JPS6353957B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a paper feed control device that executes a paper feed operation in a printing device such as a line printer, in accordance with a paper feed command specified by a specific channel.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a paper control buffer (hereinafter referred to as FCB) in a general paper feed control device. In Figure 1, for one line of printing paper
One address of the FCB is assigned, and each address can store a specific channel code. In FIG. 1, the P bit is a parity bit, and the F bit is a bit indicating that it is the last row. In the illustrated example, the first line of the printing paper corresponds to address 1 of the FCB, and channel code 1 is written at this first address. Also, the 15th line of the printing paper is the last line, which is FCB
Corresponds to address 15. The F bit at address 15 is set to a logical value of 1, and a channel code of 9 is written here.

A paper feed control device having an FCB as shown in FIG. 1 operates roughly as follows. Note that in the following explanation, a skip command is a paper feed command that specifies a specific channel and causes the paper to be fed to a line where that channel is defined in advance.

First, upon receiving a skip command, the paper feed control device temporarily stores the channel code specified by the command. Next, the FCB is accessed and the FCB address is updated until the stored channel code and the channel code read from the FCB match. At the same time, a space counter provided separately is incremented by 1 starting from 0. To go. When the channel codes match, the paper is fed by the value indicated by the space counter at that point. If it is detected that the F bit has a logical value of 1 during the above operation, the FCB address is reset to 1, the space counter is incremented by 1, and the above operation is continued. As described above, the paper feeding operation can be executed in accordance with the skip command.

Here, a paper feed control device using an FCB as shown in FIG. 1 has the following drawbacks. In other words, only one channel code can be given to one line of printing paper.
This means that the paper control tape (hereinafter referred to as FCT)
This is a significant drawback when compared to a paper feed control device using

As shown in FIG. 2, in FCT, multiple channel numbers can be assigned to one line of printing paper. In the example of FIG. 2, channel numbers 2, 3, and 4 are assigned to the 9th line of the printing paper. If multiple channel numbers can be assigned to one line of printing paper in this way, paper feeding operations to the same line can be executed using different skip commands. This is very useful when controlling printing according to a specific format. However, a general paper feed control device having an FCB as shown in FIG. 1 cannot perform such processing.

In order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks in a paper feed control device using an FCB, two methods have been tried in the past.

The first technically simple method is to configure the FCB to be exactly the same as the FCT, and to
This method allocates one FCB address and further allocates dedicated bits of the FCB for each channel number. An example of the configuration of an FCB using this method is shown in FIG. FIG. 3 shows a configuration similar to the FCT shown in FIG. 2.

The paper feed control device using the FCB as shown in FIG. 3 operates as follows. After receiving the skip command, the paper feed control device updates the FCB address until the FCB bit assigned to the channel number specified by the command becomes a logical value of 1, and at the same time changes the space counter from 0 to 1. are added. When the bit of the FCB becomes logical 1, the paper feed operation is executed by the value indicated by the space counter. If it is detected that the F bit has a logical value of 1 in the middle, the operation is as follows.
It is the same as the explanation of the figure. According to this method, the above-mentioned drawbacks can be eliminated. However, as can be seen from FIG. 3, this method requires 14 data bits for one address of the FCB, including the parity bit, which has the drawback of increasing the storage capacity of the FCB and making it expensive.

The second solution further improves the shortcomings of the first method and provides a continuation instruction bit storage area (hereinafter referred to as C bit) in the FCB.
This allows multiple FCB addresses to be assigned to a row. By this method
Figure 4 shows an example of the configuration of an FCB. In this case, the paper feed control device operates roughly as follows.

First, when a skip command is received, the channel code specified by the command is temporarily stored. Next, access the FCB and update the FCB address until the stored channel code and the channel code read from the FCB match,
At the same time, the space counter is sequentially incremented by 1 from 0. However, if it is detected that the C bit has a logical value of 1, only the FCB address is updated and the space counter is not incremented by 1. When the channel codes match, paper is fed by the value indicated by the space counter at that point. The operation when it is detected that the F bit has a logical value of 1 during the process is the same as the explanation regarding FIG. According to this method, a plurality of channel codes can be given to one line of printing paper, and the drawbacks of the first method are also improved to some extent.

