Print engine controller for a pagewidth printer with a four-stage print pipeline

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(12) United States Patent

Silverbrook et al.

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,748,624 B2 *Jul. 6, 2010

(54) PRINT ENGINE CONTROLLER FOR A PAGEWIDTH PRINTER WITH A FOUR-STAGE PRINT PIPELINE

(75) Inventors: Kia Silverbrook, Balmain (AU); Paul Lapstun, Balmain (AU); Simon Robert Walmsley, Balmain (AU)

Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd,

Balmain, New South Wales (AU)

Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 120 days.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Appl.No.: 12/121,790

Filed: May 16, 2008

Prior Publication Data

US 2008/0213021 Al Sep. 4, 2008

Related U.S. Application Data

Continuation of application No. 11/712,434, filed on Mar. 1, 2007, now Pat. No. 7,380,712, which is a continuation of application No. 10/409,845, filed on Apr. 9, 2003, now Pat. No. 7,225,979, which is a continuation-in-part of application No. 09/663,701, filed on Sep. 15, 2000, now Pat. No. 6,995,859.

(73) (*)

(21) (22) (65)

(63)

235/383; 358/502

Provided is a print engine controller for a printer having a pagewidth printhead. The controller includes a serial interface, a JPEG decoder, a fax decoder, a halftoner/compositor unit, a tag encoder, a line loader/formatter unit, and an interface to the pagewidth printhead. These components together define a print control pipeline.

9 Claims, 47 Drawing Sheets