JPH11157143A - Printing data-processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing data-processing apparatus which efficiently utilizes an intermediate data memory resource in a special hardware and can supply printing data at high speed to an output apparatus. SOLUTION: Intermediate data sequentially output from a first memory means 5 storing at least one page of the intermediate data by the band are transmitted to a second memory means 7 constituted of a band buffer area and a block buffer area. In this constitution, the block buffer area is divided on the basis of a data quantity of the intermediate data in the band stored in the first memory means 5, and the transmission of the intermediate data from the first memory means 5 to the second memory means 7 is controlled on the basis of a form of the division. The transmission of the intermediate data is selectively carried out to a block buffer part or band buffer part, and an order of the transmission is controlled on the basis of a table.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a print data processing apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a print data processing apparatus for supplying print data to a so-called tandem type color page printer in which a plurality of printing apparatuses capable of simultaneously printing on paper are arranged along a processing paper transport path. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of an electrophotographic color page printer suitable for small, high-speed digital printing, images (photographs), figures, characters, etc., which have been eclipsed from conventional character information-centric printing, are handled similarly. , Enlargement of figures, characters, etc.,
2. Description of the Related Art Print data processing apparatuses using a description language in which rotation, deformation, and the like can be freely controlled have been widely used. As a representative example of this description language, PostScript (Adobe)
Systems, Inc.), Interpress (Xe
rox), Acrobat (Adobe Sys.)
tems), GDI (Graphics Dev)
ice Interface (trademark of Microsoft Corporation) and the like are known.

The print information created in the description language includes a drawing command for expressing an image (photograph), a figure, and a character at an arbitrary position in a page in an arbitrary order. In order to print with a printer, print information must be rasterized before printing. Rasterization refers to the development of a raster scan line by developing a series of individual dots or pixels across a page or portion of a page,
This is the process of successively generating scanning lines continuing down the page. In a conventional page printer, print data of an entire page is rasterized before printing and stored in a page buffer memory. However, storing raster data for an entire page requires a large amount of memory. Particularly, in the latest electrophotographic color page printer, C (Cyan), M (Magenta), Y (Y
In addition to requiring raster data corresponding to toners of four colors (low) and Bk (Black), image quality is required more than a monochrome page printer, so that it is common to have a plurality of bit information per pixel. , Requires even more memory.

[0004] In response to the need for a large amount of memory, there is a band memory technology as a technology for reducing memory requirements from the viewpoint of cost reduction. Band memory technology is relatively easy to rasterize faster than directly rasterizing print data created in a description language, instead of rasterizing all print data for one page before printing by a page printer. After converting one page into a plurality of adjacent areas (bands) and storing the intermediate data corresponding to each band, the raster data is sequentially expanded from the first band of the page into raster data. This is a technology for developing in a buffer memory corresponding to a band.

Conventionally, a print data processing apparatus using the band memory technology generally uses dedicated hardware including a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory, an ASIC, and the like. In this method, the print data is directly input to dedicated hardware via a network or the like, converted into intermediate data in band units using a CPU of the dedicated hardware, and stored in a memory in the dedicated hardware. After one page of intermediate data is stored, the memory in the dedicated hardware is accessed, and the data is expanded into raster data by using the CPU of the dedicated hardware or the ASIC. However, due to the recent increase in resolution and speed of color page printers and the enhancement of color page printer functions (for example, network support for multiple protocols and multiple description languages), resources required for dedicated hardware are limited. It's getting bigger and bigger.

[0006] On the other hand, a method of driving a color page printer by adding simple dedicated hardware to a PC (personal computer) widely used in offices has appeared. In this method, generally, the print data is converted into intermediate data in band units using a CPU of a PC, and then transferred to a memory in dedicated hardware. After one page of intermediate data is accumulated, the memory in the dedicated hardware is accessed, and the raster data is developed using the ASIC of the dedicated hardware. In this method, a hardware resource for supporting a multi-protocol or a multi-descriptive language of a CPU or a network for generating intermediate data is a PC.
Can be used, and the resources of the dedicated hardware to be added may be small. With respect to this method, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-195182 is known. JP 6
In the print data processing apparatus described in JP-A-195182, intermediate data for one page divided into bands is P
The data is transferred to a memory in dedicated hardware in a printer connected to C through a serial interface or the like. In this method, a large-capacity memory is required as a memory for intermediate data in dedicated hardware in consideration of a case where image (photograph) data is input as intermediate data.

[0007] Further, Japanese Patent Application No. Hei.
No. 138609 discloses that in order to reduce the memory resources of dedicated hardware, intermediate data in band units is stored in a memory in a PC, and the intermediate data memory in the PC is stored in raster data by the dedicated hardware. A method of sequentially reading data for each band and developing the data into raster data is proposed. In the print data processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application No. 9-138609, intermediate data for one page divided into bands is stored in a memory in the PC. In this method, a large-capacity memory installed in the PC can be used as a memory for intermediate data for one page. Therefore, the memory added to the dedicated hardware is equivalent to the band, and more specifically, the band may be alternately switched. Therefore, only two bands are required.

On the other hand, from the viewpoint of the productivity of the color page printer, C (Cyan), M (Magenta), Y
(Yellow) and Bk (Black) are provided with developing devices corresponding to four colors.
After repeating for four colors of M, Y, and Bk, collectively transferring and printing on paper, a so-called single-engine type color page printer system is used.
Equipped with printing devices corresponding to the four colors of Y and Bk, each printing device performs exposure, development, and paper transfer, enabling full-color printing by passing the paper once through the four-color printing device.
A so-called tandem type color page printer has appeared. A print data processing apparatus for supplying print data to a tandem type color page printer is disclosed in
No. 92542 is known. JP-A-8-19254
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2 (1995) -207605 discloses that print information created in a description language is rasterized by one central processing unit, print data corresponding to four colors of C, M, Y, and Bk is stored in a frame buffer, and then printed. Is configured to transfer data in parallel for each small block in accordance with the recording speed.

[0009]

The method of sequentially reading the intermediate data memory in the PC for each band and developing the raster data into raster data by the dedicated hardware at the time of raster data development processing is applied to a tandem type color page printer. In this case, since it is necessary to simultaneously supply print data for four colors at different print positions, a high-speed data bus and data transfer of intermediate data from the PC to dedicated hardware are required.

Further, unlike the method described in JP-A-8-192542 for transferring C, M, Y, and Bk data, the load of generating intermediate data on the PC is reduced.
In order to speed up the print data processing, it is desirable that the dedicated CPU performs the color conversion processing to match the C, M, Y, and Bk color reproduction characteristics of the printing apparatus, which has a heavy processing load in the CPU processing of the PC. That is, in the dedicated hardware, for example, when the color signal of the intermediate data is an RGB color space signal, the R, G, B data different from each other due to the difference in the printing position
It is necessary to perform color conversion processing for inputting data and outputting C, M, Y, and Bk color signals corresponding to pixels of a printing device of four colors of C, M, Y, and Bk. Therefore, a mechanism for absorbing the difference between the printing positions is required.

From the viewpoint of reducing the data transfer, there is a system in which dedicated hardware is provided with an intermediate data memory that absorbs the difference in printing position. FIG. 2 shows a configuration diagram of this method. In the configuration of FIG. 2, the data for each band stored in the first storage means (PC) is transferred to the second storage means to a memory having a capacity for storing intermediate data of an amount which absorbs a difference in printing position, and thereafter, This is a configuration in which data is extracted from the second storage means and necessary processing such as expansion processing is performed. In this method, a large amount of memory is required for dedicated hardware.

