The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 04, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 23, 1999
Margaret Motamed, Foster City, CA (US);
Alon Segal, San Francisco, CA (US);
Chew Yan Kong, Mountain View, CA (US);
Ravindranath Gunturu, Newark, CA (US);
Ghilad Dziesietnik, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Electronics for Imaging, Inc., Foster City, CA (US);
Abstract
A multiple raster image processor (RIP) system which enables faster system performance over multiple processors includes a zero RIP feature consisting of a language interpreter sub-RIP that interprets a print instruction file but does not process the graphics rendering steps or the post-language processing operators. The zero RIP discovers page related attributes for individual pages within a multipage job and reports any potential errors or warnings with the file. A thumb RIP consists of a very low resolution RIP that is used specifically for the creation of thumbnail images. A skip RIP interprets selected pages in a way that skips all or most of the processing for that page. Pages to be skipped are scheduled for a different processor, thereby saving processing time and enabling the provision of a multiple processor RIP. A rules based scheduler on an page/face or machine characteristic basis supports a dynamic assignment and assessment algorithm. Scheduling results in optimum use of available resources and requested print constraints (e.g. constrained time window) and optimum use of system bandwidth (e.g. bandwidth control). Archiving and editing capability enables tagged archiving of jobs or parts of jobs in a post RIPed (i.e. raster) format in a special cache located with in the multiRIP system.