Image formation apparatus, method of controlling flash memory, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium
AssigneeKonica Minolta, Inc.
InventorKeishi Sakuma
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image formation apparatus includes a flash memory as an image data buffer, and a control section, where data writing to each memory block of the flash memory is controlled by using wear leveling. The control section predicts whether writing of a certain amount of image data such that the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in a predetermined period exceeds a predetermined value, will occur, and on predicting that the writing of the certain amount of image data will occur, restricting an input of image data and/or a speed of buffering the image data, to reduce the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in the predetermined period.
Claims21
An image formation apparatus comprising:
- an image input device;
- an image output device;
- a flash memory to be used as an image data buffer, the flash memory comprising a plurality of memory blocks, where data writing to each of the memory blocks is controlled by using wear leveling;
- and
- a control section that controls the flash memory to level wear in the flash memory and performs processes comprising:
- based on at least one of an input of an image data and a speed of buffering the image data to the flash memory, predicting whether or not writing of a certain amount of image data such that the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in a predetermined interval of time exceeds a predetermined value, will occur, wherein the predetermined interval of time is an interval of data writing between a start time and an end time, the end time occurring after the start time, and
- on predicting that the writing of the certain amount of image data will occur, by restricting the at least one of the input of image data and the speed of buffering the image data to the flash memory, reducing the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in the predetermined interval of time to the predetermined value or less and making an interval of the data writing to each of the memory blocks greater than or equal to the predetermined interval of time.
A method of controlling a flash memory used as an image data buffer in an image formation apparatus, the flash memory comprising a plurality of memory blocks, where data writing to each of the memory blocks is controlled by using wear leveling, the method comprising:
- based on at least one of an input image data and a speed of buffering the image data to the flash memory, predicting whether or not writing of a certain amount of image data such that the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in a predetermined interval of time exceeds a predetermined value, will occur, wherein the predetermined interval of time is an interval of data writing between a start time and an end time, the end time occurring after the start time;
- and
- on predicting that the writing of the certain amount of image data will occur, by restricting the at least one of the input of image data and the speed of buffering the image data to the flash memory, reducing the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in the predetermined interval of time to the predetermined value or less and making an interval of the data writing to each of the memory blocks greater than or equal to the predetermined interval of time,
- wherein the image formation apparatus further comprises an image input device and an image output device.
An image formation apparatus comprising:
- an image input device;
- an image output device;
- a flash memory used as an image data buffer, the flash memory comprising a plurality of memory blocks, where data writing to each of the memory blocks is controlled by using wear leveling;
- and
- a control section that controls the flash memory to level wear in the flash memory and performs processes comprising:
- based on at least one of an input of an image data and a speed of buffering the image data to the flash memory, predicting whether or not writing of a certain amount of image data such that the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in a predetermined interval of time exceeds a predetermined value, will occur, wherein the predetermined interval of time is an interval of data writing between a start time and an end time, the end time occurring after the start time, and
- on predicting that the writing of the certain amount of image data will occur, restricting the speed of buffering the image data to the flash memory, to reduce the amount of image data to be written into the flash memory in the predetermined interval of time to the predetermined value or less.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.