Image processing apparatus and image processing method

[0045]Initially, the first embodiment will be described. Here, FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a function constitution of an image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

[0046]The image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment includes a controlling unit 100, an intermediate data generating module 111, an intermediate data spooler 112, an image forming module 113, a bitmap data buffer memory 114 and an engine I / F 115. Further, the controlling unit 100 includes a load level detecting unit 101 and an acceleration process controlling unit 102. The intermediate data generating module 111 is an example of a page processing unit, the load level detecting unit 101 is an example of a load deciding unit, and the acceleration process controlling unit 102 is an example of a controlling unit.

[0047]In the first embodiment, PDL data is input as input data 110 to the intermediate data generating module 111, and, in the input data, the data such as figure data o...

[0065]Subsequently, the second embodiment will be described. In the second embodiment, the constitution of the CPU chip is different from that in the first embodiment, and thus the core assigning process is different from that in the first embodiment. Other constitutions and configurations in the present embodiment are the same as those in the first embodiment. FIG. 13A is a block diagram illustrating the constitution of the CPU chip to be used in an image processing apparatus according to the second embodiment.

[0066]Here, a CPU chip 400 includes a first core 401, a second core 402, two L2 cache memories 411 and 412 respectively corresponding to the above cores, a last level cache memory 422, a memory 421, and an interprocessor interconnect 423 connected to the last level cache memory 422. Namely, the CPU chip 400 serves as the dual-core processor having two cores. In case of constituting the eight-core image processing apparatus by using the dual-core CPU chip like this, the four C...

[0077]Subsequently, the third embodiment will be described. In the third embodiment, the operation of the load level detecting unit 101 is different from that in the first embodiment. Namely, the constitution and the operation of the image processing apparatus other than the above operation are the same as those in the first embodiment. FIG. 16 is a flow chart indicating the operation of the load level detecting unit 101.

[0078]When the load level detecting process is started (S41), the property information of the page to be processed is accessed by the GetPage( ) function (S42). Thus, an inspection can be started to the page to be processed. Then, the inspection process is performed as an inspection process 1 in the cycle defined by a period f1 (S43). Simply, it is investigated and decided whether or not to be able to advance the process to S45 in the cycle (timing) of the period f1. Such decision is set to the flag, and branching decision is performed (S44). The processes in S43 an...