Patent ID: 8350927

Claim:
An image-data processing apparatus comprising: an image memory configured to store image data; a plurality of processing sections each configured to output image data to be stored in said image memory, receive image data read out from said image memory and carry out image processing determined in advance on said received image data; and a memory control section configured to: (a) receive a write or read request from each of said processing sections and control a write access to store image data in said image memory in accordance with said write request and a read access to read out image data from said image memory in accordance with said read request, (b) execute every cycle of said write access to said image memory or every cycle of said read access to said image memory for each horizontal-direction multi-pixel line segment consisting of 1/N times the number of pixels included in one horizontal line where N is a positive integer at least equal to 2, and (c) take a plurality of said cycles as a processing time unit period during which said memory control section carries out access processing to make write and read accesses according to respectively said write and read requests made by said processing sections as accesses to said image memory by allocating each of said cycles in said processing time unit period to one of said processing sections and repeats said processing time unit period, and wherein said memory control section includes: (a) a determination section configured to produce a determination result as to whether or not said access processing specified on the basis of said write or read request made by any specific one of said processing sections in a particular processing time unit period can be completed in said cycles included in said particular processing time unit period as cycles allocated to said specific processing section, and (b) an access execution section configured to supply a wait request signal in said particular processing time unit period to said specific processing section to temporarily stop making further requests and continue said access processing uncompleted in said particular processing time unit period to cycles allocated to said specific processing section in one or a plurality of said processing time unit periods following said particular processing time unit period if said determination result produced by said determination section indicates that said access processing cannot be completed in said cycles included in said particular processing time unit period as cycles allocated to said specific processing section.