JPH09200418A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain a high data transfer speed without deteriorating a facsimile function by making a time length of a busy signal variable depending on a load of a CPU. SOLUTION: When data from a personal computer 8 being a peripheral equipment are transferred to the facsimile equipment, a busy signal is set to a high level. A time T1 (busy signal ON time) till data fetch is finished is set in advance in a register of an interface section 2 and the busy signal is set to a low level after the lapse of the time T1. When the processing capability of a CPU 1 cannot cope with the processing load, the busy signal remains to be a high level. When the facsimile equipment main body does not perform operations such as transmission, reception, reading and recording, the busy signal ON time is set to the time T1, when facsimile equipment main body conducts recording in parallel, the busy signal ON time is set to a time T1+a, when facsimile equipment main body conducts recording and communication in parallel, the busy signal ON time is set to a time T1+b, and when facsimile equipment main body conducts recording and reading in parallel, the busy signal ON time is set to a time T1+c, and the relation of a, b, c is selected to be a<b<c.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus which simultaneously performs data transfer from a personal computer or the like and facsimile operations such as transmission / reception.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer) and a facsimile machine are combined to transfer the data of the personal computer to the facsimile machine and transmit the data to the destination facsimile machine. The data transferred from the personal computer is image data, and data used as code data such as characters is also converted into image data on the personal computer side and transferred.

Conventionally, serial transmission according to the RS-232C standard has been used for data transfer between a personal computer and a facsimile, but recently, parallel transmission according to the IEEE-1284 standard (usually called the Centronics interface) has been used. It's coming. When the facsimile apparatus takes in data from a personal computer, the CPU performs processing, and the CPU also performs processing such as the original transmission, reception, reading, and recording of the facsimile apparatus in parallel.

[0004]

When parallel transmission according to the IEEE-1284 standard is performed, as the transfer rate becomes faster, the CPU occupation rate of the facsimile apparatus occupied by the parallel data transfer increases, and the original transmission and reception of the facsimile apparatus are performed. , Operations such as reading and recording become slow. This leads to an increase in communication time, and costs such as communication costs increase more than necessary. Therefore, the transfer rate of the parallel data is reduced to reduce the CPU occupation rate of the facsimile apparatus main body due to the parallel data transfer so that the original operation of the apparatus main body is not affected. However, in this case, there is a problem that the maximum advantage of parallel data transfer, that is, high-speed data transfer is sacrificed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and makes it possible to change the data transfer rate to the facsimile apparatus according to the load of the CPU of the facsimile apparatus, and to transfer the data without lowering the facsimile function. The purpose is to increase the speed.

[0006]

In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the length of the busy signal for limiting the acceptance of the transmission data is variable according to the load on the CPU. According to the present invention, when the load on the CPU is low, high-speed data transfer is performed, and when the load is high, the transfer rate is reduced to prevent delay of the original operation of the facsimile.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 is an interface part for outputting a busy signal indicating that new data is not received to the terminal for a predetermined time while data is being acquired from the terminal, and data acquisition processing And a control means for varying the predetermined time of the busy signal in accordance with the type of other operation when the processing means performs other operation as well as data acquisition.

The interface section sends a busy signal to the terminal for a predetermined time so that the next data is not sent while the processing means is fetching the data from the terminal. The processing means performs other operations such as the original communication and recording of the facsimile together with the data acquisition. The control means determines the duration of the busy signal according to the other type of operation because the magnitude of the load of the processing means differs depending on the other type of operation. As a result, the facsimile apparatus can perform the original operation without delay. Since the data transfer rate changes according to the length of the duration of the busy signal, high-speed transfer can be performed when the main body of the facsimile is not operated or the load of the operation is small.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, an interface unit that outputs a busy signal indicating that new data will not be received to the terminal for a predetermined time while the data from the terminal is being acquired, and other operations are performed in addition to the data acquisition process. When a fixed number of bytes of data are sent at a fixed interval, the data is sent by a busy signal for the predetermined time for each byte and fetched, and the fetched data is collectively collected by the processing means. And a control means for changing the predetermined time and transmitting a busy signal during the processing.

The processing means captures the transferred data,
In some cases, a process for fetching the next data may be performed after performing a process such as encoding continuously. If the data is sent as a fixed number of bytes of data, the busy signal duration is shortened and the capture is performed at high speed. After capturing a fixed number of bytes, the next processing is performed collectively. The busy signal is continuously output during the next processing. This enables high-speed data transfer.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the facsimile apparatus according to the embodiment. The CPU controls operations such as transmission, reception, reading of originals, recording, etc. as a facsimile device, and also controls data transfer from the personal computer 8. The interface unit 2 transfers data from the personal computer 8 as a peripheral device through the Centronics interface. The interface unit 2 is connected by the Centronics port 11 and is set in advance. The CPU 1 sends a hige signal according to the value of the internal register that can be changed. And control the data transfer rate. Further, the data stored in the RAM 4 described below is transferred to the recording unit 9 connected by the parallel port 12, and the data read by the reading unit 10 is stored in the RAM 4 via the parallel port 12.

The ROM 3 stores programs and the like, and CP
U1 operates according to this program. RAM4 is CP
It is used as a work area of U1 and is also used as an area for storing transmitted data and data transferred via the interface unit 2. The operation panel 5 has ten keys, function keys and a small display screen, and an operator inputs data and instructions. Modem 6
Modulates the transmission data and demodulates the reception data, and the line control unit 7 controls the connection of the line switching network such as calling, restoration and dialing.

The operation of the first embodiment of the facsimile apparatus configured as described above will be described first. FIG.
3 is a timing chart showing the operation of the first embodiment. In the data transfer by the Centronics interface, when the strobe signal is sent from the personal computer together with the data, the busy signal is set to the high level while capturing it,
When the loading is completed, the busy signal is set to the low level to indicate to the personal computer that the next data can be read, and the low signal causes the personal computer to start preparing for the next data transfer.

