JPH0780324B2 - Output device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an output device such as a printer that generates and outputs output information based on input information input from an external device.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in this type of device, a character code and a control command (command) output from a data supply source such as a host computer are exchanged, the input character code and control command are analyzed, and a character to be printed is printed. A pattern is generated, and the generated character pattern is developed in a frame buffer for one page, for example, and is output to a print drive circuit of a printer so that desired characters and images can be output.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, since the control command (command) system output from the data supply source such as the host computer is a command system unique to each printer manufacturer, it can usually be made to function as a printer of another person such as a printer of the same manufacturer. The compatibility was low, and the improvement was awaited.

For this reason, this type of device is equipped with an emulation program that processes commands of a command system different from the native command when the printer-specific command system is used as a native command, and prints according to a command of another system. A simulation-compatible printer configured to execute processing has been put into practical use.

However, in an image output device that normally executes a printing process in this type of emulation mode, an emulator program for executing the emulation mode is stored in a cartridge-type storage medium, which is required by the user, that is, the user. Is configured so that the image output in the emulation mode can be executed by inserting the cartridge into the mounting opening of the image output means. The cartridge type storage medium normally stores the emulator program in the one emulation mode. Therefore, in order to improve the print compatibility that can be placed in the main body of the image output device, it is necessary to purchase a plurality of the above-mentioned cartridge-type storage media and attach the cartridge-type storage media corresponding to each emulation mode each time. And always It must recognize the attached cartridge type storage medium, a problem such as it takes a considerable time to start print processing execution.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and when external storage means for storing a plurality of control programs (for example, emulation programs) is connected to the connection means of the output device, the connection means is connected to the connection means. An output device such as a printer that reads a control program associated in advance and reads the control program stored in the internal storage means of the output device when the external storage means is not connected to the connection means of the output device. The purpose is to provide.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

An output device according to the present invention is an output device that generates and outputs output information based on input information input from an external device, and is used when generating the output information.
Connection means for connecting an external storage means for storing the control program and the second control program, a determination means for determining whether or not the external storage means is connected to the connection means, and the external means by the determination means. When it is determined that the storage means is connected, the first control program or the second control program previously associated with the connection means is read from the external storage means, and the determination means When it is determined that the external storage means is not connected, the read control means for reading the control program stored in the internal storage means of the output device and the control program read by the read means are read. Output means for generating and outputting the output information.

[Action]

According to the present invention, when the external storage means for storing the first control program and the second control program used when generating the output information is connected to the connecting means of the output device, the connecting means is associated with the connecting means in advance. The attached first control program or second control program is read from the external storage means, and if the external storage means is not connected, the control program stored in the internal storage means of the output device is read. It becomes possible.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a sectional view for explaining the structure of an output device showing an embodiment of the present invention. The laser beam printer shown in FIG. 1 can also be used to register a character pattern or a fixed form (form pattern) from a data supply source (not shown).

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a main body, which is a recording medium which is converted into a character pattern, a form pattern or the like corresponding to character information (character code), form information (form code) or the like supplied from an external host computer described later. Image on paper. 2 is a printer control unit, which is the main body 1
The printer control unit 2 mainly converts the character information into a video signal having a corresponding character pattern and analyzes the converted video signal to the laser driver 3 by analyzing the entire control and the character information supplied from the host computer. Output. The laser driver 3 is a circuit for driving and controlling the semiconductor laser 4, and switches on / off the laser light 5 emitted from the semiconductor laser 4 in accordance with the input video signal. The laser beam 5 is deflected in the left-right direction by the rotary polygon mirror 6 and irradiated on the electrostatic drum (photosensitive drum) 7, and a latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 7. This latent image is developed by the developing unit 8 around the electrostatic drum 7 and then transferred to a sheet. A cut sheet is used as the sheet, and the cut sheet is accommodated in a sheet cassette 9 mounted on the main body 1 and taken into the apparatus by a sheet feed roller 10 and conveyance rollers 11 and 12, and the electrostatic drum 7
Is supplied to. 13 is the operation panel, operation switch and LE
It is composed of a display device composed of D and notifies the state of the main body 1.

