Patent ID: 7907295

Claim:
A multi-function image processing apparatus that includes a plurality of image processing units that perform a plurality of image processing functions, including a printer unit that performs a printer function and a scanner unit that performs a scanner function, the apparatus comprising: an IP address generator connected to an Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) router on a network that repeatedly acquires a prefix information from the IPv6 router and generates a plurality of IP addresses, based on the acquired prefix information, wherein each of the IP addresses is unique to a different one of the plurality of image processing units, and wherein a number of the IP addresses is equal to the number of the image processing units; and a controller that communicates with at least one appliance on the network using the IP addresses generated for the image processing units and operates each of the image processing units to perform communications between each of the image processing units and the at least one appliance, and that executes a transfer task for transferring packet data, wherein the transfer task for transferring packet data is managed by an Operating System (OS) using buffer areas allocated to the printer unit and the scanner unit, respectively.