Printhead driven by multiple print engine controllers
View Patent ↗A print engine controller configured to be coupled with others to drive an ink drop printhead comprising: an interface at which to receive compressed page data; image decoders to decode compressed image planes in the received compressed page data; a half-toner/compositer to composite respective strips of the decoded image planes; and a printhead interface to output the composite strip to a printhead, the printhead interface including: a multi-segment printhead interface outputting printhead formatted data; and a synchronization signal generator outputting a synchronization signal to couple print engine controllers to synchronize their respective strips at the printhead.
1. A print engine controller configured to co-operate with other print engine controllers to drive an ink drop printhead, the print engine controller comprising:
a half-toner/compositer to composite a strip of one or more decoded image planes; and
a printhead interface to output the composite strip to a printhead, the printhead interface including:
a multi-segment printhead interface outputting printhead formatted data; and
a synchronization signal generator outputting a synchronization signal to the other print engine controllers to synchronize their respective strips at the printhead.
2. A print engine controller as claimed in claim 1 , wherein there are a plurality of image planes and the halftoner/compositor further scales input image planes, with at least two image planes being scaled to a different resolution.
3. An inkdrop printer with a printhead driven by multiple print engine controllers, each print engine controller comprising:
an interface at which to receive page data;
a half-toner/compositer to composite a strip of the page data; and
a printhead interface to output the composite strip to a segment of the printhead;
wherein the printhead interface of one of the multiple print engine controllers generates a synchronization signal to synchronize the print engine controllers.