JPH0535733A - Electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the effective use of a memory when the image data to be printed are transferred to an output device at a high speed. CONSTITUTION:When the print image date are outputted to a printer, the image data are first evolved to a program memory PMEM 2 and a page-out inhibiting instruction is given to an OS. Then a DMAC 15 is started based on the position and the size of the image data. The DMAC 15 receives a start instruction from a CPU 1 and transfers the image data to a printer 13 in DMA from the PMEM 2 via 8 printer I/F 1-4. When the transfer of the image data is complete, the page-out inhibition is canceled for an area of the PMEM 2 that stores the image data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic device, and more particularly to an electronic device that reads a program from a main memory and executes the program to perform a predetermined process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a laser beam printer (LBP)
A document processing apparatus including a page printer such as the one described above has a dedicated memory for constructing an image to be sent to the printer. That is, when performing print processing, first, an image of the size of the recording paper to be recorded by the printer is first constructed in the memory, and then,
Each image (dot information) is output to the printer.

Since there are various recording paper sizes to be printed, it is necessary for the document processing apparatus to have a print-only memory having a capacity capable of developing a print image corresponding to the maximum recording paper size.

[0004]

It is well known that one of the features of a laser beam printer is high definition, that is, high recording dot density. Therefore, the print-only memory is required to have a large capacity.

However, since the print-only memory is used literally only at the time of printing and is treated separately from the memory used for creating / editing a document, its use efficiency must be said to be poor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above prior art, and provides an electronic apparatus that enables effective use of a memory when transferring image data intended for printing to a high-speed output device. It is the one we are trying to provide.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] and

In order to solve this problem, the electronic equipment of the present invention has the following configuration and operation. That is, in an electronic device that reads a program onto a main memory and executes a predetermined process by executing the program, the main memory includes an area for expanding image data to be printed, a storage position and a size of the image data. When the image data stored in the main memory is output to a predetermined output unit, the image data stored in the main memory is transferred to the image data based on the storage position and size.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of the document processing apparatus of this embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a CPU that controls the entire apparatus, and 2 is an operation processing procedure of the CPU 1 (a program relating to document editing processing, FIG.
4 and a program memory for storing document data being edited (hereinafter referred to as PM)
EM). Incidentally, this PMEM in the embodiment
2 has a capacity of 4 MB (megabytes). FIG. 2 shows a memory layout of the PMEM 2 in this embodiment. As shown in the figure, an area in which an operating system (OS) of about 1 MB (megabytes) is stored and resides, and 8 KB (kilobytes) as one page depending on the OS are used as so-called on-demand paging virtual storage methods. About 3 assigned to programs and data
It is composed of an MB (megabyte) area (non-resident area). In other words, programs and data that are logically continuous are physically allocated in page units, and
If the page is not frequently used, the memory for the page is released and saved to the DISK 11 described later (page out), and if necessary, the memory is allocated to the page and loaded from the DISK 11 (page In). With such management form, PMEM2 is O
Managed by S.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a communication I / F (interface) which enables transmission / reception procedures such as RS232C,
Reference numeral 4 is a keyboard, 5 is a pointing device (a mouse in the embodiment), and 6 is an interface (KEY I /) that enables connection between the keyboard and the pointing device.
F). 7 is the address signal, data, and
It is a system device that transmits a control signal. 8 is CR
T and 9 are VRAMs for developing bit images to be displayed on the CRT 8. 10 is a floppy disk drive, 11 is a hard disk drive, and 12 is an interface (DI that enables connection of the floppy disk drive or hard disk drive to the system bus 7).
SK I / F) is shown. 13 is, for example, a resolution of 400d
A pi page printer 14 is a printer I / F capable of connecting the page printer to the system bus 7. 15 is P
A DMAC that transfers data between the MEM 2 and the printer I / F 13 independently of the CPU via the system bus 7.
(Dynamic memory access controller).

The DMAC 15 of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.
The function and operation of will be described.

The DMAC link register 20 in FIG.
Is the address of the link table 21 in which the physical address information of the memory to be transferred is described.
It is a MAC register. This register is set by the CPU 1. The link table 21 is PMEM.
2 must reside in the OS resident area. In the figure, as an example of the link table 21, three entries including head addresses 22, 24, and 26 and sizes are shown. 22 indicates an area of 2 PMEM 23 and stores an address, and 24 indicates an area 35 of PMEM.
The 26th entry has the address and the size of 0, which indicates the end of the link table. The DMAC control register 27 uses the table information set in the DMA link register 20 to start the data transfer.
15, a register used by the CPU 1 to instruct D,
The MAC status register 28 outputs the result of the data transfer to D
MAC is a register shown to CPU1.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the DMAC 15. When a start command is set in the DMAC control 27 by the CPU 1, D
The MAC 15 obtains the address of the link table from the DMAC link register 20 in step S30. In step S31, the address and size stored in one entry of the link table are obtained. In step S32, it is determined whether those values are 0. If it is not 0, the data stored in the memory is transferred from the address to the printer I / F 14 of the size from the address via the system bus 7 in step S33. When the transfer process ends, the process of step S31 is executed again, and the process is repeated until the end condition is satisfied in step S32. When all entries have been transferred, the end information is set in the DMAC status register 28 in step S34.