However, there are drawbacks that cannot be overcome even with the second method. This drawback is common to all of the prior art techniques mentioned above. In other words, since it is necessary to allocate one or more FCB addresses to one line of printing paper, the FCB must have a storage capacity at least equal to the number of lines on one page of printing paper. be. This drawback is particularly noticeable when one page of printing paper has a large number of lines and only one or a few channel codes exist on one page. For example, assume that one page of printing paper has 66 lines, channel 1 is set to the first line, channel 9 is set to the 66th line, and no channel code is set to the other lines. In this case, even though there are only two channel codes on one page, FCBs are required from addresses 1 to 66, and FCBs from addresses 2 to 65 are wasted without channel codes. becomes.
In addition, if a skip command specifying channel 1 is received while the printing paper is stopped at the second line, the paper feed control device determines the paper feed amount.
The FCB must be accessed 65 times, which limits processing power due to time constraints.

In fact, paper feed control devices are often used in the FCB configuration assumed here, so
The above-mentioned drawbacks in the prior art should be overcome.

As described above, in conventional paper feed control devices using FCB, multiple channel codes can be given to one line of printing paper, and the storage capacity of FCB can be saved and processing time can be reduced. It was not possible to shorten it.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional paper feed control device using the FCB described above, to make it possible to give a plurality of channel codes to one line of printing paper, and to improve the storage capacity of the FCB. The objective is to save time and reduce the processing time required for paper feed control.

The present invention focuses on the fact that in a paper feed control device using FCB, paper feed control processing can be executed by detecting which line of printing paper each channel code is set. A storage area is allocated as necessary for each channel code within the storage area, and the number of lines on one page of printing paper to which each channel code is set is stored in the storage area, and A counter indicating the number of lines at the current position is provided, and the data of the counter and the
The paper feeding control process is executed by calculating the data read from the FCB.

A block diagram of a specific embodiment of the present invention is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 6 shows an example of the configuration of the FCB used in Figure 5.
Shown below.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

In Figure 5, 1 is the data source and 2 is the data source.
FCB, 3 is a command register, 4 is an address controller, 11 is a paper feed controller, 12 is an arithmetic unit, 13 is a line counter, 14 is a space counter, 21 is a decoder, 22 is a channel counter, 23 is a comparator, 31 is a paper feed It's a driver.

First, before data source 1 issues a skip command, data source 1 transmits control data necessary for paper feed control processing to line 1a.
Loaded into FCB2 via . FCB2 has
As shown in the example in Figure 6, the number of lines for one page of printing paper is loaded into address 0, the control code (FF) ₁₆ is loaded into address 1, and the following channel numbers are assigned to the first line of printing paper. Data indicating which line is set is sequentially loaded. Note that data indicating the setting position of each channel number is loaded in a form classified by control code (FF) ₁₆ for each channel number. In the example in Figure 6, printing paper 1
The length of the page is 66 lines, and channel 1 is set in the first line of the page, channel 2 is set in the 10th line, 20th line, 41st line, and 60th line from the first line, and channel 2 is set in the 12th line. , 41
Channel 3 is set in the row, channel 4 is set in the 41st line, channel 4 is set in the 50th line, channel 9 is set in the 65th line, and channels 5 to 8, 11 and 12 are not set. Channels 2, 3, and 4 are set on the 41st line.

After the above loading is completed and a skip command is issued from data source 1 via line 1a,
The embodiment of FIG. 5 operates as described below.

First, the content of the skip command is decoded by command register 3, and the specified channel code is displayed on line 3.
b. Then FCB via line 3a
A signal is sent instructing the start of an access to line 2, which causes address controller 4 to access line 4.
Specify address 0 for FCB2 via a.
Here, it is assumed that the channel counter 22 has been reset to 0 in advance. If the data read from FCB2 is (FF) ₁₆ , the decoder 21
A signal is sent out on the line 21a by the channel counter 22 when this signal becomes no signal.
is added by 1. The value of channel counter 22 is sent to comparator 23 via line 22a. The paper feed controller 11 receives a signal on the line 3a and starts accessing the FCB 2, until the values on the line 3b and line 22a match, and a signal is received from the comparator 23 via the line 23a. , continues to increment the address on line 4a by one by providing a signal to address controller 4 via line 11c. From the above, line 2
At the time the signal is output on line 2a, data indicating the first setting position of the channel number specified by the skip command is output from FCB 2 on line 2a. At this time, the paper feed controller 11
It instructs the arithmetic unit 12 to start calculation via 1a. Here, the line counter 13 indicates which line from the first line of one page the current position of the printing paper is, and this value is sent out on the line 13a. Also, when the data for one page of printing paper is sent from the data source 1 at the beginning of the load sequence to the FCB 2, this is decoded by the command register 3, and the value is counted inside the line counter 13 via the line 3c. It is stored in a register separate from the part that executes it. Furthermore, the line counter 13 is incremented by a signal on the line 31a sent back from the paper feed driver 31 every time the printing paper is fed one line, and if the value matches the value indicated by the register provided inside, the line counter 13 counts up. The count value is reset to zero.

