Print Control Device Nonvolatile Memory Power Interruption Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
In high-speed business continuous sheet printing devices, unexpected power interruptions can lead to loss of volatile memory data, causing system instability and requiring re-execution of print jobs, which results in performance deterioration and increased labor and time consumption.
Innovation Solution
A print control device and method that synchronizes and saves job information and log information in a nonvolatile memory, ensuring system state restoration after power interruptions while minimizing performance impact by using a controller with a CPU, HDD, and RAM disc configuration for efficient data management and storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If various items of information are stored in volatile memory for high-speed processing, then print processing performance is improved, but data loss occurs when unexpected power interruption occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by detecting print job completion and proactively storing volatile memory data to nonvolatile memory before power interruption can occur. The control device monitors processing status and executes data preservation operations in advance, ensuring that even if power is interrupted, the system can restore to the correct state without reprocessing completed jobs.
2Reliability
If information is frequently stored in nonvolatile memory to prevent data loss, then system reliability is improved, but print processing performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuously or frequently storing data to nonvolatile memory, the system employs periodic action by storing data only at specific moments when print job completion is detected. This selective, event-driven approach minimizes the frequency of nonvolatile memory operations, thereby reducing performance impact while still ensuring data preservation when it matters most.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of data storage timing from continuous/frequent to event-triggered (when print completion is detected). This parameter change optimizes the balance between reliability and performance by storing data only when necessary, avoiding unnecessary I/O operations that would slow down print processing while still protecting against power interruption data loss.
3Reliability
If print jobs are re-executed after power interruption, then system state restoration is achieved, but unnecessary labor and time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by detecting when a print job has been completed and proactively preserving this completion state in nonvolatile memory before power interruption. When power is restored, the system reads the preserved state information and resumes from the correct point, preventing unnecessary re-execution of already-completed jobs and eliminating the time loss associated with redundant processing.
Data Source
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AI summary
A print control device includes a management unit that receives a print instruction and manages the print instruction, a generation unit that generates print data of an intermediate format based on the received print instruction, a conversion unit that converts the print data of the intermediate format generated by the generation unit to image data for drawing, a print controller that controls a printing device based on the image data converted by the conversion unit and a storage unit that respectively stores attribute information indicating an attribute of the print instruction stored by the management unit and history information indicating a processing state of the print instruction stored by the generation unit and the conversion unit in a nonvolatile memory after execution of a given process.