In FIG. 2, data from the personal computer 8 of the peripheral device is transferred via the data lines (data 1 to 8) (event 1). One data transfer is one byte. Along with this data, the personal computer 8 sets the strobe signal to the low level, and when this low level is detected by the facsimile apparatus, it takes in the data and sets the busy signal to the high level (event 2). The facsimile apparatus detects the low level of the strobe signal, and sets the ACK signal indicating that the data has been received to the low level after a fixed time has elapsed from the start of data acquisition. The time T1 from when the ACK signal becomes low level until the end of data acquisition (this is referred to as busy signal ON time) is preset in the register of the interface unit 2, and after this T1 time elapses, the busy signal Is set to a low level (event 3), and the next data acquisition waits. When this data is loaded, the CPU
1 performs processing such as storing the fetched data in the RAM 4.

When data is transferred one after another, the above operation is repeated. However, in the facsimile apparatus during the data acquisition, operations such as transmission, reception, reading, and recording occur in a complex manner, and the processing capacity of the CPU 1 may not be supported. At this time, by software control, the internal register (BUSYH
LD) is automatically set to a high level for a certain period of time (event 4), the busy signal remains at a high level even after the busy signal on-time T1 elapses, and parallel data transfer from the personal computer 8 is temporarily suspended. To do. This gives C
The PU 1 can preferentially process various operations in the main body of the facsimile apparatus. In addition, B to extend the busy signal
USYHLD is set by the time the ACK signal is returned to a high level. After this, extension processing will not be possible,
The busy signal ends in T1 time from the start of the low level of the ACK signal. The extended busy signal is released by software control by the internal register (BU
This is done by setting SYHLD) to a low level (event 5).

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for setting the ON time T1 of the busy signal, and FIG. 4 is a view showing the relationship between the operation of the facsimile apparatus main body and the busy signal ON time. It is checked whether the facsimile apparatus main body is operating (S1), and if not, the busy signal ON time of the interface unit 2 is set to T1 (S2). If it is in operation, the busy signal ON time of the interface unit 2 is set to T1 + α according to the type of operation of the facsimile apparatus main body (S3). T1 + α
As for the above, an example thereof is shown in FIG. That is, when the main body of the facsimile apparatus is not performing main operations such as transmission, reception, reading, and recording, the busy signal ON time is set to T1, and when recording is performed in parallel, T1 + a, and recording and communication are performed. T1 + b when you are reading, T when you are recording and reading
1 + c, and a <b <c. As a result, when the load on the main body of the facsimile apparatus increases, the busy signal ON time becomes longer and the data transfer rate from the personal computer 8 becomes slower. When these various operations are completed, the internal register (BUS) of the interface unit 2
YHLD) is no longer set and the busy signal turns ON.
The time is T1.

Next, the second embodiment will be described with reference to the timing chart of FIG. In this embodiment, when a certain number of bytes of data is sent from the personal computer 8 at regular intervals, the data is taken in by a facsimile machine, processed, and sent. For example, 1
When 000 bytes of data are sent, they are taken in byte by byte and compressed for each byte and sent.
In this case, it takes T1 + α time to capture one byte as described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, each byte is continuously fetched and stored in the RAM.
After storing in 4, all bytes of data are collectively compressed and transmitted. During this compression processing and transmission, a busy signal is continuously output and acceptance of the next data is stopped. As a result, the CPU 1 of the facsimile apparatus can perform compression processing and transmission in a short time. This continuous data acquisition and collective compression processing can significantly reduce the time from data acquisition to compression processing.

In the timing chart of FIG. 5, when a fixed number of bytes of data are sent at fixed intervals, the set number of bytes is set by setting the number of bytes and the busy signal ON time t1 in the internal register of the interface section 2. Number capture is done byte by byte. The busy signal ON time t1 can be considerably shortened in the case of data continuously sent in this way. For example, if T1 of the first embodiment is 100 μs, t1 can be about 10 μs. Therefore, it is possible to significantly reduce the time required to fetch all bytes. The time required to collectively compress the fetched data is about 1/10 of the time required to compress the data one byte at a time, and thus the processing time is significantly reduced.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention adjusts the length of the busy signal for waiting the data transfer from the terminal according to the load of the CPU of the facsimile apparatus,
When the load is heavy, the busy signal duration is extended, and when the load is light, the busy signal is shortened. As a result, each operation of the facsimile apparatus can be preferentially processed, and when the load is light, high-speed data transfer from the terminal is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for setting an ON time T1 of a busy signal.

[Fig. 4] Operation of the facsimile apparatus main body and busy signal ON
Diagram showing the relationship with time T1

FIG. 5 is a timing chart of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 Interface part 3 ROM 4 RAM 5 Operation panel 6 Modem 7 Line control part 8 Personal computer 9 Recording part 10 Reading part 11 Centronics port 12 Parallel port

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An interface unit for outputting a busy signal indicating that new data is not received to the terminal for a predetermined time while data is being taken in from a terminal, and processing means for carrying out other operations along with the data taking process. A facsimile apparatus, comprising: a control means for varying the predetermined time of a busy signal according to the type of other operation when the processing means performs other operation together with data acquisition. 2. An interface unit for outputting a busy signal indicating that new data is not received to the terminal for a predetermined time while data is being taken in from the terminal, and processing means for carrying out other operations in addition to the data taking process. When a fixed number of bytes of data is sent at one regular interval, this data is fetched by sending a busy signal for the predetermined time for each byte, and the fetched data is collectively processed by the processing means. A facsimile apparatus comprising: control means for changing the predetermined time and transmitting a busy signal.