Image Forming Apparatus Page Order Control Rasterization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional printers require significant memory to store raster images generated from multiple processor cores, leading to inefficiencies in memory usage and processing order control during rasterization of pages.
Innovation Solution
An image forming apparatus with a receiving unit for PDL data, multiple processing units for generating intermediate data, and a rasterizing unit that delays the rasterization of subsequent pages until preceding pages are completed, allowing for efficient memory management and page order control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple processor cores perform rasterization in parallel without delay control, then processing speed is improved, but memory usage increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having processor cores generate intermediate data for multiple pages in advance through parallel processing, while controlling the rasterization timing to process pages in order. This allows the system to prepare work ahead without requiring all raster images to be stored simultaneously in memory, thus improving processing speed while managing memory usage effectively.
2Reliability
If rasterization of following page is delayed until preceding page is completed, then page order control is improved, but processing speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the rasterization process into two distinct phases: an intermediate data generation phase that can be performed in parallel by multiple processor cores, and a rasterization phase that processes pages sequentially in order. This segmentation allows the system to maintain reliable page order control during rasterization while achieving processing speed improvement through parallel intermediate data generation.
3Productivity
If intermediate data of multiple pages is stored in memory simultaneously, then parallel processing capability is improved, but memory capacity requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the intermediate data generation function from the rasterization function, allowing intermediate data for multiple pages to be generated in parallel by separate processor cores. The extracted intermediate data is then processed sequentially through the rasterization unit, which reduces memory capacity requirements by avoiding the need to store complete raster images of all pages simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
When the generation of intermediate data of the following page is completed before the generation of intermediate data of the preceding page, the rasterization of the intermediate data of the following page is performed after completion of the generation and rasterization of the intermediate data of the preceding page.