Hewlett-packard Company

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Richard M Dow

Douglas J Mellor

Timothy P Blair

Russell Campbell

Perry Victor Lea

Chris Richard Gunning

Theresa A Burkes

Randall Edward Grohs

Dana A Jacobsen

Michael B Lloyd

Steven Robert Folkner

Richard Detweiler

Jeff H Papke

Lisa Johnson

Burton H Poppenga

Robert J Lavey

Steven Harold Taylor

Scott S Lee

John Mauzey

Raymond S Kennedy

Terry-Lee M Fritz

An exemplary device implementation includes: a manager that is capable of monitoring a process for preparing a page for printing; and a print engine that is capable of printing the page after the process for preparing the page for printing is complete; wherein the device is adapted to temporally overlap the process for preparing the page for printing with preparation of the print engine for printing. An exemplary method implementation includes actions of: beginning processing of a page of a printing job; providing at least one command to a print engine responsive to at least one time remaining estimate for the processing of the page of the printing job prior to completion of the processing of the page of the printing job; and changing a state of the print engine responsive to the providing of the at least one command to the print engine.

Page processing and print engine management

Methods of providing page protection in digital printing systems having multiple output devices are described. In one embodiment, first and second output devices are provided and have different time constraints for processing predetermined amounts of data which will ultimately be printed on a print medium. One of the time constraints is selected to provide a selected time constraint, and at least one predetermined amount of data is tested against the selected time constraint to determine whether the selected time constraint is satisfied. If the selected time constraint is not satisfied, the predetermined amount of data is transformed into a state which is more likely to satisfy the selected time constraint. In another embodiment, a first processing time constraint of a first output device is determined. The first processing time constraint impacts the manner in which a predetermined amount of data is processed into a printed image. A second processing time constraint of a second output device is determined. The second processing time constraint impacts the manner in which the predetermined amount of data is processed into a printed image. The first and second processing time constraints are compared and responsive to the comparison, the processing time constraint having a lesser magnitude is selected to provide a selected processing time constraint.

Methods of providing page protection in a digital printing system having multiple output devices

Methods of guard-banding, methods of dynamic guard-banding, and related apparatus for real time image-data processing are described. In one embodiment, at least one image-processing pipeline variance is measured. Responsive to measuring the image-processing pipeline variance, a guard band is imposed around a processing parameter of the image-processing pipeline. In another embodiment, a first parameter relating to processing time of a predetermined amount of data through an image-processing pipeline is determined. A second parameter relating to processing time of the predetermined amount of data through the image-processing pipeline is determined. The second parameter is related to the first parameter. The first and second parameters are compared, and responsive thereto, a guard band is imposed on at least a portion of the processing which takes place in the image-processing pipeline. In preferred embodiments, the guard bands are adjustable dynamically or on-the-fly.

Guard-banding methods, dynamic guard-banding methods, and related apparatus for real time image-data processing

An imaging device and method enable the freeing of memory during a punt (print overrun) avoidance operation and during a duplexing operation for enhanced page throughput. Specifically, if a first race condition threshold is met, being indicative of an estimated need to pre-rasterize a band from a page of image data for punt avoidance, and if after pre-rasterization it is determined pre-rasterization is not actually needed for punt avoidance, then the pre-rasterized band is evaluated relative to its display list for memory savings purposes for improved page throughput performance. Similarly, if a duplex condition threshold is met, being indicative of a band being part of a first side of a duplex page being processed and of an estimated need to save memory for processing of the second side of the duplex page, then the band is pre-rasterized and evaluated relative to its display list for memory savings purposes for improved duplex page throughput performance. If neither the race condition threshold nor duplex condition threshold is met, but an increased general memory savings condition threshold is met for the band, then the band is pre-rasterized for memory savings purposes.

Freeing memory in a page printer during punt protection

Freeing memory in a page printer during duplex processing

A multi-resolution capable printer includes a critical operations memory buffer for enabling critical page print operations to occur without flushing the video buffers and without waiting for returned-in memory to heal into larger free blocks. The critical operations buffer thus enables improved constant printer throughput and reduced 'pausing' during a multi-page print job. The critical operations buffer is dynamically sized to the resolution of the current page being printed. Thus, at higher resolution configurations, the critical operations buffer is reduced in size to allow the video buffers to increase in size to accommodate the higher resolution. At lower resolution configurations, the critical operations buffer is increased in size and the video buffers are decreased in size to accommodate the lower resolution. Advantageously, the total combined pre-reserved memory area utilized by the critical operations buffer and the video buffers remains constant. The critical operations buffer is utilized for large contiguous memory allocation requests, pre-rasterization operations, compressing operations, rendering character bitmaps, scaling and rotating raster objects, building vector paths, defragmenting the memory, and the like.

Memory partitioning for multi-resolution pauseless page printing

An imaging device and method optimize memory usage during a print overrun avoidance operation by employing selected compression schemes upon page bands while ensuring that required decompression times of the bands are met for subsequent rendering purposes. A preferred method includes compressing a band from a page of image data and, if an estimated decompression time for the compressed band does not satisfy a race-the-laser threshold for subsequent video imaging, then decompressing the band and measuring an actual decompression time. If the actual decompression time satisfies the race-the-laser threshold, then the method includes keeping the compressed band for subsequent video imaging. On the other hand, if the actual decompression time does not satisfy the race-the-laser threshold, then the band is re-compressed using an alternate compression scheme and re-evaluated similar to the originally compressed band to determine whether the recompressed band's decompression time will satisfy the race-the-laser threshold.

Balancing compressed storage requirements with decompression times

Growing community of inventors

Laramie, WY, United States of America

Richard M Dow