Patent ID: 6806882
Filing Date: 2004-10-19
Classification: G06F,G09G

Abstract:
An image formation apparatus comprising:an input unit which acquires an image data; a central processing unit which controls an overall operation of the apparatus; a plurality of hard disk drives which store the image data; a memory which stores at least one page of the image data; a direct memory access controller which controls reading/writing of the image data from/into the memory; a hard disk controller which sends/receives the image data to/from the direct memory access controller when reading/writing the image data from/into the memory and controls reading/writing of image data from/into the hard disk drives; and an image formation unit which forms an image based on the image data, wherein the hard disk controller controls setting of parameters, issuance of commands, and reading of statuses for said hard disk drives substantially at the same time, divides the image data into a plurality of pieces, and executes direct memory access transfer of the pieces of the image data to the hard disk drives substantially at the same time, and the hard disk controller includes a central processing unit-direct memory access interface unit which interfaces the central processing unit with the direct memory access controller; wherein the hard disk controller further includes a plurality of hard disk drive interfaces each of which independently reads/writes image data from/into the corresponding one of said hard disk drives, said central processing unit-direct memory access interface unit having,a central processing unit interface unit, having a register that can be read/written by the central processing unit and in which the central processing unit sets commands, which decodes the commands set into the register and instructs the central processing unit to generate signals that instruct reading/writing into said hard disk drives and to initiate direct memory access; and a direct memory access interface unit which perform the division of the image data and the execution of the direct memory access transfer of the pieces of the image data to said hard disk drive interfaces when all of said hard disk drive interfaces are able to receive data, and each of said hard disk drive interfaces having,a state machine which generates access signals for command writing and status reading into and from the hard disk drive when the state machine receives an instruction from the central processing unit interface unit to perform reading/writing, and generates an interface signal for performing a direct memory access to the hard disk drives and executes the direct memory access transfer of the image data when the state machine receives an instruction from the central processing unit interface unit to initiate the direct memory access; and a direct memory access data control unit, having a buffer which stores the image data, which transfers image data received from the direct memory access interface unit to the state machine after once storing the image data into the buffer.