermediate data and the rendering process are executed in parallel. If the second intermediate data corresponding to the page to be rendered is not generated, the rendering process cannot be performed. The printing process is a process of printing on the paper surface by operating the printer unit 1300 of FIG. 1, and takes time such as a physical paper transport time. In particular, the time from when the printer unit 1300 is stopped until the first sheet is output is called FCOT, which is an index indicating the performance of the printer unit.

  In general, the stop state of the printer unit is canceled after the bitmap to be transferred to the printer unit is generated. However, when the second intermediate data to be transferred to the RIP is generated, the second intermediate data is released. In some cases, it is canceled when data is not generated. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the printer unit waits after a bitmap to be printed is generated. The FCOT in the present embodiment is the time from when the first page bitmap data is generated to when the first page paper is output, as shown in FIG.

  According to FIG. 7, the print processing 7200 is performed without delay until the fourth page, but since the delay 7202 occurs after the fifth page, the processing cannot be performed efficiently. If the second intermediate data is generated by two second intermediate data generation units, that is, two threads, as shown in FIG. 8, the print data processing can be efficiently performed.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the second intermediate data generation process from page 1 to page 4 is performed by one second intermediate data generation unit 4403a, and the process after page 5 is performed by the other second intermediate data generation unit 4403b. Do. Note that the second intermediate data 8000 from page 1 to page 4 is set to be executed with priority over the thread of the network control unit 4100 or the user I / F control unit 4200. The second intermediate data 8100 on and after the fifth page is controlled by the second intermediate data generation unit 4403b so that it is not executed in preference to the thread of the network control unit 4100 or the user I / F control unit 4200.

In general, the boundary at which the process is divided (5 pages in the present embodiment) is N which satisfies the following formula.

  Here, f (i) is the predicted generation time of the second intermediate data of page i. FCOT is the time from when the printer unit is stopped until the first sheet is output. t is an interval between completions of continuous page output when the printer unit can continuously perform print processing. r (i) is the time required to generate a bitmap for page i.

  When the process assigned to any of the second intermediate data generation units is completed, the parallel processing scheduler 4402 reallocates pages for which generation of the second intermediate data has not been completed.

<Reassignment and priority change>
Next, the reallocation process and the priority order change process will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.
The page that was last processed by the second intermediate data generation unit that has completed the processing is M, the page that is the processing target of the other second intermediate data generation unit at the same time is P, and the page is rendered at the same time. Let Q be the current page and R be the page that is printing at the same time.

(When M is smaller than P)
In the example shown in FIG. 9A, when the M page (4 pages in the figure) is completed, the second intermediate data generation processing from the page P + 1 (9 pages in the figure) to the last page (20 pages in the figure) is performed. Not finished. In this case, as shown in FIG. 9B, the parallel processing scheduler 4402 has a second intermediate data generator (bottom in the figure) that has processed page P from page P + 1 to page J (here, page 13). Side). Then, scheduling is performed so that the page J + 1 (page 14 in the figure) to the last page is processed by the second intermediate data generation unit (upper side in the figure) that has been processed (FIG. 9B). That is, preferential printing data processing is performed in the second intermediate data generation unit (lower side in the figure) where the previously assigned processing has not been completed. That is, printing data processing other than the completed portion is assigned to a plurality of control means.

  The parallel processing scheduler 4402 executes the second intermediate data generation unit (lower side in the figure) to which the page P + 1 is allocated with priority over the threads of the network control unit 4100 and the user I / F control unit 4200 described above. Set as follows. Also, the second intermediate data generation unit (upper side in the figure) to which page J + 1 (page 14) is allocated is set not to be executed in preference to the thread of the network control unit 4100 or user I / F control unit 4200 described above. To do. In effect, the priorities of the second intermediate data generation units are interchanged with each other.

J is set to the largest integer that satisfies the following formula. In the following formula, the time required for rendering is ignored because it is shorter than the second intermediate data generation time.

