JPH0836473A - Printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a printer device that uniformly receives connection opening requests from a plurality of interfaces and uniformly executes print processing. A time setting means for setting and storing a print processing time-out time for each print job requested from the interface, and a rejecting means and an interface for rejecting the print job requested from the interface when the print processing cannot be performed after the time-out time. Measuring means for measuring and storing the number of times of refusal and the duration of refusal, which is the number and time of refusal for the specific print job requested by the measuring means, and the measuring means for each print job requested from the interface. A printer apparatus comprising: a control unit that executes a print job so as to give priority to a print job having a large number of times of rejection rejection or a large rejection duration measured and stored by the printer. [Effect] Connection opening requests can be equally accepted on the interfaces to which the same priority is set.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device for forming an image in accordance with print data received from a host computer, and more particularly to print control of a printer device having a plurality of different interfaces such as a network, a serial port and a parallel port. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printer apparatus has been proposed which has a plurality of interfaces for communicating with a host computer and controls the competition of print jobs requested from these interfaces to perform print processing. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-1133
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 27-25067 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-225067 disclose an image forming apparatus or a page printer which sets and stores the priority order of data processing of an interface and performs print processing in accordance with this priority order. Further, in the image forming apparatus or page printer described in the above publication, the data of a specific interface can be interrupt-printed by the operator switching the priority order.

The interface, for example, such as Centronics or RS232C, which receives the print data by handshake, receives the print data as spooled file data such as lpd (line printer daemon) or NetWare (Novell). , Ap
In some cases, such as pleTalk (Apple Computer), a host computer opens a connection with a printer device and interactively generates and transmits print data while inquiring about resources such as fonts possessed by the printer device. In an interface such as lpd or NetWare in which print data is spooled as file data, delay in print processing of print data does not cause a big problem. In an interface such as Centronics or RS232C that receives print data by handshake as a buffer, the delay does not pose a problem if the delay in the print processing of the received print data is within a finite time smaller than the timeout value of the host computer. Since delay does not become a problem in these interfaces, it is sufficient to set and store the priority order of the interface and execute the data processing of the interface in accordance with this priority order like the image forming apparatus or the page printer described in the above publication. However, in the interface such as AppleTalk that interactively generates print data, if the execution of data processing is delayed after the connection is established,
Since the host computer continues to wait for a response from the printer device to the inquiry about resources such as fonts, it is difficult for the host computer to generate print data and terminate the connection. In order to prevent the connection from being unnecessarily held in this way, it is necessary to open the connection only when data processing can be executed immediately when the interface receives a connection opening request from the host computer. In an image forming apparatus or page printer, Appl
If an interactive interface such as eTalk is set as an interrupt interface and interrupt data processing is performed after the connection is established, data processing can be performed immediately. However, in the image forming apparatus or page printer described in the above-mentioned prior art, since only one interrupt interface can be set, it is impossible to have a plurality of interactive interfaces that require immediate execution of data processing. Even if a plurality of interfaces are set as the interrupt interfaces, one of the data processes is interrupted due to conflicting interrupt data processes. When the host computer receives the connection opening request, it uses the fact that the host computer sends the connection opening request at regular time intervals until the connection is opened. It is possible to respond by registering and rejecting the connection request by deleting the print job request from the queue if it cannot be executed within the immediate execution determination time of the data processing, but the print job is given the same priority. , The data processing success rate of the interface becomes non-uniform depending on the order or timing of queue registration if the immediate execution determination times of data processing are the same.
Also, if the immediate execution determination times of the data processing are different, the data processing success rate of the interface, that is, the connection establishment success rate becomes non-uniform according to this determination time.

[0004]

In view of the above problem, the present invention has an equal connection among these interfaces having the same priority when there are a plurality of interfaces which require interactive execution of immediate data processing. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer device that receives an opening request and uniformly executes a printing process.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer device having a plurality of interfaces for communicating with a host device, which sequentially prints print jobs requested from the interfaces having the priorities set. In the above, the time setting means for setting and storing the print processing time-out time T for each print job requested from the interface, and rejecting the print job requested from the interface when the print processing cannot be executed after the time-out time T Rejecting means, measuring means for measuring and storing the number of times and the number of times that the rejecting means rejected a specific print job requested from the interface, and the rejection duration, and each print job requested from the interface. Or the number of times refusal has been continued A printer and control means for executing a print job to favor large print job of absolute duration. Further, the control unit is a printer device having a unit for rearranging the registration order of the print job queue according to the measured value measured and stored by the measuring unit for the print job requested from the interface. Further, the control means registers, in the queue, a print job having a larger measured value measured and stored by the measuring means for a print job requested from the interface, and a print job having a smaller measured value is registered. Is a printer device that deletes from the queue.