Also, from the viewpoint of reducing the memory for intermediate data of the dedicated hardware, the memory for intermediate data of the dedicated hardware has only two bands for alternately switching the bands for each of C, M, Y, and Bk colors. And the intermediate data memory in the PC corresponding to the printing position difference is stored in C, M, Y, B
The data R, G,
There is a method of accessing the B data every time and transferring it to dedicated hardware. FIG. 3 shows a configuration diagram of this method. In FIG. 3, a memory for two bands is configured as a second storage unit for each print color, and data is transferred from the first storage unit to the second storage unit as needed. In this scheme,
There is a problem that data transfer from the PC to the dedicated hardware needs to be performed at a very high speed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is a print data processing apparatus for developing print data to be output by a tandem type color page printer into a data structure that can be output by the color page printer. In the above, the intermediate data memory resource in the dedicated hardware and the data transfer resource from the PC to the dedicated hardware are efficiently used according to the content of the print data, and the print data is output to the output device at the highest speed with the limited resources. It is an object to provide a print data processing device for supplying.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a print data processing apparatus which minimizes the processing load on a PC in a system configuration in which intermediate data is generated by a PC and the intermediate data is expanded and processed by dedicated hardware.

[0015]

A print data processing apparatus according to the present invention is a print data processing apparatus having a configuration for achieving the above-described object, and converts print data described by a predetermined drawing command into parallel data. What is claimed is: 1. A print data processing apparatus for supplying print data that can be output at an output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to recording colors capable of performing print processing, comprising: input means for inputting print data; Intermediate data generating means for analyzing the print data generated to generate intermediate data, a band dividing means for dividing the intermediate data into intermediate data in band units of a predetermined size, and an intermediate band unit divided by the band dividing means. A first storage unit for storing at least one page of data; and a second storage unit for inputting and storing band-based intermediate data sequentially output from the first storage unit. Means, transfer means for transferring intermediate data from the first storage means to the second storage means, and development for reading out the intermediate data stored in the second storage means for each band and developing it into a data structure that can be output by the output device. A processing unit configured to control an intermediate data storage configuration in the second storage unit based on a data amount of the intermediate data in band units stored in the first storage unit; (2) an intermediate data transfer / control means for controlling intermediate data transfer to the storage means.

Further, in the print data processing apparatus according to the present invention, the second storage means includes a band buffer area for sequentially updating intermediate data inputted in band units from the first storage means, and a band buffer area inputted from the first storage means in band units. A block buffer area for holding the intermediate data to be stored for a predetermined period, and the intermediate data transfer / control means, based on the data amount of the intermediate data in band units stored in the first storage means,
Executing a memory area division of the block buffer area in the second storage means, and controlling intermediate data transfer from the first storage means to the second storage means based on the division manner of the divided block buffer memory area. Features.

Further, in the print data processing apparatus according to the present invention, the intermediate data transfer / control means may include an intermediate data of a band having the largest intermediate data amount among the data amounts of the intermediate data in band units stored in the first storage means. Is characterized in that the memory area is divided into the block buffer areas in the second storage means based on the capacity capable of storing.

Further, in the print data processing apparatus according to the present invention, the intermediate data transfer / control means is configured to transfer from the first storage means executed by the transfer means to the second storage means based on the intermediate data storage configuration in the second storage means. In which the data transfer order of the intermediate data transfer is determined.

Further, in the print data processing apparatus according to the present invention, the intermediate data transfer / control means is configured to execute a second data transfer based on a table in which the memory area division configuration of the block buffer area in the second storage means is associated with the intermediate data transfer order. It is characterized in that it has a configuration for determining the data transfer order of the intermediate data transfer from the first storage means to the second storage means.

Further, in the print data processing apparatus according to the present invention, the expansion processing means converts the plurality of color data, which quantitatively represents the color of each pixel included in the intermediate data, into the recording colors of the plurality of printing devices of the output device. It is characterized by including a color conversion process for converting into corresponding color data.

Further, in the print data processing apparatus of the present invention, the second storage means includes storage means for intermediate data for a character / graphic drawing command and storage means for intermediate data for an image drawing command. The storage configuration of the storage unit for the intermediate data corresponding to the image drawing command is controlled based on at least the data amount of the intermediate data corresponding to the image drawing command.

Further, in the print data processing device of the present invention, the output device is configured to be capable of changing the output speed, and the output speed is determined based on the data amount of the intermediate data in band units.

In the print data processing apparatus of the present invention having the above-described configuration, print data described by a predetermined drawing command is input via a network or to a PC (personal computer) or the like which performs print processing. .
For print data input to a PC or the like, predetermined intermediate data is generated by intermediate data generation means executed by the CPU of the PC. The intermediate data is data at an intermediate stage in which input print data is developed into printable data in a printing apparatus, as will be described in detail later. The intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generating means is similarly divided at a predetermined band boundary by band dividing means executed by the CPU of the PC, and stored in the first storage means of the PC for each band. The stored intermediate data is evaluated by the intermediate data transfer / storage control means executed by the CPU of the PC at least for the intermediate data amount of each band corresponding to the image drawing command, and based on the evaluated intermediate data amount, The storage configuration of the storage means and the transfer order of the intermediate data are controlled. The intermediate data transferred to the second storage means is read out by the expansion processing means of dedicated hardware in accordance with the output of the output device,
The data is expanded to raster data and printing is performed.

[0024]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a print data processing apparatus according to the present invention.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle configuration of a print data processing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, a print data processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a print data input unit 2 for inputting print data 1, an intermediate data generation unit 3, a band division unit 4, a first storage unit 5, a transfer unit 6, It comprises a second storage means 7, an expansion processing means 8, and an intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9.
The data processed by the expansion processing means 8 is output to the print output device 10 and subjected to print processing. Hereinafter, details of each means will be described.

The print data input means 2 inputs the print data 1 generated by a PC on which the print data processing apparatus is mounted or a PC connected to the PC on which the print data processing apparatus is mounted by a network. And a function of temporarily storing the print data 1 until the print data 1 is output to the intermediate data generating means 3. The description language targeted in this embodiment is, for example, GDI
However, PDF (Port) represented by Acrobat
table Document Format), Po
A page description language represented by stScript may be used.

The intermediate data generating means 3 cuts out the print data 1 input from the print data input means 2 as a token in accordance with the syntax of a predetermined description language, executes a drawing command, and generates intermediate data. The intermediate data targeted in this embodiment is, for example, trapezoid list data for each drawing object having a trapezoid as a basic graphic element. More specifically, the intermediate data includes management information for managing the intermediate data, additional information including color information indicating how many colors the trapezoid data is to be painted with, and trapezoid list data representing an area for each drawing object. Be composed. Further, the additional information is different for a character / graphic element drawing command and for an image element drawing command.

The band dividing means 4 converts the intermediate data for each drawing object generated by the intermediate data generating means 3 into raster data by the expansion processing means 8 in band units and outputs the raster data by the output device 10. This is for dividing the data. The intermediate data generated for each band through the intermediate data generation unit 3 and the band division unit 4 is stored in the first storage unit 5 for each page.

The first storage means 5 stores the intermediate data divided in band units by the band division means 4 in page units, and stores the intermediate data in band units in response to a request from the expansion processing means 8. Is an intermediate data buffer for transfer to The intermediate data stored in the first storage means 5 is intermediate data continuously output by the output device 10,
This is intermediate data corresponding to print data of all pages or a part of the input print data, and includes intermediate data corresponding to print data of at least one page.

