Patent ID: 8040546

Claim:
A multifunction device having a plurality of functions, comprising: an input unit that receives image data; a general-purpose process unit that implements a plurality of tasks for each of the plurality of functions, the plurality of tasks including compression of the image data in a compression format and expansion of the image data which has been compressed, a single specific process unit controlled by the general-purpose process unit, the specific process unit implementing only two tasks, one task being compression of the image data in the compression format for each of the plurality of functions, the other task being expansion of the image data which has been compressed for each of the plurality of functions; and an output unit that outputs the image data, wherein the general-purpose process unit determines which the general-purpose process unit or the specific processing unit should implement the compression/expansion, wherein the input unit comprises at least one of a reception unit that receives the image data, a scan unit that scans the image data, and a reading unit that reads the image data from a recording media, and the output unit comprises at least one of a print unit that prints the image data, and a transmission unit that transmits the image data, and wherein the plurality of functions comprises a scan function for scanning the image data, a copy function for copying the image data, a facsimile function for transmitting/receiving the image data, and a print function for printing the image data.