Patent ID: 7580581

Claim:
An image data processing circuit comprising: an input section for inputting image data of a plurality of pages of an original document on a page by page basis to produce input image data; a first compressing section and a second compressing section which are capable of compressing the input image data, to produce compressed input image data in a manner which is processed solely or in parallel; a first decompressing section and a second decompressing section which are capable of decompressing the compressed input image data, to produce decompressed input image data in a manner which is processed solely or in parallel; an output section for outputting the decompressed input image data to print each page based on the decompressed input image data; a transferring section for transferring i) the input image data from the input section to a memory and then from the memory to the first and/or second compressing section, ii) the compressed input image data from the first and/or second compressing section to the memory and then from the memory to the first and/or second decompressing section, and iii) the decompressed input image data from the first and/or second decompressing section to the memory and then from the memory to the output section; and a transfer controlling section for controlling the transferring section selectively, so that the transferring section operates in a parallel input/output mode, a parallel input mode or a parallel output mode wherein; the parallel input/output mode is a selective mode in which the transferring section transfers the compressed input image data of a preceding page or preceding pages from the memory to the first decompressing section and the decompressed input image data to the memory and then to the output section to print the preceding page or the preceding pages at a predetermined output speed while transferring the input image data of a following page or pages from the input section to the memory and then to the first compressing section and the compressed input image data to the memory to input the input image data of each page at a predetermined input speed; the parallel input mode is a mode in which the transferring section transfers each page of the input image data from the input section to the memory and then transfers a part of the input image data of each page to the first compressing section while transferring another part of the input image data to the second compressing section to input the input image data of each page at a predetermined input speed, and the parallel output mode is a mode in which the transferring section transfers a part of the compressed input image data of each page from the memory to the first decompressing section while transferring another part of the compressed input image data from the memory to the second decompressing section, and then transfers the decompressed input image data from the first and second decompressed sections to the memory and then to the output section to print each page at a predetermined output speed.