The transfer means 6 transfers the intermediate data in band units stored in the first storage means 5 to the second storage means 7 in the order determined by the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9.

The second storage means 7 comprises a storage area for holding the intermediate data input in band units for a predetermined period and a storage area for sequentially updating the intermediate data input in band units. The size and configuration of the area are controlled by the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9. More specifically, the storage area for holding the intermediate data for a predetermined period is for absorbing the difference in the printing positions of the four color printing devices C, M, Y, and Bk of the tandem type color page printer. Is to increase or decrease the number of bands to be held in accordance with the data amount of the intermediate data to be printed out. The intermediate data in the storage area held for a predetermined period is transferred to a storage area in which the intermediate data is sequentially updated instead of transferring the held intermediate data from the first storage unit. The storage area for sequentially updating the intermediate data is an area which becomes a so-called input buffer for performing expansion processing on a band-by-band basis by the expansion processing means 8 at the subsequent stage, and is constituted by a double buffer. In the present embodiment, the storage area for sequentially updating the intermediate data is fixed, the storage area for holding the intermediate data for a predetermined period is made variable, and the size of the storage area is changed according to the data amount of the intermediate data to be printed out. In addition, the storage area for holding the intermediate data for a predetermined period and the storage area for sequentially updating the intermediate data may be variable.

The expansion processing means 8 reads the intermediate data stored in the second storage means 7 in band units, and expands print data (raster data) in an output buffer memory in the expansion processing means 8. The output buffer memory in the expansion processing means 8 is provided in a double buffer configuration, and while the print data is expanded in one output buffer memory, the print data stored in the other output buffer memory is output to the output device 10. Are output to each printing device in response to a print data request from each printing device.

The intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9 comprises:
The data amount of the print-output intermediate data stored in the storage means 5 is evaluated, and the size and configuration of the storage area of the second storage means 7 are controlled as described above. It controls the order of bands of intermediate data to be transferred to the storage means 7.

Here, an outline of the transfer and control of the intermediate data executed by the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9 of the print processing apparatus of the present invention is shown in FIG.
Will be described using an example of the intermediate data storage configuration and the intermediate data transfer. In FIG. 4, the storage of the intermediate data in the first storage means is performed in band units. A part of the intermediate data stored in the first storage means is transferred to an “area for holding the intermediate data for a predetermined period: a block buffer” in the second storage means, and a part is directly transferred to an “area for sequentially updating the intermediate data” : Band buffer ”. These memory area configurations shown in FIG. 4 will be described in detail later,
This corresponds to the block buffer unit 704 and the band buffer unit 703 shown in FIG. The intermediate data transferred to the “area for holding the intermediate data for a predetermined period” in FIG. 4 is transferred to the “area for sequentially updating the intermediate data” as necessary. The data transferred to the “area for sequentially updating intermediate data” is transferred to the expansion processing hardware (HW) unit,
After the rasterization process is sequentially performed and the rasterization process is completed, the printing process is executed.

As shown in FIG. 4, the "area for holding the intermediate data for a predetermined period" and the "area for sequentially updating the intermediate data" are configured in the second storage means, so that the first area can be obtained.
The number of times of data transfer from the storage unit to the second storage unit can be reduced. This specific data transfer method will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS. Further, as described above, the “region for holding the intermediate data for a predetermined period” and the “region for sequentially updating the intermediate data” are the second region.
With the configuration in the storage means, when the amount of intermediate data is smaller than the memory amount of the second storage means, the number of transfers of the intermediate data is reduced, and the amount of intermediate data is larger than the memory amount of the second storage means. In such a case, it is possible to adopt a configuration in which the number of transfers is increased according to the amount of intermediate data. Therefore, transfer of intermediate data from the first storage unit to the second storage unit of the PC, which consumes a large amount of resources for data transfer of the PC, is minimized in accordance with the amount of memory of the second storage unit and the amount of intermediate data. , The load on the PC can be reduced.

The output device 10 includes four color printing devices of C, M, Y, and Bk, receives print data output from the output buffer memory of the expansion processing means 8 for each printing device, and prints the data on a recording sheet. This is a tandem type color laser printer that prints and outputs. FIG. 7 shows a configuration example of a tandem type color page printer. In FIG. 7, the tandem type color laser printer has various printing devices corresponding to recording colors, that is, a black data printing device 37 and a yellow printing device.
w data printing device 37 ′, Magenta data printing device 37 ″, cyan data printing device 37 ″ ″, a transport belt 52 that transports the recording paper 51, and a fixing device 53
And so on. Further, as typically shown in the printing device at the right end of FIG.
1, a charger 372, a laser scanning device 373, a developing device 374 corresponding to a recording color, a transfer device 375, and the like. The laser scanning device 373 includes an infrared semiconductor laser,
It is composed of a lens and a polygon mirror, and scans the photosensitive drum 371 as a spot light of several tens μm. The photoconductor drum 371 is charged by a charger 372,
An electrostatic latent image is formed by the optical signal. The latent image becomes a toner image by two-component magnetic brush development on a developing device 374 corresponding to a recording color, and is transferred by a transfer device 375 to the recording paper 5.
1 is transferred. This process is called Black, Yell
ow, Magenta, and Cyan are repeated in this order, and multiple transfer is performed on recording paper. Finally, the recording paper is peeled off from the transport belt 52, and the fixing device 53 fixes the toner.

Next, an embodiment of the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 is a configuration example of hardware in which the entire print data processing apparatus of the present embodiment is mounted. In FIG. 5, the present embodiment includes a PC (personal computer) 21 and a PC (personal computer).
It comprises a network 23 to which the PC 21 is connected, dedicated hardware 36, a high-speed serial bus 35 connecting the PC 21 and the dedicated hardware 36, and the output device 10.

The network 23 is, for example, Ethernet
and a PC not shown via the network 23.
And the print data 1 is input from the workstation.

The PC 21 is a CPU (Central Processing Unit)
24, a memory controller 25, a DRAM 26,
System bus controller 27, network interface 28, magnetic disk 29, CPU bus 31
And a system bus 32. The system bus 32 is, for example, a PCI (Perip)
heral Compact Interconnect
t) a bus, which enables high-speed data transfer.

The high-speed serial bus 35 is, for example, an IEEE
1394 high-performance serial bus. IEEE 1394
By providing a high-performance serial bus, intermediate data transfer between the PC 21 and dedicated hardware can be performed at a constant speed in the isochronous transfer mode.

The PC 21 has functions corresponding to the print data input means 2, the intermediate data generating means 3, the band dividing means 4, the first storage means 5, and the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9 of the present embodiment. . For example, the magnetic disk 29
A storage area for a predetermined program or the like for each processing of the print data input unit 2, the intermediate data generation unit 3, the band division unit 4, the transfer unit 6, and the intermediate data transfer / storage control unit 9;
It is used as a print data storage area of the print data input means 2. The DRAM 26 includes an intermediate data generation unit 3, a band division unit 4, a transfer unit 6, and an intermediate data transfer unit.
It is used as a work area for each processing of the storage control means 9 and a memory area of the first storage means 5. Furthermore, CP
In U31, the print data input means 2, the intermediate data generation means 3, the band division means 4, the transfer means 6, the intermediate data transfer
A predetermined program for each process of the storage control means 9 is executed.