[0006]

In the printer apparatus according to the present invention, when the print processing cannot be executed after the time-out time T set and stored by the time setting storage means after the print job is requested from the interface, the reject means rejects the print processing, and this identification is performed. The measurement means measures and stores the number of rejections or the duration of rejection for the print job of, and the control means controls to give priority to the print job with the greater number of rejections or the duration of rejection. Even if there are a plurality of interfaces that require immediate execution, it is possible to equally receive connection opening requests at these interfaces to which the same priority is set, and perform print processing uniformly among the interfaces.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer device of the present invention. Host computers 23-27
Communicates with the printer device via interfaces 2-4. The print job management unit 5 corresponding to the interface
7 to 7 manage the communication data of the interface for each print job, and the priority order setting units 8 to 10 set the priority order for each print job. Further, the time setting units 11 to 13 set the rejection judgment timeout time T for each print job. The measuring units 14 to 16 measure the number of times or the time when the print job requested by the interface is continuously rejected. When a print job is requested from the interface, the control unit 18 registers the job request in the queue 19 in the order of reception according to the set priority. The timer unit 17 measures the time by the timer after the job request is registered in the queue 19, and notifies the control unit 18 of the rejection judgment timeout time T when the timer operates. The control unit 18 changes or deletes the order of job registration in the queue 19 according to the number of refusal continuations or the refusal continuation time measured by the measurement units 14 to 16. Further, if the job for which the timer unit has activated the time measurement remains in the queue unit 19 without the print processing being executed, the control unit 18 rejects the job, removes it from the queue unit 19, and rejects it. To the measurement units 14 to 16. Print processing control unit 20
When a print process becomes executable, a decoder 21 that takes out a job request registered in the queue unit 19 from the beginning, decodes the data to generate an image, and a printing unit 22 that forms the image is provided. It controls to execute the print processing of this job.

Next, a job request operation of the interfaces 2 to 4 will be described. In each of the interfaces 2 to 4, the unit of print job differs depending on the communication protocol. For example, if the interface is RS-232C or Centronics, the print jobs are not divided as files, so it is detected that a unit time of data has not been received after the first reception of data from the host computer, and it is timed out. The received data is treated as a print job. When the interface is lpd or NetWare, the data file is a unit of one print job. When the interface is AppleTalk, the process from the opening of the connection to the end of the connection is in print job units. The print job management units 5 to 7 detect the start of the job and the end of the job, and manage the data received by the interface in units of jobs. For example RS-23
In 2C and Centronics, a job request is made when the first 1-byte data is received. See also lpd, NetW
The are and AppleTalk request a job when job request data regulated by the protocol is received.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of the hardware configuration of the printer device of the present invention. It has interfaces 2 to 4 with different functions connected to the host computers 23 to 27, the CPU 31 is a device for controlling the printer device 1 based on the instruction of the ROM 32 in which the control means is stored, and the RAM 33 is It constitutes a memory for the operation of the CPU, a memory for the queue, and the like. The operation unit 34 is a unit for performing various settings and instructions to the printer device 1. The timer 35 has a function of measuring the time from when a print job is requested until it is registered in the queue, and the decoder 21 determines from the print data sent when the print processing becomes executable. The printing unit 22 is a device that forms an image, and is a device that executes a printing process.

The job request is accompanied by data as shown in FIG. 3, and a message is sent to the control unit 18 which controls the queue. In the figure, the message ID 100 is for identifying the content of the message, and in this case, it is the message identification number of the job request. Also, the interface identification number 101 indicates the identification number of the interface that has issued the job request. Further, the interface job identification number 102 is an interface-specific job identification number for distinguishing the job requested by each interface, and when the job is rejected by the control unit 18, the interface job identification number in the job request rejection message. Based on the number 102, the interface manages jobs within the interface.

The priority order 103 is the priority order setting section 8-1.
The job priority is set by 0. The priority order setting units 8-10 set the priority order for the job when the priority order is set by the host according to the protocol of the interfaces 2-4, but otherwise set it in the interfaces 2-4 in advance. The assigned priority to the job. The timeout time 104 is
It is a time-out time for job rejection determination set by the time setting units 11 to 13, and is specified in seconds. Here, when the value is 0 seconds, it is defined as infinite time. For example, in lpd and NetWare, the value is set to 0 seconds. In the RS232C and Centronics, the value is set to 0 second or a value corresponding to the timeout time of the host computer. When the interface is AppleTalk, it is set to 2 seconds. The rejection continuation parameter 105 includes the measurement unit 14
The number of times of continuous refusal of job requests or the continuous refusal time is set in the interfaces that are measured and stored by 16 to 16.

