Adaptive power states in a distributed raster image processing environment

A printing system comprising:

• a printing engine;
• a backend computer device electrically connected to said printing engine, said backend computer device supplying print-ready bitmaps to said printing engine;
• raster image processing computer devices electrically connected to said backend computer device;
• and
• a frontend computer device electrically connected to said raster image processing computer devices,
• said frontend computer device receives print jobs from host computer devices and provides pages of said print job to said raster image processing computer devices for decomposition to said print-ready bitmaps,
• said raster image processing computer devices buffer pages of said print-ready bitmaps waiting to be printed by said printing engine,
• said frontend computer device monitors a printing speed of said printing engine,
• said frontend computer device estimates a processing time for said raster image processing computer devices to produce said print-ready bitmaps based on a complexity of said pages of said print job,
• said frontend computer device compares said printing speed to said processing time to predict whether the number of said pages of said print-ready bitmaps buffered by said raster image processing computer devices will increase or decrease,
• said frontend computer device compares said number of said pages of said print-ready bitmaps buffered by said raster image processing computer devices to a buffer minimum and a buffer maximum, and
• said frontend computer device places one or more of said raster image processing computer devices in a reduced-power sleep mode when said number of said pages of said print-ready bitmaps buffered is between said buffer minimum and said buffer maximum, and is predicted to not decrease.

A method comprising:

• receiving print jobs from host computer devices into a processor;
• providing pages of said print job to raster image processors for decomposition to print-ready bitmaps;
• supplying said print-ready bitmaps to a printing engine;
• buffering pages of said print-ready bitmaps waiting to be printed by said printing engine;
• estimating processing time for said raster image processors to produce said print-ready bitmaps based on a complexity of said pages of said print job, using said processor;
• comparing printing speed of said printing engine to said processing time to predict whether the number of said pages of said print-ready bitmaps buffered by said raster image processors will increase or decrease, using said processor;
• comparing said number of said pages of said print-ready bitmaps buffered by said raster image processors to a buffer minimum and a buffer maximum, using said processor;
• and
• placing one or more of said raster image processors in a reduced-power sleep mode when said number of said pages of said print-ready bitmaps buffered is between said buffer minimum and said buffer maximum, and is predicted to not decrease, using said processor.