FIG. 6 shows a configuration example of the dedicated hardware 36. In FIG. 6, the dedicated hardware 36 includes, for example, a serial bus interface 41, a memory control LSI 42 that controls the memory configuration of the second storage unit based on an instruction from the intermediate data transfer / storage control unit 9, and a memory of the second storage unit. A DRAM 43 to be provided, and an intermediate data control LSI 44 for reading out intermediate data for development processing from the DRAM 43 and distributing the data to trapezoidal data processing and image processing
４４44 ″ ′, a trapezoidal data processing LSI 45 for developing raster data from trapezoidal data, and an image processing LSI 46 for executing image processing such as color conversion and resolution conversion.
And a DRAM 47 for an output buffer memory, and a video interface LSI 48 for outputting raster data of the output buffer memory to each of the printing devices 37 to 37 ″ ′ of the output device 10. FIG.
, The intermediate data control LSIs 44 to 44 ′ ″
And four video interface LSIs 48 are provided for each of the printing devices 37 to 37 ′ ″.

The outline and the mounting form of the print data processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied have been described above. Hereinafter, the main part of the present invention will be described in detail.

First, details of intermediate data generation and band division in the print data processing apparatus will be described.

As shown in FIG. 8, the intermediate data generating means 3 includes a lexical interpretation unit 301, a token interpretation unit 302, an instruction execution unit 303, a drawing state storage unit 304, an image processing unit 305, a vector data It comprises a generation unit 306, a font management unit 307, a matrix conversion unit 308, a short vector generation unit 309, and a trapezoid data generation unit 310.

The lexical analysis unit 301 cuts out the print information file input from the print data input unit as a token according to the syntax of a predetermined description language, and outputs the cut-out token to the token interpreting unit 302.

The token interpreting unit 302 includes the token analyzing unit 30
1 is interpreted and converted into an internal instruction and its arguments, and a set of these internal instructions and arguments is converted into an instruction execution unit 3
Transfer to 03. For example, the internal commands include a drawing command for executing drawing of characters / graphics / images, and a drawing state command for setting information required for drawing such as color and line attribute.

The instruction execution unit 303 includes the token interpretation unit 30
Execute the internal command sent from 2. The commands executed here mainly include a drawing command and a drawing state command. For example, there are three types of drawing commands as shown in Table 1 below, and information necessary for each drawing is shown. Among them, information having an underline is given as an argument in a drawing command, and other information is stored in advance in a drawing state storage unit 304 by initial setting or a preceding command.
Is stored in The execution of the drawing command is performed by directly receiving the drawing command other than the image drawing from the vector data generation unit 3.
06. In the case of image drawing, the received drawing command is transferred to the image processing unit 305, and the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header are transferred to the vector data generating unit 306. For the drawing state command, the command is transferred to the drawing state storage unit 304.

[0049]

[Table 1]

The image processing unit 305 performs an affine transformation on the input image header and the input image data, which are the arguments of the command input from the command execution unit 303, using the conversion matrix obtained from the drawing state storage unit 304, Processing such as color space conversion for converting the color space of the image into a color space independent of the color space of the input / output device is performed, and an output image header and output image data are generated and transferred to the band dividing means. In addition, as a processing function of the image processing unit 305, compression processing is performed on image data to reduce intermediate data,
Decompression processing may be performed by the dedicated hardware 36. As a compression process for a still image, for example, JPEG compression is generally used.

The drawing state storage unit 304 stores the instruction execution unit 30
For example, the values of the information without the underline shown in Table 1 are set with the values of the arguments included in the instruction received from No. 3 and stored. The image processing unit 30
5. The values are transferred according to the requests of the vector data generation unit 306, the matrix conversion unit 308, the short vector generation unit 309, the band division unit 4 (see FIG. 1), and the like.

The vector data generating unit 306 generates vector data for new drawing except for the solid drawing, using the command and argument sent from the command executing unit 303 and the value of the drawing state storage unit 304. I do. First, the case of character drawing will be described. The character code given by the argument and the font ID obtained from the drawing state storage unit are transferred to the font management unit, and character outline data is obtained. Since the acquired outline data does not include information on the drawing origin (current point), the offset of the current point obtained from the drawing state storage unit 304 is added to the outline data.
Generate the desired vector data. In the case of image drawing, a rectangular vector corresponding to the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image header given by the argument is generated, and the drawing state storage unit 3
The target vector data is generated by adding the offset of the current point acquired from the target 04. In the case of stroke drawing, an outline vector of a line having a thickness is generated from the vector given by the argument and various line attributes acquired from the drawing state storage unit 304. The vector generated in this manner (in the case of a solid drawing, the instruction execution unit 3
Is transferred to the matrix conversion unit 308.

The font management unit 307 stores outline vector data for various fonts, and provides outline vector data for the character in accordance with a given character code and font ID.

The matrix conversion unit 308 affine-transforms the vector data received from the vector data generation unit 306 using the conversion matrix obtained from the drawing state storage unit 304. The main purpose of the affine transformation is to convert the resolution (coordinate system) of the application to the resolution (coordinate system) of the printer. As the conversion matrix, a 3 × 3 matrix as shown in the following equation (1) is used, and the input vector data (Xn, Yn) is converted into output vector data (Xn ′, Yn ′) and sent to the short vector generation unit 309. Sent.

[0055]

(Equation 1)

The short vector generation unit 309 sets the vector of the curve when the input vector includes the vector of the curve such that the error is smaller than the flatness value obtained from the drawing state storage unit 304. Then, a process of approximating with a plurality of short vectors is performed. For example, a Bezier curve represented by four control points is used as a curve vector. In this case, the short vector processing recursively divides the Bezier curve, and ends the division when the height becomes smaller than the value given by flatness. Then, the start point and the end point of each of the divided Bezier curves are connected in order, thereby completing the short vectorization. The generated short vector is sent to the band dividing means 4.

The trapezoid data generation unit 310 generates a set of trapezoid data (in some cases, a triangle, but the data structure is the same as the trapezoid) indicating the drawing area from the input vector data. For example, a polygonal vector indicated by a thick line shown in FIG. 9A has a drawing area indicated by four trapezoids. This trapezoid is a trapezoid having two sides parallel to the scan line of the output device, and one trapezoid is represented by (sx, sy, x0, x1, x2, h) as shown in FIG. 9B. It is represented by two data. The generated trapezoid is sent to the band dividing means 4.

FIG. 10 shows the structure of the band dividing means 4 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 10, the band dividing means 4 includes a band decomposition section 401 and an intermediate data management section 402. The band decomposition unit 401 divides the trapezoidal data spanning a plurality of bands from the input trapezoidal data into trapezoidal data for each band, and transfers the trapezoidal data to the intermediate data management unit 402 for each band. For example, in FIG. 11, four trapezoid data (divided by a thick broken line on the left in FIG. 11) are divided into six trapezoid data (right diagram in FIG. 11) by the band decomposition unit.

The intermediate data management unit 402 generates intermediate data by adding additional information to the trapezoidal data input for each band, and writes the intermediate data into the first storage means 5 for each band. The additional information is management information for managing the intermediate data and color information indicating in what color the trapezoidal data is to be painted. The management information for the character / graphic drawing command is data of the object ID, the type of the object, and the number of trapezoids. For example, RGB values are color information. These data are added before the trapezoidal data for each band generated by the drawing command, as shown in FIG. The management information for the image drawing command is the same as the character / graphic, but the color information is the image header and image data.
Also, as shown in FIG. 12B, one image header and one image data are added to each of the trapezoidal data for each band generated by the drawing command. The image data may be stored in a compressed form, and the presence or absence of the compression processing is included in the image header. The above-described intermediate data is grouped for each recording color and for each band, and data representing EOD (End Of Data) is added to the final data of each band to clarify the end of the band data.

