This is a decision on appeal from the final
rejection of claims 1 through 6, all claims pending in this
application. The invention relates to a print head
having a plurality of driver ICs. Each driver IC includes a
data input for inputting print data for each dot in series and
a shift register being connected to the data input for
transferring input print data in sequence. The shift register
has an output for outputting print data stored at the last bit
of the shift register and additional data outputs for
outputting print data stored at an intermediate bit of the
shift register. The driver ICs are cascaded by using the data
output or an additional data output.
The additional data output enables the number of
bits of the driver IC to be changed. For example, if a 96-bit
shift register is contained on the IC and an additional data
output is provided at the 32nd and 64th bits, the number of
bits of the driver IC can be set to 96, 64, or 32 for use,
depending upon how many dots exist on one print line. Prior
art driver ICs contained shift registers without the
2
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Last modified: November 3, 2007