Communications device, and communications method for enabling reception of real-time execution commands when a receive buffer is full

• US 7,761,620 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2007
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Citizen Watch Co Limited (Citizen Electronics Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Citizen Holdings Co., Ltd. (Citizen Electronics Company Limited)
• Inventors: Iwata, Masaji
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai; Henry W. H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TSENG, CHENG YUAN
• Application Number:
  US11/822,193
• Publication Number:
  US 20080010389A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,113 Days
• Field of Search: 710/29
• US Class Current: 710/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0042 Universal serial bus [USB]

Abstract

A communications buffer and control unit that configure a USB connection endpoint are provided connected by a USB bus to a host device. The control unit changes the receive buffer size of a receive buffer where the communications buffer stores receive data, based on an instruction that is sent from the host device side through USB virtual serial communication, to enable the reception of real-time execution commands by the communications device. This enables the reception of real-time execution commands when the receive buffer on the communications device side is in a buffer-full state in data communications between a host device and a communications device.

Claims

1. A communications system comprising:

a host device;

a communications buffer connected by a universal serial bus (USB) interface to the host device, and configuring an endpoint of a USB connection, wherein the communications buffer comprises a receive buffer for receiving and storing data sent from the host device;

a control unit;

an analyzing unit analyzing stored data that is stored in the receive buffer; and

a forwarding unit forwarding commands that have been analyzed by the analyzing unit to an external device through the USB interface;

wherein the control unit varies a size of the receive buffer in which the communications buffer stores the data sent from the host device, based on an instruction specifying whether flow control is active or inactive on data communicating between the host device and the receive buffer sent through a USB virtual serial communication driver from the host device, and a control is performed such that the receive buffer size is increased if the flow control is inactive and the receive buffer size is decreased if flow control is active.

3. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein

the communications buffer is provided with a memory region including a plurality of regions that can be separated and linked freely in software,

the control unit controls a portion of the plurality of regions as the receive buffer and controls the rest of the regions as free regions,

the receive buffer size is increased by linking the receive buffer and a free region, in software and by incorporating the free region into the receive buffer, based on the instruction specifying that the flow control is inactive, and

the receive buffer size is decreased by separating, in software, the receive buffer from the free region based on the instruction specifying that the flow control is active.

4. The communications system according to claim 1, comprising:

a printer buffer, wherein the printer buffer stores printing data obtained through the analysis by the analyzing unit.

5. The communications system according to claim 3, comprising:

a printer buffer, wherein the printer buffer stores printing data obtained through the analysis by the analyzing unit.

10. A printer comprising the communications device according to claim 1, comprising:

a printer mechanism for performing printing; and

a printer buffer for storing print data used for printing in the printer mechanism, wherein

the control unit stores in the printer buffer the print data obtained from the analyzing unit; and

the printer mechanism is driven and controlled by commands obtained by the analyzing unit.

2. A method of communications control in communications through USB virtual serial communication between a host device and a communications device that are connected with a USB connection, the communications device including a communications buffer having a receive buffer for receiving and storing data sent from the host device, comprising:

receiving an instruction specifying whether flow control is active or inactive on data communicating between the host device and the receive buffer sent through a USB virtual serial communication driver;

analyzing, in an analyzing unit, stored data in the receive buffer;

forwarding, in a forwarding unit, analyzed commands to an external device through the USB interface; and

varying a size of the receive buffer based on the instruction for controlling the flow of data between the host device and the receive buffer sent from the host device through USB virtual serial communication, and a control is performed such that the receive buffer size is increased if the flow control is inactive and the receive buffer size is decreased if the flow control is active.

6. The method of communications control according to claim 2, wherein

the communications buffer comprises a memory region including a plurality of regions that can be separated or linked in software,

a portion of the plurality of regions is a receive buffer, and the rest of the regions are free regions,

the size of the receive buffer is increased by linking the receive buffer and a free region in software and by incorporating the free region into the receive buffer, and

the receive buffer is separated from the free region in software to decrease the size of the receive buffer.

7. The method of communications control according to claim 6, wherein proportions of the plurality of regions are set freely by an instruction from the communications device side.

8. The method for communications control according to claim 2, wherein

the free region includes a plurality of regions, and

any given number of regions selected from the plurality of regions can be linked to the receive buffer to selectively increase the size of the receive buffer.

9. The method for communications control according to claim 6, wherein

the free region includes a plurality of regions, and

any given number of regions selected from the plurality of regions can be linked to the receive buffer to selectively increase the size of the receive buffer.