Patent ID: 6483604
Filing Date: 2002-11-19
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A printer apparatus comprising:a marking engine subsystem for recording information on an image recording member and an image storage subsystem for buffering image data for output to the marking engine subsystem, the image storage subsystem including: (a) an input for receiving rasterized image data; (b) a data compressor that operates on the rasterized image data to compress the rasterized image data to form compressed image data; (c) a disk storage module that is operable to receive, store and output the compressed image data; (d) a semiconductor RAM memory device that stores at least one page of the compressed image data; (e) a data decompressor that operates on the compressed image data output by the RAM memory device and decompresses the compressed image data to decompressed rasterized image data form for output to the marking engine subsystem; and (f) a controller that determines if the disk storage module is ready to operate in a write mode to receive compressed image data currently being stored in the RAM memory device and determines if the disk storage module is ready to operate in a read mode to output compressed image data from the disk storage module for transfer to the RAM memory device and, if the disk storage module is ready to operate in both modes, the controller is operative to provide a preference for operation of the read mode and controls the disk storage module so that compressed image data is output from the disk storage module and written into the RAM memory device.