Next, the data transfer from the first storage means 5 to the second storage means 7 in the block diagram of FIG. 1 and the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9 for controlling them will be described.

FIG. 13 shows an example of the configuration of the second storage means 7.
In FIG. 13, the second storage means 7 comprises a memory control unit 701 and a memory unit 702 for controlling a memory configuration and data transfer between memories.
2 includes a storage area for sequentially updating intermediate data (band buffer unit 703) and a storage area for holding intermediate data for a predetermined period (block buffer unit 704) as described above, and the band buffer unit 703 is a fixed area. Secured, and the block buffer unit 704 serves as a variable area.
The storage configuration of the intermediate data is controlled by the memory control unit 701. Also, a memory control unit 701 and a memory unit 702
Respectively correspond to the memory control LSI 42 and the DRAM 43 in FIG. The band buffer unit 703 includes C,
Four sets of M, Y, and Bk printing apparatuses are provided corresponding to the four color printing apparatuses. Each of the sets is an intermediate data buffer having a double buffer configuration. When the intermediate data is being output, the other intermediate data buffer is configured to receive intermediate data of the next band from the first storage unit 5 or from the block buffer unit 704 (FIG. 4).
reference).

The intermediate data of print data consisting only of characters and graphics is as small as about 3 MByte at maximum for one page even for very complicated print data. When designing the memory capacity, only image data is considered. I just need. For example, the maximum value of the resolution of image data stored as intermediate data is 300 dpi, each color of RGB is 8 bits, and the recording size of the printer device 22 is A3 size (about 300 m).
mx about 420mm), the band division number is 64, no compression,
Is assumed, the total memory size of the band buffer unit 703 is about 6.6 MBytes as shown by the following equation.

[0063]

(300 [dpi] ÷ 25.4 [mm]) ² × 300 [mm] × 420 [mm] × 3 [color number] 色 64 [division] × 2 [band] × 4 [for printing device ] = 6.6 [MByte]. . . . . . (2)

From the above equation, the memory size of the band buffer unit 703 is 6.6 MByte in total, and 1.6 for each color.
5 MByte (6.6 [MByte] $ 4), about 0.82 MByte (1.65 [MByte] $) for each band
2) is understood. On the other hand, the block buffer unit 704 does not take a fixed area (approximately 0.82 MByte) as the band buffer unit 703 as the size of one band, but changes the size of one band according to the input image data. Then, the number of bands to be stored for a predetermined period is increased as much as possible with a limited amount of memory. For example, the resolution of the image data included in the input print data is 150 dpi, and the main scanning direction of the image (in the above equation 2, the recording size is 300 mm).
Assuming that the size is 75 mm, the size of one band is 1/16 as shown in the following equation (3) as compared with the case of the above equation (2).

[0065]

3 ((150 [dpi] ［25.4 [mm]) ² × 75 [mm])］ ((300 [dpi] ÷ 25.4 [mm]) ² × 300 [mm]) = 1 / 16. . . . . (3)

Further, the resolution of this image data is 150
Assuming that the maximum difference between the C, M, Y, and Bk printing devices is 60 bands under the condition that the image size in the main scanning direction is 75 mm in dpi, the block buffer is expressed by the following equation (4). As part 704, about 3.1 MByte
, The intermediate data can be sequentially stored.

[0067]

## EQU00004 ## 0.82 [MByte] .times.60 [Band] .times.1 / 16 [Ratio of Required Memory Amount] = 3.1 [MByte]. . . . . (4)

As described above, if the intermediate data can be stored sequentially, the data transfer from the first storage means 5 to the second storage means 7 always needs to be performed once per band. The PC resources are less affected. Therefore, by increasing the intermediate data held in the block buffer unit 704, the data transfer from the first storage unit 5 to the second storage unit 7 can be reduced. As described above, the number of data transfers from the first storage unit 5 to the second storage unit 7 is reduced by changing the amount of intermediate data transferred to the block buffer unit 704 in the second storage unit. It becomes possible to control.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining an example of intermediate data transfer when the block buffer unit 704 holds intermediate data for each band. In FIG. 14, for the sake of convenience, the maximum difference between the printing positions of C, M, Y, and Bk (from C to B
Although k) is set for 10 bands, the effect of the configuration of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention on the intermediate data transfer is almost the same even if the print position shift is another value. In FIG. 14, the arrangement of the bands is A0, B1, A
2, B3, A4, B5. . . The printing is executed at each printing position in this band order.

In FIG. 14, the right column in FIG. 14 shows the bands printed at the printing positions for each of the colors Bk, Y, M, and C. The difference between the leftmost Bk and the rightmost C printing position is 10 bands. Left column "Transferred band"
Indicates band data to be transferred for each of the colors Bk, Y, M, and C. In the data, Axx (xx is band N
o. ) Is data held in the block buffer unit 704 for a predetermined period, and the data held in the block buffer unit 704 is transferred to the expansion processing unit via the band buffer unit 703 and output after the expansion processing. Bxx is the first
The data transferred from the storage unit directly to the band buffer unit 703 without passing through the block buffer unit 704 is shown. After the data is transferred to the band buffer unit 703, it is general that the subsequent expansion processing and printing processing are performed in real time to execute the processing in time for the printing speed. If processing is delayed, a printing error will be caused.

In FIG. 14, the bottom line shows "A0" at the Bk printing position, indicating that the A0 band is printed at the Bk printing position. The value "A0" of the Bk buffer in the left column is: The band to be transferred from the Bk buffer for this printing is A0. At this point, there is no data to be printed at the Y, M, and C printing positions.

When the value of the Bk printing position is "B9", printing at the farthest C printing position is started. The print band at the C print position at this time is “A0”. At this timing, the print band for each color is Bk “B9”, Y
Is "A6", M is "B3", and C is "A0". Of these band data, “A6” and “A0” may transfer the data held in the block buffer unit 704 to the band buffer unit 703, and the “B9” and “B3” band data It is necessary to transfer the data from one storage unit to the band buffer unit 703.
In the print band at the next print timing, Bk is “A
10 ", Y is" B7 ", M is" A4 ", and C is" B1 ". “A10” and “A” in each of these band data
For "4", the data held in the block buffer unit 704 may be transferred to the band buffer unit 703, and "B"
7 ”and“ B1 ”band data
It is necessary to transfer the data from the storage unit to the band buffer unit 703.

The block buffer section 704 has a configuration capable of holding a data amount of a predetermined band. FIG.
In order to realize the data transfer configuration shown in FIG. 4, for example, the block buffer must be at least "A0, A2, A4, A6, A
8 "must be stored, and when the printing of band" A0 "is completed at the C printing position,
After that, since the “A0” data becomes unnecessary, the next band data “A10” may be transferred from the first storage means and the A0 data may be deleted. The block buffer unit 704 may have a larger capacity, but the area is divided into the most efficient configuration in order to reduce the number of transfers in consideration of available memory space. This division is controlled based on the intermediate data to be transferred.
This control is executed by the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9. The intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9 will be described in detail later. For example, the data amount of intermediate data continuously output by the output device 10 stored in the first storage means 5 is evaluated in band units, and the intermediate data is continuously output. The maximum intermediate data amount of the band is detected, and based on this data amount, the second
The division configuration of the memory area of the storage means is controlled.