The arithmetic unit 12, which receives the instruction to start the calculation via the line 11a, executes the calculation expressed by the following equation.

[FCB] - [LINE CNTR] = N In the above formula, [FCB]: Value on line 2a read from FCB2 [LINE CNTR]: Value on line 13a indicating the count value of line counter 13 N: Calculation result shows.

As a result of executing the above equation, if the value of N is positive, that value is output on the line 12b, and the paper feed controller 11 recognizes that the calculation result is positive because no signal is output on the line 12a. and line 11
d to load the value of N into the space counter 14. When the load signal on the line 11d becomes non-signal, the paper feed driver 31 starts the paper feeding operation, and every time the printing paper is fed one line, the line 31
By sending a signal onto the line a, the line counter 13 is counted up and at the same time the space counter 14 is counted down, and paper feeding is continued until the value of the space counter 14 becomes 0.

If the value of the calculation result N is 0 or negative, the operation is as follows. First, the arithmetic unit 12
A signal is output on line 12a. As a result, the paper feed controller 11 recognizes that the value of N is 0 or negative, does not output a signal on the line 11d, but outputs a signal on the line 11c instead, and sends an address to the address controller 4. command to update. As a result, the FCB 2 should output data indicating the second setting position of the designated channel number. If this data is not control code (FF) ₁₆ , the paper feed controller 11 again issues a command to start calculation via the line 11a, repeats this operation until the calculation result becomes positive, and if it becomes positive, the above-mentioned The paper feed operation is executed by the operation. If the control code (FF) ₁₆ is read from the FCB while repeating the above operations, the embodiment of FIG. 5 performs a different operation than above. The paper feed controller 11 recognizes via the line 12a that the previous calculation result is 0 or negative, so the line 2
When it is detected that control code (FF) ₁₆ has been read out via line 11a, the command to start calculation is not issued, and the address controller 4 and channel counter 22 are controlled to indicate address 0 and number 0, respectively, via line 11b. Reset. As a result, 1 from FCB2
Data indicating the number of lines for a page is read. Subsequently, the paper feed controller 11 causes the arithmetic unit 12 to execute the arithmetic operation shown by the above-mentioned formula via the line 11e, but the arithmetic result N is not output on the line 12b in this case, but is stored temporarily in the arithmetic unit 12. Stored in storage. Next, the paper feed controller 11 instructs the address controller 4 to update the address until it receives a signal from the comparator 23 via the line 23a, and when the signal is received via the line 23a, it instructs the start of calculation via the line 11a. At this time, computing unit 1
2 executes the operation shown by the following equation.

[TREG]+[FCB]=M In the above equation, [TREG]: Value stored in the temporary storage area in the arithmetic unit 12 (=N) M: Indicates the calculation result. Since the calculation result M is always a positive value, after the above calculation is performed, the same operation as in the case where the calculation result N is positive is performed, and the paper feeding operation is performed. In this case, the setting position of the channel number specified by the skip command is not on the same page as the current position of the printing paper, so the paper is fed to the first setting position of that channel number on the next page. means to carry out.

Note that the configuration example of the FCB shown in FIG. 6 is just an example, and the configuration of the FCB 2 is not limited to that shown in FIG. 6. Further, the control code (FF) ₁₆ loaded into the FCB 2 is not limited to 16, and may be any code as long as it can be identified as data indicating the setting position of each channel.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 shows an example of the configuration of the FCB used in FIG. 7. The setting positions of each channel number in FIG. 8 are exactly the same as in FIG. 6. Other embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

The major difference in the configuration of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 from that shown in FIG. 5 is that an address pointer 41 is provided between the command register 3 and the address controller 4, and the channel counter 22 and comparator 23 in FIG. 5 are deleted. . The other configurations are the same as in FIG. 5.