2a and 2b are connectors serving as connecting means, and a program package 29 (having a first emulation program ROM and a second emulation program ROM according to an arbitrary command system as described later) that functions as an emulation program storage means is provided. It is attached or detached to either.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of the printer control unit 2 shown in FIG. 1, and the same elements as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes an input interface unit which receives a control mode and a character code from a host computer 28 which is an external device, and temporarily stores the control mode and the character code in an input buffer memory 22 composed of a random access memory RAM. twenty three
Is a CPU that also functions as emulation program activation control means of the present invention, and executes print information processing based on a control program stored in the control program ROM 25. Particularly, the control program ROM 25 stores the print processing sequence in the native mode. A character pattern generator 24 stores a character font pattern corresponding to a character code in a dot matrix format. Reference numeral 26 is a frame buffer memory composed of, for example, a RAM, and a character pattern corresponding to a predetermined character code obtained from the character pattern generator 24 is set at an appropriate position according to a print position command input from a host computer 28. Image expansion for page is stored.

27 is an output interface section, which is a frame buffer memory
A video signal is generated according to the dot pattern information expanded and stored in 26, and the video signal is output to the page printer printing unit 30 in synchronization with the print control signal. The page printer printing unit 30 prints image information according to the video signal by the mechanism shown in FIG.

Reference numeral 29 is a program package serving as a program supply means, which is composed of a first emulation program ROM 29a, a second emulation program ROM 29b, and a socket 29c for processing print information according to an arbitrary command system, and is attached to and detached from the connectors 2a, 2b. It is configured to be able to.

The first emulation program ROM 29a and the second emulation program ROM 29b analyze the first and second emulation programs P1 and P2 (command combination (command system) from the host computer 28) in an emulation mode different from the passive mode. A parser for executing the program and an execution procedure are stored as a program) (however, P1 ≠ P2). Each emulation program P1, which corresponds to 2a, 2b
P2 is individually read and the emulation program P1 or emulation program P2 corresponding to the mounted connectors 2a and 2b is started. Then, the CPU 23 monitors whether or not the program package 29 is attached to each of the connectors 2a and 2b, and automatically sets the native mode image output or the emulation mode image output by the page printer printing unit 30 serving as an image output unit. In the output device configured as described above, the recognition means (CPU23) recognizes the connection status of the storage means (program package 29) connected to one of the connection means (connectors 2a, 2b), and based on the recognition result. The generating means activates a desired emulation program from the plurality of emulation programs (first emulation program and second emulation program), and generates output data based on the data input from the host computer 28 as an information processing device. Therefore, even if the first emulation program and the second emulation program are stored in one program package 29, any emulation program identified from the connection state of the program package 29 to either the connector 29a or the connector 29b. Sure Selection is activated to produce a normal output data based on input data.

3 (a) and 3 (b) are schematic memory map diagrams for explaining the memory space of each device processed by the CPU 23 shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 3 (a) is a diagram on the printer control unit 2. Shows the address assignment of each device, and the control program
ROM 25 is assigned to addresses 0H to 0FFFFH, character pattern generator 24 is assigned to addresses 100000 to 1FFFFFH, connector 2a is assigned to addresses 200000 to 3FFFFFH, connector 2b is assigned to addresses 400000 to 5FFFFFH, and input buffer memory 22 , Frame buffer memory 2
RAMs such as 6 are assigned to addresses 600000 to 9FFFFFH.

FIG. 10B shows the address allocation on the program package 29. The first simulation program ROM 29a is allocated addresses 0H to 0FFFF, and the second emulation program ROM 29b is allocated addresses 100000H to 13FFFF.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the external appearance of the program package 29 shown in FIG. 2, and the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

As can be seen from this figure, by installing the program package 29 in the connector 2a or the connector 2b, the CPU2
The socket 29c is directly connected to the bus line of 3.

Next, the image output processing operation according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining an example of the image output processing according to the present invention. Note that (1) to (7) indicate each step.