Next, the overall flow of processing of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the operator gives an instruction to print the document, the print program is executed in step S40.
The print image is developed in bit units in the data area of the logically continuous print image of PMEM2 (1.9 MB for A4 size paper and 2.9 MB for A4 size on 400 DPI page printer). As described above, the data area of the print program and the print image is arranged in the non-resident area of the PMEM2 by the OS (operating system), and the actual physical memory is allocated by repeating page-in and page-out. ing. When all the image development is completed, in step S41, the OS is set to prohibit page out of the print image area.
Instruct. After this, this area will not be paged out by the OS and will become resident in the memory. The reason for this is that the page printer 13 is required to transfer images for paper continuously and at high speed. Therefore, at the time of output to the page printer 13, there is a constraint that the speed cannot be met if the print image is not in the memory. It is a treatment for Next, in step S42, in order to make the print image area resident in PMEM2, the same area is accessed page by page (in the present embodiment, one byte is read for each page) to cause the OS to page in all the area. Next, in step S43, the address and size values of the physical memory assigned as the print image area are set in the OS resident area of the PMEM2 as the link table 21 for each page, and the address of the link table is set to D.
The MAC link register 20 is set. Next, in step S44, the DMAC 15 is activated by writing a start command in the control register. Thereafter, data transfer and output to the printer are performed according to the operation of the DMAC 15 described above. DMAC in step S45
By referring to the status register 28, it is determined whether or not the data transfer is completed. When it is finished, the page-out prohibition for the print image area is released at step S46.
Instruct S.

<Description of Second Embodiment> In the above-described embodiment, the print target is document data, but it may be a graphic or image. This example will be described as a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of the second embodiment.

Since the same components as those in FIG. 1 are not described, the same reference numerals are given. The difference from FIG. 1 is that a scanner 17 for reading a document image and an interface (scanner I / F) 16 for taking in the image data read by the scanner 17 to this apparatus are added. Further, the operation processing of the DMAC 15 is based on the above-described first embodiment, and the printing processing of the apparatus will be described below according to the flowchart of FIG.

When the operator inputs an image input edit command, the image input edit program is executed in step S60, and a logically continuous input image data area (when an A4 size original is read by a 400 DPI scanner) 1.9MB, 2.9 for B4 size
MB). As described above, the data area of the input editing program and the input image is arranged in the non-resident area of the PMEM 2 by the OS, and the actual physical memory is allocated by repeating page-in and page-out.

When the printing process is executed during the input editing process, the process advances to step S61 to instruct the OS to prohibit the page-out of the input image area. After this, this area is not paged out by the OS and becomes resident in the memory (the reason for prohibiting pageout is the same as in the first embodiment). Next, in step S62, in order to make the print image area resident in PMEM2, the same area is accessed page by page (in the present embodiment, one byte is read for each page), and the same area is all paged in to the OS. Next, in step S63, the address and size values of the physical memory allocated as the print image area are set as PME as the link table 21 for each page.
It is set in the OS resident area of M2, and the address of the link table is set in the DMAC link register 20.
Next, in step S64, the DMAC 15 is activated by writing a start command in the control register. Thereafter, data transfer and output to the printer are performed according to the operation of the DMAC 15. D in step S65
By referring to the MAC status register 28, it is determined whether or not the data transfer is completed. When finished, step S
At 66, the OS is instructed to release the page-out prohibition for the image area. Then, finally, the input image editing process ends.

As described above, according to the first and second embodiments, the print image is expanded in the program memory,
By creating the link table and transferring the data to the printer by the DMAC, a dedicated image memory becomes unnecessary and the program area can be effectively used.

In the embodiment, the printer is used as the output means, but a hard disk or a floppy disk may be used as the target and the image may be written from the program memory. On the contrary, a hard disk or floppy disk is used as the input means in addition to the scanner.
Image data may be read into the program memory from these storage media.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single 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.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to effectively utilize the memory when transferring image data intended for printing to a high-speed output device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a document processing apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship between a DMAC register and a program memory according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation flow of the DMAC of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a flow of a printing process in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block configuration diagram of an apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the flow of printing processing in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 CPU 2 Program memory (PMEM) 3 Communication I / F 4 keyboard 5 pointing device 6 KEY I / F 7 system bus 8 CRT 9 VRAM 10 floppy disks 11 hard disk 12 DISK I / F 13 Printer 14 Printer I / F 15 DMAC 16 Scanner I / F 17 Scanner

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic device that reads a program onto a main memory and executes a predetermined process by executing the program, wherein the main memory stores an area for expanding image data to be printed and a storage of the image data. A means for transferring the image data based on the storage position and size when outputting the image data stored in the main memory to a predetermined output means, and having an area for storing information indicating a position and a size. An electronic device comprising: 2. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising input means for inputting the image data.