As described above, assuming that the block buffer unit 704 can hold the intermediate data corresponding to the print position difference for each band, the data transfer from the first storage unit 5 to the second storage unit 7 is performed. consider. In the example shown in FIG. 14, the case after the printing at all the printing positions Bk, Y, M, and C is started will be considered. When the printing of the band “B9” is started at the Bk printing position,
At the timing of printing the band “B9” where the k printing position is, as shown in the corresponding row of the band to be transferred, the band buffers from the first storage unit to the second storage unit for the two bands “B9” and “B3” Transfer is required. When the next Bk printing position is the timing of printing band “A10”, three bands “A10”, “B7” and “B1” are stored in the block buffers (band “A10”) of the first storage unit and the second storage unit, respectively. The data is transferred to band buffers (bands “B7” and “B1”). Thereafter, when the Bk print band is "B11", two bands are transferred from the first storage means to the second storage means, and when the Bk print band is "A12", three bands are transferred from the first storage means to the second storage means. The transfer is repeated.

The data transfer between the print data processing apparatus of the present invention having the above-described block buffer configuration and an apparatus having no block buffer will be compared and studied. In an apparatus having no block buffer, direct transfer from the first storage means to the band buffer of each color is required at all printing timings, so that four bands corresponding to the number of printing colors are required at one printing timing. On the other hand, in the print data processing apparatus having the block buffer configuration of the present invention, as is apparent from the example shown in FIG. 14, two-band transfer or three-band transfer may be performed at one print timing. Therefore, in the print data processing apparatus of the present invention, the number of transfers from the first storage unit to the second storage unit is 5/8 (2 [band n] +3 [band n +
1]) / (4 [band n] +4 [band n + 1] = 5 /
8), and a reduction in the number of transfers is achieved.

As shown in FIG. 14, the transfer to the band buffer unit is performed by sequentially transferring the data from the first storage unit 5 to the band buffer unit 703 and the block buffer unit 704.
The data transfer to the band buffer unit 703 is switched, which is controlled by the memory control unit 701.

In the example shown in FIG. 14, the data transfer order of the intermediate data in band units from the first storage means 5 to the second storage means 7 is sequentially from the lower row of the band to be transferred column of FIG. 14 to the upper row. The order is heading. In the case of FIG.
0, B1, A2. . . For the intermediate data of each band, “Axx” is used as the block buffer 704.
, “Bxx” is transferred to the band buffer unit 703. The transfer order from the first storage unit to the second storage unit is determined based on a table in which the memory area division configuration of the block buffer unit 704 is associated with the intermediate data transfer order. This decision is made by the intermediate data transfer / control means 9
Performed by The intermediate data transfer / control means 9 will be described later in detail.

Although the image data is not compressed under the above assumption, the data size can be greatly reduced by performing, for example, JPEG compression, so that the memory size of one band of the block buffer unit 704 is further increased. Since the number of bands can be reduced, the number of bands that can be stored in the block buffer unit 704 increases, and the number of data transfers from the first storage unit 5 to the second storage unit 7 can be further reduced.

The transfer means 6 includes, for example, a PCI bus and a high-speed serial bus, as described above.
In the case of E1394, the system bus controller 2 shown in FIG.
7 as a master device and the system bus interface 34 of FIG. 5 as a slave device,
A burst data transfer of intermediate data from M26 to DRAM 43 of FIG. 6 is executed. A predetermined program using the CPU 24 of the PC for controlling the burst data transfer stores intermediate data in band units in the first storage unit 5.
In order to transfer the data to the second storage means 7 in real time in response to a request from the expansion processing means 8, the processing is executed with the priority of the real-time processing class. In addition, as shown in FIG.
Switching of the data transfer band from the storage unit 5 to the band buffer unit 703 is executed based on an instruction from the intermediate data transfer / storage control unit 9.

FIG. 15 shows the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9.
An example of the configuration will be described. In FIG. 15, the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 9 includes an intermediate data amount evaluation unit 901, a memory configuration determination unit 902, and a memory configuration / data transfer order instruction unit 903. Intermediate data amount detection unit 901
Is for evaluating the data amount of intermediate data continuously output by the output device 10 stored in the first storage means 5 in band units, and detecting the maximum intermediate data amount among the continuously output bands.

The maximum amount of intermediate data detected by intermediate data amount detecting section 901 is transferred to memory configuration determining section 902, and the memory configuration is determined. For example, C, M, Y, B
Assuming that the difference between the four color k printing devices is 60 bands and the memory amount of the block buffer unit 704 is 8 MBytes, if the maximum intermediate data amount is 8 [MBytes] ÷ 60 [Bands] = 0.13 MBytes or less. , The block buffer unit 704 can be divided into a band size of about 0.13 MByte, and intermediate data for continuous output by the output device 10 can be sequentially held. When the maximum intermediate data amount is equal to or more than 0.13 MByte and equal to or less than 0.26 MByte, the block buffer unit 704 is set to about 0.26 MByte.
It is possible to divide the data into band sizes of ye and hold the data for each band, and the intermediate data is transferred as shown in FIG. In the above example, 0.
In the case of 13 MByte or more and 0.26 MByte or less, all the block buffer units 704 are set to about 0.26 MByte.
Although the example in which the band is divided into te band sizes has been described, the average number of transfers can be reduced by taking an intermediate band size.

Memory Configuration / Data Transfer Order Instructing Unit 903
Notifies the memory control unit 701 of the second storage unit 7 of the memory configuration of the block buffer unit 704 determined by the memory configuration determination unit 902, calculates the intermediate data transfer order as shown in FIG. 6 and the memory control unit 701 of the second storage means 7. Note that the intermediate data transfer order is instantaneously determined by holding table data in which the intermediate data transfer order corresponding to the memory configuration of the block buffer unit 704 is calculated in advance.

Next, a processing flow for converting the intermediate data into raster data in the expansion processing means 8 will be described.

FIG. 16 shows a configuration example of the expansion processing means 8.
As shown in FIG. 6, the expansion processing means 8 includes C, M, Y, Bk
Although four sets of development processing units are provided corresponding to the four color printing devices, only one set is shown in FIG. 16 because of the same configuration.
6, the expansion processing means 8 includes an intermediate data control unit 80.
1, a trapezoidal data processing unit 802, and an image data processing unit 8
04 and an output buffer memory unit 803. The intermediate data control unit 801 sequentially reads, for each object, intermediate data alternately input to the band buffer unit 703 having a double buffer configuration, reads management information of the intermediate data, and determines whether the object is intermediate data for character / graphic elements. Alternatively, it is detected whether the data is intermediate data for an image element and transferred to the trapezoidal data processing unit 802 and the image data processing unit 804. That is, the trapezoid data of the intermediate data for the character / graphic element is
2, the color information is transferred to the image data processing unit 804, the trapezoid data representing the shape of the intermediate data for the image element is transferred to the trapezoid data processing unit 802, and the image data included in the color information is transferred to the image data processing unit 804. . In addition, the intermediate data control unit 801 manages expansion processing of each object and processing of intermediate data in a band.

