US 7,321,436 B2
Access to printing material container
Noboru Asauchi, Nagano-ken (Japan)
Assigned to Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo (Japan)
Filed on Jun. 29, 2001, as Appl. No. 9/893,685.
Claims priority of application No. 2000-199256 (JP), filed on Jun. 30, 2000.
Prior Publication US 2002/0016893 A1, Feb. 07, 2002
Int. Cl. G06F 13/00 (2006.01); G03G 15/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 358—1.15  [358/1.16; 358/305; 399/106] 25 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
20. A printing material container detachably attached to a printing apparatus having a clock signal line, a data signal line, and a reset signal line, said printing material container comprising:
a reservoir unit that keeps a printing material therein;
a clock terminal connecting with the clock signal line of said printing apparatus via a bus;
a data terminal connecting with the data signal line of said printing apparatus via the bus;
a reset terminal connecting with the reset signal line of said printing apparatus via the bus;
a storage element that has a non-volatile storage area and is subjected to a writing/reading operation based on a clock signal input via the clock terminal and a data signal input and output via the data terminal;
a comparator that compares printing material container identification information, which is included in the data signal and assigned to said printing material container for identification thereof, with identification information stored in advance in the storage element to determine coincidence or incoincidence of the two pieces of identification information; and
an input-output controller that allows the writing/reading operation into and from the storage element when the comparator determines coincidence of the two pieces of identification information.