Lexmark International, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

John K Brown, Iii

Patrick Oscar Bischel

Carl P Cole

Lynn M Oliver

Stephen R Troyer

Joseph P Kolb

Matthew Scott Keith

Martin Geoffrey Rivers

Gail Marie Songer

Edward William Yohon, Jr

Darell Dean Cronch

Cuong Manh Hoang

Michael Donald Bender

James C Buchanan

Christopher Mark Songer

James L Beck

John Neil Wellman

Patricia A Graham

Kathy Scott D'Alessandro

Christopher Lawrence Knapp

Lynn M Olivers

Mark A Robb

Wallace L Holloway, Ii

Donald G Fitch

Kevin N Tucker

A method and apparatus for reclaiming space on a flash memory device is provided in which valid data is copied from an individually erasable sector on the flash device to a designated memory location. The sector is then formatted or erased and the valid data is returned to the flash device at the next available free space contiguously. A pointer is updated to keep track of the location of the next available recently formatted free space on the flash device. The process is then repeated on each consecutive sector on the flash memory device until all valid data becomes contiguous on one contiguous segment of the device and all free space becomes contiguous on a second contiguous segment of the device. In this manner, the flash memory is defragmented and the largest possible contiguous file can be written to the device. Files can be saved on the flash memory device in contiguous file formats and blocked file formats. During the reclamation and defragmentation routine, the file format of the valid data is preserved. Also, file blocks on a sector which are originally non-contiguous become contiguous after the routine is performed.

Method and apparatus for reclaiming and defragmenting a flash memory

A printing apparatus and method of use therefore are disclosed. The printing apparatus is usable as a replacement printer for replacing an existing printer apparatus without having to change printer drivers or make custom firmware changes in computers on a computer network. The inventive printer apparatus includes a map of source number assignments in the memory of the replacement printer apparatus for the replaced existing printer apparatus and for the replacement printer apparatus. The printing apparatus has a plurality of paper sources with each paper source being assigned a particular pre-assigned assignment code. The print request codes associated with the existing network printer being replaced must be determined. The print request codes are representative of a particular type of paper source. A map of print request codes which are sent by computers on the network for driving the existing printer are compared with the pre-assigned source number assignment of the replacement printer. If the pre-assigned source number assignment is different for any of the paper sources than the print request code, a user can change the source number assignment to agree with the print request code. These changes are placed into a table into the non-volatile memory of the printer, thereby creating a mapping of source number assignments for the new replacement printer, the old printer being replaced, and the custom firmware. The pre-assigned source number assignments can be changed using either NPA commands, the printing apparatus operations panel or using printer job language (PJL).

Method and apparatus for replacing a printer with a new printer of a

A high speed printing system including a host computer, a printer controller and a print engine. The printing system can operate in a normal mode where a high level page description language is used to convey page information from the host computer to the printer controller. The system further permits rasterization of a page to be printed at the host computer and the downloading of rasterized page data to the printer controller in a form that the data can be directly serialized to the print engine.

Image printing solution for a printing device

An improved printer is provided that improves the response time before jobs are printer by providing a 'fast data path' for certain print jobs while also storing on a hard disk all incoming print job data. This 'fast data path' is especially useful in situations where the incoming print job lacks an 'end of file' code, which could otherwise hold up the processing of either this print job or later print jobs. Once the printer becomes relatively busy, and begins to accumulate a 'queue' of print jobs waiting to be processed and printed, the printer will automatically store all of the print job data on the non-volatile memory (e.g., a hard disk) before that same data is sent to the processing circuitry. Since it is important to utilize the printer's capabilities efficiently, the printer can allow a 'small' print job to be processed and printed after being received from one input port of the printer, while a much larger print job is still being accumulated from a second input port, even though the larger job began to be received first. Since all print job data received by the printer of the present invention is stored in a non-volatile memory, the capability exists for recovering such print jobs after the occurrence of a power failure. Upon power restoration, a 'Header File' that contains status information about stored print jobs will be inspected, and if a print job was never completely printed, the printer will now begin printing the entire job. In this manner, the printer can guarantee that the entire job will be printed in one intact grouping of sheets of paper.

Method and apparatus for providing print job buffering for a printer on

Flash memory (12) is added to a printer and fonts and macros received at connector (14) are stored under operator control. All data received is first processed under by the printer data processor controller (8) using dynamic memory (10). Printers which respond to more than one language store the downloaded information before termination of a language mode erases the DRAM.

Printer with flash memory

A memory management system for a page printer controller (11) which includes random access memory (17) allocated among bit map memory (30), page buffer memory (29), and user memory (28). The memory management system allocates the random access memory to provide either a large bit map memory or, responsive to needs of the controller (11) for increased memory for other uses, for allocating the random access memory (17) to provide a small bit map memory and place more memory in the page buffer memory (29) and user memory (28).

Page printer memory allocation

The bit map description for a page printer (1) from data for more lines per page than would normally fit on the page is composed by reserving the full vertical height of one line and determining the line spacing on the basis of the ratio (division) of the remaining printable page length to the number of lines less one. This is done automatically by a microprocessor (7) which determines the lines per page from the page selected from the control panel (13), performs the division (37) of lines per page less one into printable height less one, followed by page composition (39) based on the result. The data invariable fits into the mapped description without additional operator intervention.

Page printer composition line spacing revision

A printer control system which enables the using application program to automatically selectively alter printer default parameters, to automatically selectively delete previously downloaded fonts and macros, and to enable the printer to operate from one of several datastream formats. The system allows the printer to initialize default parameters for a succeeding job during the printing of a current job as long as the datastream format is unchanged, and allows the deletion of downloaded fonts as long as they are not needed for the current or future pages being printed for the current job.

Printer initialization system

A page printer including a print engine (15) and a controller (11) which includes a non-volatile memory (16) having an EEPROM (17) and a chip RAM (18). A microprocessor (12) under program control manages the placement of data in the EEPROM (17) of the non-volatile memory (16). The EEPROM (17) and the associated chip RAM (18) are structured to have a control block (31) and a data storage portion (32-39). The control block (31) includes pointers (41-47) indicating the locations in the non-volatile memory where data is stored. If a data location becomes faulty, the value of the pointer to that location is changed so that the pointer points to a previously unused portion of the non-volatile memory.

Non-volatile memory usage

A matrix printer (1) or other imaging device in a memory (7) stores fonts of character data (11, 11') in defining bit maps for each character of the fonts. The memory also stores shift values for each font which vary with the nature of the font for double strike, emphasize, and combined double strike and emphasize, from which character bit maps are modified before printing by being shifted and overlayed. Improved images for double strike and emphasize are achieved, and the combined double strike and emphasize need not be the overlay of double strike and emphasize.

Matrix character modification information unique to a given font

A function for an electronic typewriter is described which allows the operator of the typewriter to realign the print element of the typewriter to the prior adjacent, or the following adjacent line which contains textual material, even when the present position of the print element is other than a uniform line feed increment or multiple thereof, from the designated destination line. The electronic controls of the typewriter determine the present position of the print element and the vertical location of the line to which the print element is to move, and determines the distance and moves the record sheet to position the print element precisely over the designated line of text.

Growing community of inventors

Lexington, KY, United States of America

John K Brown, Iii