The trapezoid data processing unit 802 converts the trapezoid data (sx, sy, x0, x1, x2, h) of the intermediate data into
The trapezoidal area is drawn by converting the data into a data format consisting of four points as shown in FIG. FIG. 17 is a block diagram of the trapezoid data processing unit 802. In FIG.
The trapezoid data processing unit 802 includes an intermediate data input unit 8021
And a coordinate calculation unit A8022 and a coordinate calculation unit B8023
And an edge drawing unit 8024.

The intermediate data input unit 8021 reads the data forming each trapezoid from the band memory unit 703, and stores the data in the coordinate calculation unit A8022 and the coordinate calculation unit B8023.
Output trapezoidal data to The coordinate calculation unit A8022 is in charge of calculating the coordinates of the left edge of the trapezoid (edge P0P1 in FIG. 18), and outputs the coordinate values on the edge in order from P0 to P1. The coordinate calculation unit B8023 is in charge of calculating the coordinates of the right edge of the trapezoid (the edge P2P3 in FIG. 18), and outputs the coordinate values on the edge in order from P2 to P3. The edge drawing unit 8024 includes a coordinate calculation unit A802
A straight line parallel to the x-axis of the trapezoid is drawn based on 2 and the coordinate values input from the coordinate calculation unit B8023.

FIG. 19 shows a block diagram of the coordinate calculator. Input trapezoidal data (sx, sy, x0, x1,
x2, h) are converted into four-point trapezoidal data (P0, P1, P2, P3) by a DDA parameter calculation unit 80221, and DDA parameters such as an initial value of a slope and a residual are calculated. Output to The DDA processing unit 80222 performs the DD based on the input parameters.
A processing is performed, and the moving direction and the moving amount with respect to the last obtained point are output. The coordinate update unit 80223 updates and outputs the currently held coordinate values based on the input movement direction and movement amount.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram of the edge drawing section 8024. The edge drawing unit 8024 inputs the coordinate values A / B and the image data and paints the trapezoidal internal area. The address calculator 80241 calculates the coordinate value A / B
To calculate the address of the edge component to be drawn. The mask calculation unit 80242 receives the values of the coordinate values A / B and outputs a mask representing valid bits in the word to be drawn. When the input intermediate data is a character / graphic element, the data operation unit 80243 inputs color data representing a fixed color by a trapezoidal area from the image data processing unit 803, and performs a screen process using this value. Output. If the input intermediate data is an image element, the image data is input from the image data processing unit 803, screen processed, and output. RmodW processing unit 80242
Performs drawing by performing the following processing using the input address, mask, and data. First, the output buffer memory 804 is read according to the address. Assuming that the read data is Source, the mask data is Mask, and the drawing data is Data, (Mas
The value of (k * Data + Mask # * Source) is calculated and written back to the same address. Where * is logical product, +
Represents a logical sum, and # represents a logical negation. This process
This is repeated for each word including the edge to be drawn.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of the image data processing unit 803. In FIG. 21, an image data processing unit 803
Is composed of a color conversion unit 8031 and a resolution conversion unit 8032. The color conversion unit 8031 converts a color space created by an application or a standard color space that does not depend on the color reproduction characteristics of the input / output device into color data that matches the color space and the color reproduction characteristics of the output device 10. Things. Further, as described above, the color conversion unit 8031
The color conversion is performed on the color data representing the fixed color of the graphic element and the color data of each pixel of the image element. Resolution conversion unit 80
Reference numeral 32 performs interpolation approximation on the image data in order to match the color-converted image data with the resolution of the output device 10. If the color data input to the image data processing unit 803 is fixed color data of a character / graphic element, the value is output as it is.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram of the color conversion section 8031. The color conversion unit 8031 includes a three-dimensional interpolation operation processing unit 80
311 and a three-dimensional lookup table 80312. 3D lookup table 8031
Reference numeral 2 stores grid point data for color conversion processing, and the three-dimensional interpolation calculation processing unit executes a color conversion calculation of the pixel of interest based on the grid point data. In the present embodiment, for example, a triangular prism interpolation calculation shown in FIG. 23 is used for the three-dimensional interpolation calculation. In the triangular prism interpolation calculation, the color signal of the target pixel is determined by the interpolation calculation of the six grid point data forming the triangular prism region where the target pixel exists with respect to the eight grid point data shown in FIG. The triangular prism interpolation calculation shown in FIG. 23 is processed by the following equation.

[0091]

D (o) = D (m) + ΔG × (D (n) −D (m)). . . . . . (5) where D (m) = D (a) + ΔR × (D (b) −D (a)) + ΔB × (D (c) −D (b)). . . . . . (6) D (n) = D (e) + ΔR × (D (f) −D (e)) + ΔB × (D (g) −D (f)). . . . . . (7)

The resolution conversion section 8032 is formed by, for example, the nearest neighbor interpolation method. FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the nearest neighbor interpolation method. In FIG. 24, P1 ([x],
[Y]), P2 ([x + 1], [y]), P3
([X], [y + 1]), P4 ([x + 1], [y +
1]) is the pixel value of the coordinate point of the image data input to the resolution conversion unit 8032, and the coordinate point corresponding to the resolution of the output device 10 is, for example, P (x, y).
P (x, y) is a pixel value P2 ([x +
1], [y]).

[Embodiment 2] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing another principle configuration of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention. In this embodiment, the output device is constituted by the output device 12 having a variable output speed, and the intermediate data transfer / storage control means has the function of determining the output speed of the output device 12 based on the intermediate data amount. The configuration of the transfer / storage control unit 11 is different from the configuration of the print data processing apparatus shown in FIG.

The output device 12 is, like the output device 10,
A tandem-type color printer is provided with four color printers of C, M, Y, and Bk, receives print data output from the output buffer memory of the expansion processing means 8 for each printer, prints it on recording paper, and outputs it. The structure of the laser printer is shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 7, a description will be given of a control target in a printing process which must be controlled according to the output speed variation. The printing process that must be controlled includes the rotation speed of the photosensitive drum 371, the speed of the conveyor belt 52, the rotation speed of the fixing device 53, the rotation speed of the polygon mirror of the laser scanning device 373, and the rotation speed of the developing roll of the developing device 374. , Transfer current and the like. Among these, the rotation speed of the photosensitive drum 371, the speed of the conveyor belt 52, the roll rotation speed of the fixing device 53, the rotation speed of the polygon mirror of the laser scanning device 373, and the development roll rotation speed of the developing device 374 are proportional to the printing speed. It is an object that only needs to be controlled. The transfer current may be controlled by setting the constant current source in proportion to the printing speed. Generally, a brushless servomotor is used to drive the polygon mirror of the laser scanning device 373, and a PLL (Phase) is used to stabilize the rotation speed.
Locked Loop control is used. Therefore, the rotation speed of the polygon mirror can be changed by dividing the reference frequency of the PLL control. The output speed can be reduced to, for example, ２ ，, ３ ，, １ ／.

FIG. 26 shows a configuration example of the intermediate data transfer / storage control means 11 of the present embodiment. 26 is different from FIG. 15 in that an output device speed instruction unit 1201 is added. The output device speed instructing unit 1201 receives the block buffer unit 704 determined by the memory configuration determining unit 902.
From the first storage means 5 to the second storage means 7
The output speed is determined from the changeable output speeds of the output device 12 based on the number of intermediate data transfers to the output device, the maximum amount of intermediate data, and the available data transfer speed.
And the output device 12 is notified of the set output speed via the transfer means 6. For example, when the value of the average number of intermediate data transfers times the maximum intermediate data amount exceeds the available data transfer speed, the output speed of the output device 12 is reduced by, for example, ２ ，, ３ ，, １ ／. Therefore, according to the configuration shown in this embodiment, resources can be used efficiently even when the performance of the PC is low and a high data transfer rate cannot be obtained. Also, even when it is desired to limit the available data transfer rate and minimize the load on the PC side, the resources can be used efficiently.

