Apparatus and method for efficient plotting
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsAnthony D. Parkhurst, Thomas J. Halpenny
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plotter continuously performs a dynamic sort on incoming vectors to be plotted and stores the sorted vectors by color in bins within a memory. At the same time that the sort is being performed, the plotter selects the bin containing the most vectors and plots all of the vectors from that bin before selecting another bin.
Claims18
A plotter for plotting lines on a sheet in response to commands from a host processor indicating locations and attributes of the lines, the plotter comprising:
- generation means, connectable to the host processor, for generating from the commands a string of instructions indicative of the lines to be plotted;
- sorter means, coupled to the generation means, for sorting the instructions by line attribute into bins of a memory;
- controller means, coupled to the memory, for selecting one selected bin at a time and for presenting instructions stored in the selected bin at an output;
- plotting means, coupled to the controller means output for plotting on the sheet with a pen selected in response to the instructions;
- and
- wherein the controller means and the plotting means operate concurrently with receipt of the commands from the host processor and with operation of the generation means and the sorter means so that the plotter is capable of plotting the lines concurrently with receiving the commands from the host processor.
A method for plotting lines on a sheet in response to commands from a host processor indicating locations and attributes of the lines, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving the commands from the host processor and generating a string of instructions indicative of the lines to be plotted;
- sorting the instructions by attribute;
- storing the instructions by attribute in bins of a memory;
- selecting a bin;
- plotting on the sheet in response to instructions contained in the selected bin;
- and
- wherein the steps of sorting, storing, selecting and plotting are performed concurrently with the steps of receiving and generating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.