Next, the operation of the control unit 18 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The control unit 18 is in a message reception waiting state in S1, and if a message is received, the process proceeds to S2. S2 is the message I of the received message
Identify from D that it is a job request message. When it is determined that the received message is the job request message in S2, it is checked in S3 whether the value of the timeout time 104 of the job request message is 0. Since the value 0 of the timeout time 104 indicates an infinite time, if the value is 0, the timer of the timer unit 17 is not started and the process proceeds to S6 to register the job request in the queue unit 19. If the timeout time 104 is not 0, the process proceeds to S4 and the timer of the timer unit 17 is started with the value of the timeout time 104. At this time, since the identification number of the timer of the activated timer unit 17 is returned from the timer unit, this timer ID is acquired. Timer ID = 0 means that there is no start-up timer, and the timeout time 1 is set in S3.
When the value of 04 is 0, the timer ID = 0.
In S6, the job request is registered in the queue unit 19. At this time, the control unit 18 allocates the job management numbers to the registration job requests so as to measure the registration order.

As shown in FIG. 5, job requests are registered in the queue unit 19 in ascending order of priority values (1 to 15). The queued job request registration model is shown in FIG. Here, the reception time is the time when the job request is registered and is the time within the printer device. The next step S7 is a step of rearranging the registration order of the job request in the queue according to the value of the rejection continuation parameter 104 in the queue of the same priority order. For example, the job request 204 is newly registered like the queue model 300 (S6).
However, since the rejection continuation parameter of the job request 204 is larger than that of the job request 202, the job request 204 is rearranged so as to come before the job request 202 as in the queue model 301 (S7). As another operation, the smaller rejection continuation parameter may be deleted in S7. In this case, since the new job request 204 (job management number = 4) has a rejection continuation parameter larger than the rejection continuation parameter of the job request 202 having the same priority, the job request 202 with the smaller rejection continuation parameter is deleted. Then, the queue model 302 can be used. After S7 ends, the process returns to S1. Step S8 is a step of identifying whether the received message is a job request deletion message. If the message is a job request deletion message, the process proceeds to S9, and if not, the process proceeds to S1.

When the timer of the timer section 17 is operated, as shown in FIG.
The job request deletion message shown in is transmitted to the control unit 18. S9 is the timer ID 40 of the job request deletion message
Queue 1 for job requests with that timer ID from 1
Delete from 9. In S10, a job request rejection message as shown in FIG. 7 is issued to the interface that issued the deleted job request. Measuring unit 14-16
Measures the rejection continuation frequency or rejection continuation time of the rejected job request by this job request rejection message. The timer unit 17 allocates a unique timer ID to the timer activated by the control unit 18, and returns this to the control unit. When the activated timer operates, a job request deletion message as shown in FIG. 6 is transmitted to the control unit 18.

When the print processing of the print job becomes possible, the print processing control section 20 controls the decoder 21 and the printing section 22 to execute the print processing of the job related to the job request registered at the head of the queue section 19. . At this time, the interface of the job request interface identification number registered in the queue unit 19 is connected to the decoder 21.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the measuring units 14 to 16 measure and store the number of times of refusal continuation or the duration of refusal of a job request. It is also possible to substitute the print request waiting time of this host computer for the time.

[0017]

As described above, the printer device of the present invention is
Even if you have multiple interfaces that require interactive execution of data processing immediately, you can receive connection opening requests evenly among those interfaces that have the same priority and execute print processing evenly between the interfaces. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a printer device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a job request message.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a control unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a registration state of job requests in a queue.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a job request rejection message.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a job request rejection message.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Printer device, 2-4 ... Interface, 5-7 ...
Mark 10 ... Priority setting part, 11-13 ... Time setting part, 1
4 to 16 ... Measuring unit, 17 ... Timer unit, 18 ... Control unit, 1
9 ... Queue, 20 ... Print processing control section, 21 ... Decoder, 22 ... Printing section, 23-27 ... Host computer,
31 ... CPU, 32 ... ROM, 33 ... RAM, 34 ... Operating unit, 35 ... Timer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer device, comprising a plurality of interfaces for communicating with a host device, wherein a print job requested from the interface set with a priority order is sequentially printed in accordance with the priority order. Is set and stored for each print job requested from the interface, rejection means for rejecting the print job requested from the interface when the print job cannot be executed after the time-out time T, and requesting from the interface. The measuring means measures and stores the number of times the rejection means rejected the specific print job and the duration of rejection, which is the time, and the duration of rejection, and the measurement means measured each print job requested from the interface. Of the number of times refusal continued Printer apparatus characterized by comprising: a control means for executing a print job to favor listening print job, the.