[0096]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a print data processing apparatus for expanding print data to be output by a tandem type color page printer into a data structure that can be output by a color page printer, the print data processing apparatus includes a dedicated hardware. A configuration for efficiently using the intermediate data memory resources and the data transfer resources from the PC to the dedicated hardware according to the contents of the print data and supplying the print data to the output device at the highest speed with the limited resources is constructed. It is possible to provide a print data processing apparatus capable of performing the above. Further, in a system configuration in which intermediate data is generated by a PC and expanded by a dedicated hardware,
This makes it possible to provide a print data processing apparatus that minimizes the processing load of C.

Further, according to the print data processing apparatus of the present invention, a configuration is possible in which color conversion processing adapted to C, M, Y, and Bk printing of the output device is included in expansion processing means of dedicated hardware. , It is possible to further reduce the load of the intermediate data generation processing of the PC.

Further, according to one embodiment of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention, the output device is configured to have a variable output speed, and when the intermediate data transfer resource is a limited resource, the number of intermediate data transfer increases. In this case, the output speed of the output device is reduced in accordance with the condition (1), so that print data can be output without loss.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the principle configuration of a print data processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a system in which dedicated hardware is provided with an intermediate data memory of an amount that absorbs a difference between printing positions.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a dedicated hardware which accesses an intermediate data memory in a PC corresponding to a printing position difference for each of C, M, Y, and Bk colors every time R, G, and B data having different data due to the printing position difference. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method of transferring data to a computer.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a storage configuration of a second storage unit and transfer of intermediate data by an intermediate data transfer / storage control unit of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration example in which the entire print data processing apparatus of the present invention is implemented.

FIG. 6 is a configuration example of dedicated hardware.

FIG. 7 is a configuration example of a tandem type color page printer.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an intermediate data generation unit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating trapezoidal data.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a band dividing unit.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating division of trapezoidal data at a band boundary.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data representation of trapezoidal data.

FIG. 13 shows a second example of the print data processing apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a storage unit.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of intermediate data transfer when intermediate data is stored for each band in a block buffer unit.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an intermediate data transfer / storage control unit in the print data processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a development processing unit.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a trapezoidal data processing unit.

FIG. 18 is a view for explaining trapezoidal data drawing by the expansion processing means.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a coordinate calculation unit.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an edge drawing unit.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image data processing unit.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a color conversion unit.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating triangular prism interpolation calculation.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating the nearest neighbor interpolation calculation.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating another principle configuration of the print data processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an intermediate data transfer / storage control unit according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Print data 2 Input means 3 Intermediate data generation means 4 Band division means 5 First storage means 6 Transfer means 7 Second storage means 8 Expansion processing means 9, 11 Intermediate data transfer / storage control means 10 Output device 12 Variable output speed Output device 21 PC 23 Network 24 CPU 25 Memory controller 26 DRAM 27 System bus controller 28 Network interface 29 Magnetic disk 31 CPU bus 32 System bus 34 Serial bus interface 35 High-speed serial bus 36 Dedicated hardware 37 Printing device 41 Serial bus interface LSI 42 Memory control LSI 43 DRAM 44 Intermediate data LSI 45 Trapezoidal data processing LSI 46 Image processing LSI 47 DRAM 48 Video interface LSI 301 Interpretation unit 302 token interpretation unit 303 instruction execution unit 304 drawing state storage unit 305 image processing unit 306 vector data generation unit 307 font management unit 308 matrix conversion unit 309 short vector generation unit 310 trapezoid data generation unit 701 memory control unit 702 memory unit 703 Band buffer section 704 Block buffer section 801 Intermediate data control section 802 Trapezoidal data processing section 803 Output buffer memory section 804 Image data processing section 901 Intermediate data amount evaluation section 902 Memory configuration determination section 903 Memory configuration / data transfer order instructing section 8021 Intermediate data Input unit 8022 Coordinate calculation unit A 8023 Coordinate calculation unit B 80221 DDA parameter calculation unit 80222 DDA processing unit 80223 Coordinate update unit 80241 Address calculation unit 80242 Mask calculation unit 80243 Data calculation unit 80244 RmodW processing unit 8031 Color conversion unit 8032 Resolution conversion unit 80311 3D interpolation calculation processing unit 80312 3D lookup table 1201 Output device speed instruction unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A printing system which converts print data described by a predetermined drawing command and supplies the print data as print data that can be output by an output device having a plurality of printing devices corresponding to recording colors capable of performing a parallel printing process. A data processing device, comprising: input means for inputting print data; intermediate data generating means for analyzing print data input to the input means to generate intermediate data; and a band having a predetermined size for the intermediate data. Band dividing means for dividing into intermediate data in units, first storage means for storing at least one page of intermediate data in band units divided by the band dividing means, and band units sequentially output from the first storage means Second storage means for inputting and storing the intermediate data of the above, transfer means for transferring the intermediate data from the first storage means to the second storage means, Expansion processing means for reading the intermediate data stored in the second storage means for each band and expanding it into a data structure that can be output by the output device; and a data amount of the intermediate data in band units stored in the first storage means Intermediate data transfer / control for controlling the intermediate data storage configuration in the second storage means and controlling the intermediate data transfer from the first storage means to the second storage means executed in the transfer means based on And a printing data processing apparatus. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second storage means includes a band buffer area for sequentially updating intermediate data input from the first storage means in band units, and an intermediate data input in band units from the first storage means. A block buffer area for holding for a predetermined period, wherein the intermediate data transfer / control means is configured to store data in the second storage means based on a data amount of band-based intermediate data stored in the first storage means. Dividing the memory area of the block buffer area, and controlling intermediate data transfer from the first storage means to the second storage means based on the division manner of the divided block buffer memory area. The print data processing device according to claim 1. 3. The intermediate data transfer / control means has a capacity capable of storing intermediate data of a band having a maximum intermediate data amount among data amounts of intermediate data in band units stored in the first storage means. 3. The print data processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the memory area of the block buffer area in the second storage unit is divided based on the memory area. 4. The intermediate data transfer / control means, based on an intermediate data storage configuration in the second storage means,
4. The print data according to claim 1, further comprising a configuration for determining a data transfer order of the intermediate data transfer from the first storage unit to the second storage unit executed by the transfer unit. Processing equipment. 5. The intermediate data transfer / control means, based on a table in the second storage means, which associates a memory area division configuration of the block buffer area with an intermediate data transfer order, from the first storage means. 5. The print data processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a configuration for determining a data transfer order of the intermediate data transfer to the second storage unit. 6. The expansion processing means converts a plurality of color data quantitatively representing the color of each pixel included in the intermediate data into color data corresponding to the recording colors of a plurality of printing devices of the output device. The print data processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a color conversion process. 7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second storage unit includes a storage unit for intermediate data corresponding to a character / graphic drawing command and a storage unit for intermediate data corresponding to an image drawing command. 7. The print data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a storage configuration of a storage unit for the intermediate data corresponding to the image drawing command is controlled based on a data amount of the intermediate data. 8. The output device according to claim 1, wherein an output speed is variable, and an output speed is determined based on a data amount of the intermediate data in band units.
8. The print data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 7.