  Next, when the second intermediate data generation process up to page J (page 13 in the figure) has been completed, if the other second intermediate data generation process has not been completed, the process proceeds to step S6006 in FIG. The reallocation process and the priority order are changed. In the example of FIG. 9, when the J1 page (page 13 in the figure) first obtained as J in the above formula is completed, the second intermediate data generation process in the upper second intermediate data generation unit is completed. It is not completed until the middle of page 19. Accordingly, when the value of J is obtained again and the second value of J is J2 = 19, the 20th page is subject to reallocation, and the second intermediate data generating unit generates the 20th page of second intermediate data. . At this time, the priority order is changed, the priority order of the lower second intermediate data generation unit is lowered, and the interrupt processing of the network control unit 4100 and the user I / F control unit 4200 is processed by the lower second intermediate data generation unit. The setting changes to be executed.

(When M is larger than P)
A case will be described in which the page M that was last processed by the second intermediate data generation unit that has finished processing is larger than the page P that is the processing target of the other second intermediate data generation unit at the same time.
In the example shown in FIG. 10, in the first reassignment process, the same process as in FIG. 9 is performed, and the process proceeds from FIG. 10 (a) to FIG. 10 (b). After that, when the last page M (here, 20 pages) is completed, if page P (here, 12 pages) is being processed in the other second intermediate data generation unit, M> P. In this case, if the value of J is obtained again and J2 = 14, page P is processed from page P + 1 (page 13 here) to page J2 (page 14 here) as shown in FIG. This is performed by the second intermediate data generation unit on the lower side in the figure. Scheduling is performed so that pages J2 + 1 (15 pages in this case) to J1 are processed by the second intermediate data generation unit on the upper side in FIG. In this reallocation, since the lower second intermediate data generation unit that processes pages with a small number is the second intermediate data generation unit to be processed with priority, the upper second intermediate data generation unit continues to Can be interrupted. That is, the priority order of each second intermediate data generation unit is not substantially changed. That is, the reassignment unit causes the control unit other than the control unit to which the portion with the highest priority is assigned to execute the other process in consideration of which control unit has executed the other process in the past.

<Memory usage status>
FIG. 11 shows the memory output status of the second intermediate data when processing from page 1 to page L is performed by one thread and processing from L + 1 to M is performed by another thread. As shown in this figure, the memory can be used continuously except at the boundary of the page to which the process is allocated.

<Effect of this embodiment>
According to the method described above, even when there is an error in the prediction of f (i) or when a process that is not directly related to the generation of the second intermediate data is interrupted, the second intermediate data generation process is performed. The order can be performed in the order of printing to some extent. As a result, the second intermediate data can be generated at high speed, and successive pages are processed to some extent by the same thread, so that the memory usage efficiency can be improved.

  Further, the parallel processing scheduler 4402 may determine the above-described values of N and L according to the CPU occupancy rate of threads operating on this system, which can be acquired using an API disclosed by the operating system 4000.

  That is, in another system to which this exemplary embodiment is applied, processing having a higher priority than the second intermediate data generation may be executed. In this case, the second intermediate data generation process is not hindered by the network or the UI process, but an error may occur in the predicted value of f (i) described above in other processes. Therefore, if the occupancy rate of the second intermediate data generation processing thread is measured and the value of N or L is calculated by multiplying the value by f (i), the processing can be performed more efficiently.

  In addition, while the parallel processing scheduler 4402 calculates the above-described values of N and L, the second intermediate data generation unit that is operating may execute a process that has already been allocated. That is, even if it takes time for the parallel processing scheduler 4402 to calculate the values of N and L, the second intermediate data generation unit can continue the process assigned last time, so that the process can be performed more efficiently. It can be carried out. In this case, it is only necessary to control the second intermediate data generating unit to process pages other than the second intermediate data generated while calculating the values of N and L.

