KR0155258B1 - How to Release Buffer Memory for Page Printers - Google Patents

Abstract

1. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

A method of releasing a buffer memory for storing image data in a page printer.

2. Technical problem to be solved by the invention

Provides a buffer memory release method that can improve print speed.

3. Summary of Solution to Invention

If there is data received from the host, the data is processed in units of pages and converted into image data and stored in the buffer memory. Images are printed in page units according to the image data stored in the buffer memory. If there is no more received data or image data at the end of printing each page, the article storage area of the buffer memory is released.

4. Important uses of the invention

Used to improve the print speed of a page printer.

Description

How to Release Buffer Memory for Page Printers

1 is a block diagram of a general page printer.

2 is a process flow diagram according to the present invention.

The present invention relates to a page printer, and more particularly, to a method of releasing a buffer memory for storing image data.

In general, a page printer such as a laser beam printer, a light emitting diode (LED) printer, or the like prints an image in units of pages. Accordingly, processing of data received from a host such as a personal computer (PC) and management of a buffer memory are also processed in units of pages. This processing is usually done by a controller called a video controller provided in the page printer. The controller interprets the data received from the host, converts the bitmap image data according to the font by interpreting or emulating, and transmits it to the print engine. . The print engine then prints the image according to the image data on the recording medium under the control of the controller.

The page printer processes the data received from the host in units of pages, converts the image data into image data, and stores the data in the buffer memory. At this time, there are several types of data received, which are in the form of a predetermined control character. Accordingly, the controller analyzes these formats and converts them into a format that can be represented as an image through printing after processing each format. For example, when a letter A is received, the storage area of the buffer memory is allocated, and the buffer memory is changed into a form of enlargement, reduction, shading, bold, italic, etc. according to the property of the letter A. Store in the allocated area of.

The controller then transmits the page data of the page data stored in the buffer memory to the print engine for printing. After printing, the buffer memory must be released for future use.

Conventionally, the article storage area of the buffer memory used to print an image of one page has been released at the end of printing. This method does not affect the performance of the printer when the user prints a single page of images, in which case the user can obtain a normal print speed.

However, if you want to print an image of multiple pages, the controller will process the data of the next page even while printing is in progress, and the buffer memory will be allocated accordingly. In this case, if the contents of the data to be printed are simple, that is, all the data of the next page is processed during the printing of the previous page, and the next page can be printed immediately after the printing of the previous page is not a problem. In general, however, the user's content is rarely simple. Therefore, in most cases, the image data for the next page will not be prepared while printing the previous page. Therefore, the storage area of the buffer memory used for the previous page must be released while the next page is being processed. Therefore, the rest of the processing for the next page is postponed after release.

Normally, the buffer memory allocation that can occur in processing a single page of data in a printer is made at least several times and tens of thousands more times. Therefore, the release operation must be performed as many times as well. If this release operation is executed tens of thousands of times, long or short, the total time will be negligible. Therefore, the processing of the next page has been delayed since the release of lily, so when printing several pages, there is a problem that it takes a long time to print out all the pages.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a buffer memory release method which can improve the print speed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a buffer memory release method which can reduce the delay time caused by the release of the buffer memory.

According to the present invention for achieving the above object, if there is data received from the host, the data is processed in units of pages, converted into image data, stored in the buffer memory, and the image according to the image data stored in the buffer memory is paged. It prints in units and releases the article storage area of the buffer memory when the reception data or the image data no longer remains at the end of printing each page.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Many specific details are set forth in the following description, such as specific processing flows, to provide a more general understanding of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In the following description, detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may obscure the gist of the present invention will be omitted.

First, the block diagram of a general page printer to which the present invention is applied is shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, the interface 10 interfaces a signal input from an external host and a signal output to the host. The controller 12 communicates with the host through the interface 10 and controls the print engine 20 according to various commands input from the host or an operating panel (OPE) 18 to control various functions including printing. Do this. In this case, the controller 12 performs operations such as data processing, memory allocation, and memory release as described above. The memory unit 14 stores the execution program and initial data of the controller 12, and temporarily stores various data according to the operation of the controller 12. At this time, as described above, the buffer memory for storing the image data is configured using a RAM (Read Only Memory) provided in the memory unit 14. An input / output (I / O) interface 16 is connected between the controller 12, the operation panel 18, and the print engine 20 to interface the input / output signals of the controller 12. The operation panel 18 includes a plurality of keys for inputting various commands and a display device for displaying information according to the operation of the printer. The print engine 20 includes various mechanisms for conveying and printing paper and performs printing under the control of the controller 12.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing process including a buffer memory release according to the present invention applied to a page printer as described above. The function according to the flowchart of FIG. 2 is programmed into the memory unit 14 and is to be performed by the controller 12.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, controller 12 checks whether there is data received from the host at step 100. At this time, if there is received data, the controller 12 converts the received data into page data as described above in step 102 and converts the received data into image data and stores the received data in the buffer memory of the memory unit 14. The controller 12 transmits the image data of one page stored in the buffer memory of the memory unit 14 to the print engine 20 in step 104 to print an image according to the image data.

During the printing as described above, the controller 12 checks whether the printing is finished in step 106, and when the printing of one page is finished, checks the storage state of the buffer memory of the memory unit 14 in step 108, and then the image of the next page. Check for data, i.e. processed data. At this time, if there is image data of the next page, the controller 12 performs the above steps (102) to (108) again. On the contrary, if there is no more image data remaining, the controller 12 releases the article storage area of the buffer memory of the memory unit 14 at step 110, and then proceeds to step 100. The article storage area refers to a storage area in which already printed image data has been stored.

In the case of printing one page in step 106, the controller 12 repeats the above steps 102-106.

Therefore, at the end of every page printing, the article storage area of the buffer memory of the memory unit 14 is released only when there is no more image data remaining in the buffer memory of the memory unit 14. Accordingly, the number of releases is drastically reduced as compared with the related art, thereby reducing the delay time due to the release. As a result, the print speed is improved.

Here, of course, when the storage area which is no longer available in the buffer memory of the memory unit 14 is up, it is released as usual. This is general information and is not shown in FIG.

On the other hand, unlike the above, it is necessary to check whether there is data to be processed at the end of every page printing, that is, remaining reception data, so as to release the article storage area of the buffer memory of the memory unit 14 only when there are no more remaining reception data. It may be. In this case, instead of checking whether there is image data of the next page in the buffer memory of the memory unit 14 in step 108, it is necessary to check whether there is reception data. This will further reduce the number of releases, reducing the delay caused by releases and increasing print speed.

As described above, the present invention has an advantage of improving the print speed by shortening the delay time due to the release of the buffer memory.

Meanwhile, in the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be determined by the equivalent of the claims and the claims.

Claims (2)

A method of releasing a buffer memory for storing image data in a page printer, the method comprising: converting received data into image data in page units and storing the received data in the buffer memory when there is data received from the host; Printing the image according to the image data in units of pages, and checking the storage state of the buffer memory at the end of each page printing, and releasing the article storage area of the buffer memory when there is no more image data remaining. Buffer memory release method comprising the step of. A method of releasing a buffer memory for storing image data in a page printer, the method comprising: converting received data into image data in page units and storing the received data in the buffer memory when there is data received from the host; Printing the image according to the image data in units of pages and checking the presence or absence of the reception data at the end of printing each page, and releasing the article storage area of the buffer memory when there is no reception data. Buffer memory release method characterized in that it comprises.