When the printer control unit 2 is powered on,
The CPU 23 of the printer control unit 2 executes an initialization process for initializing information about each device (1). That is, a clear self test of a timer, a register, an accumulator, a flip-flop, an I / O register, a panel interface circuit, a RAM and the like held in a work area (not shown) is executed.

Next, the CPU 23 sets the address 2 assigned to the connector 2a.
Read 00000H and judge whether the value is "PPPP (arbitrarily set)" (2), NO (connector 2a
(If the program package 29 is not installed)
If so, read the address 500000H assigned to the connector 2b, judge whether the value is "PPPP (arbitrarily set)" (3), and NO (the program package 29 is not attached to the connector 2b. If the case), it is determined that the mode is the native mode, the instruction stored in the control program ROM 25 is continued (4), the printing process from the host is executed (5), and the process is ended.

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step (3) is YES, the CPU 23 jumps to the address 500004H, and the program package 2
The instruction according to the second emulation program stored in the second emulation program ROM 29b of 9 is executed (6), and the process returns to step (5).

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step (2) is YES, the CPU 23 jumps to the address 200004H, and the program package 29
The instruction according to the first emulation program stored in the first emulation program ROM 29a is executed (7), and the process returns to step (5).

In the above embodiment, the printer control unit 2 processes the image information processed by the page printer printing unit 30 according to the native mode or various emulation modes. The present invention can be applied not only to the printer device but also to a CRT display device capable of displaying a bitmap.

Further, in the above embodiment, the program package 29
The case where only the first emulation program ROM 29a and the second emulation program ROM 29b are stored has been described above, but other information such as message information displayed on the operation panel 13 shown in FIG. A change application program is stored, or the first emulation program ROM 29a and the second emulation program ROM2
It is also possible to simultaneously store the character font patterns corresponding to 9b and the first emulation program ROM 29a and the second emulation program ROM 29b.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the case where the number of connectors is two has been described, but various emulation programs can be used if the number is increased according to the storage capacity of the programming package 29, that is, the number of emulation programs to be stored. The image information output process corresponding to can be performed, and the versatility can be further enhanced.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the first control program (first emulation program P1) and the second control program (second control program) used when generating output information are used.
When the external storage means (program package 29) for storing the emulation program P2) is connected to the connection means (connectors 2a, 2b) of the output device, the first storage means is associated with the connection means (connectors 2a, 2b) in advance. The first control program (first emulation program P1) or the second control program (second emulation program P2) is read from the external storage means, and if the external storage means is not connected, the internal storage means of the output device. The control program (program in native mode) stored in (control program ROM 25) can be read.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, when the external storage means for storing a plurality of control programs (for example, emulation programs) is connected to the connecting means of the output device, it is associated with the connecting means in advance. This has an excellent effect that the control program can be read and the control program stored in the internal storage means of the output device can be read when the external storage means is not connected to the connection means of the output device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view for explaining the constitution of an output device showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the constitution of the printer control unit shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 (a). ，
2B is a memory map schematic diagram for explaining the memory space of each device processed by the CPU shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the external appearance of the program package shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining an example of the image output processing according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a main body, 2 is a printer control unit, 2a and 2b are connectors, 21 is an input interface unit, 22 is an input buffer memory, 23 is a CPU, 24 is a character pattern generator, 25 is a control program ROM, and 26 is A frame buffer memory, 27 is an output interface unit, 28 is a host computer, 29 is a program package, and 30 is a page printer printing unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An output device for generating and outputting output information based on input information input from an external device, the first control program and the second control used when generating the output information. Connection means for connecting an external storage means for storing a program, determination means for determining whether or not the external storage means is connected to the connection means, and the external storage means is connected by the determination means If determined, the first control program or the second control program previously associated with the connection means is read from the external storage means, and the external storage means is connected by the determination means. If it is determined that the control program stored in the output device is not stored, the read control unit that reads the control program stored in the internal storage unit of the output device, and the control read by the read unit Output apparatus characterized by an output means generates and outputs the output information using the program.