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:
Oct. 14, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 10, 1999
Toshihiro Shima, Nagano, JP;
Kazuhiko Iida, Nagano, JP;
Susumu Shiohara, Nagano, JP;
Tadashi Kobayashi, Nagano, JP;
Norishige Kakuno, Nagano, JP;
Ryoichi Shimizu, Nagano, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention is a printer controller furnished with a processor for exclusively executing a first task (printing task) for controlling a print engine, a second task (communication task) for controlling communication with host computers, and a third task (language task) for generating image data. These tasks are assigned priorities of execution in the order of the printing task, the communication task, and the language task. When there is a request for the execution of a task with a higher priority during the execution of a task with a lower priority, the processor executes the higher priority task whose execution has been requested instead of the lower priority task currently being executed. Therefore, the processor is able to execute the communication task, language task, and printing task with no conflict.