Patent ID: 7110134

Claim:
A data processing apparatus comprising: a linker adapted to link to a plurality of data terminals, each of which is able to store data to be processed; receiving means for receiving a processing request from at least one of the plurality of data terminals without any request from said apparatus, wherein the processing request includes information for specifying data to be processed that is predesignated by a data terminal and information for discriminating the data terminal from the plurality of data terminals; a determiner adapted to determine whether predetermined resources are adequate to perform the received processing request; a manager adapted to manage information for discriminating which data terminal of the plurality of data terminals has stored therein data to be processed corresponding to the received processing request; requesting means for issuing an output request to the discriminated data terminal for the data to be processed stored in the discriminated data terminal, based on the managed information, when the predetermined resources are adequate to perform the received processing request; receiving means for receiving the data to be processed, which is output from the discriminated data terminal, in accordance with the output request issued by said requesting means; and a processor adapted to process the data received by said means for receiving the data to be processed, based on the received processing request.