Patent ID: 7050197

Claim:
An image processor generating image output for a printer from image data received from an image source, comprising: (a) a first processor system, characterized by having a first bus for communication with the image source, said first processor system communicating control data with the image source via said first bus, said first processor system further characterized by providing high-level control of the image processing performed within said image processor; and (b) a second processor system in circuit communication with said first processor system and characterized by having a second bus for communication with the same image source that is separate and distinct from the first bus, said second processor system receiving image data from the image source via said second bus, and said second processor system further characterized by performing a majority of the image processing performed within said image processor responsive to control by said first processor system, wherein said second processor system comprises a raster image processor (RIP) processor in circuit communication with a plurality of color plane processors, each of said color plane processors corresponding to one of a plurality of color planes of the image data, said RIP processor characterized by performing separation of the image data into color plane data for each of the plurality of color planes and transmitting color plane data for each of said color planes to said corresponding color plane processor, each of said plurality of color plane processors processing respective color plane data received from said RIP processor to generate image output for the printer.