In FIG. 7, the loading sequence prior to issuing a skip command is performed as follows. First, the number of lines for one page of printing paper is loaded into address 0 of FCB2. This point is exactly the same as the embodiment shown in FIG. However, in FIG. 7, it is not necessary to load the control code (FF) ₁₆ into the next address 1, and the data indicating the first setting position of channel 1 may be loaded immediately. Loading is performed in the format shown in the configuration example in FIG. 8 below, but before loading data indicating the first setting position of each channel number, data is sent from the data source 1 to the command register 3 via the line 1a. Next, a command is issued to notify how many channels data will be transferred. The command register 3 stores the number of data transferred to the FCB 2 via the line 1a, and can recognize at which address in the FCB 2 the next data will be loaded. Therefore, the command register 3 detects which channel the next data relates to using the notification command, and the command register 3 detects which channel the next data relates to.
It sends out this channel code via line 3d and outputs the address into which the next data will be loaded via line 3d. By this operation, the address on line 3d is stored in a register predetermined in address pointer 41 according to each channel code. Therefore, when the loading sequence is finished,
The register corresponding to each channel code of the address pointer 41 stores an address loaded with data indicating the first setting position of each channel number in the FCB 2.

After the load sequence is completed, when a skip command is issued from data source 1, command register 3 outputs the specified channel code on line 3b, and then a signal instructing the start of access to FCB 2 is output on line 3a. is output. As a result, the address loaded with data indicating the first setting position of the designated channel code is output from the address pointer 41 via the line 41a, and the address signal is sent directly to the FCB 2 via the address controller 4. After that, arithmetic unit 1
2 is immediately performed, and the same processing as in the embodiment of FIG. 5 is performed. However, the calculation result N is 0
Or after becoming negative, control code (FF) ₁₆ becomes FCB
The operation when read from 2 is slightly different. In this case, first, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the paper feed controller 11 sends out a signal via the image 11f, resets the address controller 4, and sends data at address 0 of the FCB 2, that is, data indicating the number of lines for one page. is read out, and the arithmetic unit 12 calculates [FCB] −
[LINE CNTR]=N is calculated and the value of N is temporarily stored. After that, when the reset signal on the line 11f becomes non-signal, the address pointer 41 returns to the address 41a, where the data indicating the first set position of the designated channel code on the line 3b is loaded, in the same way as at the start of access. This address signal is output to the address controller 4.
It is given directly to FCB2 via . The subsequent operations are exactly the same as those described above.

As can be seen by comparing FIG. 6 and FIG. 8, according to the embodiment of FIG. 7, the storage capacity of the FCB can be further saved than the embodiment of FIG. 5, and the number of times the FCB is accessed can be reduced. Therefore, the processing time required for paper feed control can be further reduced.

According to the present invention, storage areas are allocated as necessary for each channel code within the FCB,
The storage area stores the number of lines in one page of the printing paper to which each channel code is set, and a counter indicating the number of lines at the current position of the printing paper is provided, and the data of the counter and the FCB are stored. Since paper feed control processing is executed by calculating the data read from can,
Moreover, the processing time required for paper feed control can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 shows a typical paper feed control device.
A diagram showing an example of the configuration of an FCB, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an FCT, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an FCB in the first conventional technology that improves the drawbacks in FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an FCB in a second conventional technique that improves the drawbacks in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an implementation of FIG. A diagram showing an example of the configuration of FCB in the example,
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the FCB in the embodiment of FIG. 7. In the figure, 1 is the data source, 2 is the FCB,
3 is a command register, 4 is an address controller, 11 is a paper feed controller, 12 is a computing unit,
13 is a line counter, 14 is a space counter, 21 is a decoder, 22 is a channel counter,
23 is a comparator, 31 is a paper feed driver, 4
1 is an address pointer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 It has a paper control buffer configured to be able to write information indicating the setting state of a channel code given in advance to each line within one page of printing paper, and has a paper control buffer configured to write information indicating the setting state of a channel code given in advance to each line on one page of printing paper, and has a paper control buffer configured to write information indicating the setting state of a channel code given in advance to each line on one page of printing paper, In a paper feed control device that receives a specified paper feed command and feeds paper by referring to the contents of the paper control buffer according to the channel code specified by the paper feed command, each A storage area is allocated to the channel code as necessary, the set position of each channel code within one page of printing paper is written in the storage area, and a counter is provided to indicate the current position of the printing paper. and the data read from the paper control buffer in response to the specified channel code by the paper feed command to perform paper feed control processing. .