(Other embodiments)
In the above embodiment, the information processing method using two control means (here, the CPU) has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the information processing method using three or more CPUs is used. Is also applicable. Furthermore, the present invention can also be applied to parallel processing in which a CPU and a memory are shared by a plurality of threads, and parallel processing in which a CPU and a memory are shared by a plurality of processes.

  The present invention can also be achieved by supplying a program that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments directly or remotely to a system or apparatus, and the system or apparatus reads and executes the supplied program code. The Accordingly, the program code itself installed in the computer in order to realize the functional processing of the present invention by the computer is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  In this case, the program may be in any form as long as it has a program function, such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, or script data supplied to the OS.

  Examples of the recording medium for supplying the program include a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, and a magneto-optical disk. Further, there are MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R) and the like.

  In addition, there is a usage method in which a browser of a client PC is used to connect to an Internet site and a program according to the present invention itself or a file including an automatic installation function is downloaded to a recording medium such as a hard disk. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program according to the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the scope of the present invention. Further, the program according to the present invention may be encrypted and stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and distributed to users. This is realized by having a user who has cleared a predetermined condition download key information to be decrypted from a homepage via the Internet, execute the encrypted program by using the key information, and install it on a computer. It is also possible.

  Further, the functions of the above-described embodiments can be realized by an OS or the like running on the computer based on an instruction of the program and performing part or all of the actual processing.

  Furthermore, when the program according to the present invention is written in the memory provided in the function expansion unit of the PC and the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing based on the program, Included in the category.

It is a figure for demonstrating the whole system figure concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the data processing for printing which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the print data and 1st intermediate data which concern on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the software structure which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the 2nd intermediate data generation part which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the parallel processing scheduler which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the parallel processing scheduler which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the parallel processing scheduler which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the parallel processing scheduler which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the parallel processing scheduler which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the memory management which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Claims (7)

An input means for inputting print data;
A plurality of control means capable of executing print data processing using the print data input by the input means and other processes in parallel;
And assigning means for assigning to said plurality of control means by dividing the print data processing into a plurality of portions,
Wherein in any of the plurality of control means, when it is completed to the print data processing assignment is part of the print data processing, the print data processing other than termination portion, again, a plurality and re-allocation means for allocating the control means,
According to the reallocation by the reallocation unit, each of the plurality of control units executes the print data processing, and as a result of the reallocation , the highest priority portion among the plurality of portions of the print data processing Execution means for causing the control means other than the control means assigned to execute the other processing in preference to the print data processing ;
Printing means for executing printing based on the printing data for which the printing data processing has been executed by the plurality of control means;
A printing apparatus comprising: The re-assignment means, the low priority portion in the termination portion other than the print data processing, assigning to the control means terminates the allocated portion of the print data processing The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: The print data includes a plurality of print data portions in page units,
The printing unit performs printing based on page-unit image data generated by executing the print data processing on the plurality of print data portions;
3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a priority of the print data processing of the print data portion corresponding to a page printed earlier by the printing unit is high. Until said re-allocation due to re-allocation means is completed, to any one of claims 1 to 3 process control means not completed it continues and executes the process devoted last split The printing apparatus as described. Wherein, the printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a CP U. A printing apparatus control method comprising a plurality of control means capable of executing printing data processing using printing data and other processing in parallel,
An input step for inputting the printing data;
An allocation step of assigning to said plurality of control means by dividing the print data processing into a plurality of portions,
Wherein in any of the plurality of control means, when it is completed to the print data processing assignment is part of the print data processing, the print data processing other than termination portion, again, a plurality and re-allocation step of allocating to the control means,
According to the reassignment in the reassignment step, each of the plurality of control means executes the print data processing, and as a result of the reassignment, a portion having the highest priority among the plurality of portions of the print data processing An execution step of causing the control means other than the control means assigned to execute the other processing in preference to the print data processing ;
A printing step for executing printing based on the printing data for which the printing data processing has been executed by the plurality of control means;
A control method for a printing apparatus . The program for making a computer perform each step of the control method of the printing apparatus of Claim 6 .

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