WO2013120441A1

WO2013120441A1 - Universal chip and area matching method therefor, consumable container and imaging device

Info

Publication number: WO2013120441A1
Application number: PCT/CN2013/071528
Authority: WO
Inventors: 张晓徽; 林东宁
Original assignee: 珠海天威技术开发有限公司
Priority date: 2012-02-13
Filing date: 2013-02-07
Publication date: 2013-08-22
Also published as: CN102774139A

Abstract

The present invention relates to the printing field, and in particular, provided is a universal chip which includes a communication part and an integrated circuit part connected to the communication part. The integrated circuit part includes a control unit, a storage unit connected to the control unit and an area matching judgment unit. The area matching judgment unit is connected to the control unit and the storage unit. The storage unit includes a suitable area. The area matching judgment unit is used to judge whether the current data in the suitable area matches a sales area of an imaging device and send the judgment result to the control unit. The control unit is used to control the data communication with the imaging device and also used to execute data operations on the storage unit according to the judgment result. Also provided are an area matching method for a universal chip, a consumable container having the universal chip and an imaging device.

Description

Universal chip and its area matching method, consumable container, imaging device

Technical field

The present invention relates to a general-purpose chip and a region matching method thereof, and in particular to a chip and a region matching method thereof for a certain type of consumable container which are commonly used in each sales area, and to a consumable having the above-mentioned general-purpose chip Container, imaging equipment.

Background technique

The image forming apparatus according to the present invention refers to a device that converts electrical signals such as characters and patterns into a visible image on a medium such as paper, such as an inkjet or laser printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and an all-in-one.

Two commonly used printers are ink jet printers and laser printers that use ink cartridges containing ink as a consumable container to supply printing ink to the printer to form text or graphics on the paper that need to be printed. The laser printer uses a toner cartridge containing toner as a consumable container to supply printing toner to the printer to form a text or pattern to be printed on the medium, and the imaging principle and use of the copying machine, the fax machine, and the all-in-one. The consumable container and the like are basically the same as the printer. The consumables referred to in the present invention mean ink or carbon powder.

Referring to Fig. 1, a conventional color ink jet printer has a casing 11, and the ink jet printer shown in Fig. 1 omits the pallet of the casing 11. The casing 11 is provided with a movement 12 of the ink jet printer, and a slide bar is provided. The print carriage 14 reciprocates along the slide bar under the driving of the motor (not visible in Fig. 1). An adapter plate (not visible in FIG. 1) is disposed in the carriage 14 and the adapter plate is electrically connected to the movement 12 via the cable 13.

A plurality of ink cartridges 15 are detachably mounted on the print carriage 14, and different ink cartridges 15 contain ink of different colors. The structure of the ink cartridge 15 is as shown in FIG. The ink cartridge 15 has a casing 16 enclosing a cavity for accommodating ink, and a lower end of the cavity is provided with an ink outlet port 17, and ink in the cavity flows out through the ink outlet port 17 and supplies ink to the printing carriage 14 Ink supply.

A chip 18 is mounted on the outer wall of the housing 16 of the ink cartridge 15. The chip 18 has a substrate, and one side of the substrate is provided with a plurality of electrical contacts 19 for electrical connection with the adapter plate. The other side of the substrate is provided with an integrated circuit portion (not visible in Figure 2) that is electrically connected to the electrical contacts 19.

Referring to FIG. 3, the conventional toner cartridge has a housing 21 that encloses a cavity for accommodating toner, and a chip mounting position 22 is provided on the outer wall of the housing, and the chip 23 is mounted on the chip mounting position 22. Similar to the chip of the ink cartridge, the chip 23 of the toner cartridge also has a substrate on which the electrical contacts 24 are provided as communication portions for data exchange with the laser printer. Also, the other side of the substrate is provided with an integrated circuit portion (not visible in Figure 3) that is electrically connected to the electrical contacts 24.

Whether it is the chip 18 on the ink cartridge or the chip 23 on the toner cartridge, the integrated circuit portion is used to store data required for communication with the imaging device to implement communication operations with the imaging device. It can be seen that the chip of the consumable container comprises a communication part and an integrated circuit part for receiving signals and electric energy of the imaging device, and the communication part is generally an electrical contact or an induction coil, and a structural block diagram of the integrated circuit part is shown in FIG. 4, which comprises a control unit 31 and The storage unit 32 is accessed by the control unit 31.

The storage unit 32 stores data related to the consumable container and data generated during the printing process, including the consumable container manufacturer code, the consumable container production date, the consumable container model, the applicable area, the total print quantity, the consumed printed pages, and the consumable container. The control unit 31 is connected to the storage unit 32 for controlling the data access operation of the storage unit 32, the remaining amount of the consumables, the initial printing time of the consumable container, the last printing operation time, and the like.

In the existing consumable container, the storage unit 32 is usually provided with a suitable area data area of the consumable container for storing data of the applicable area of the consumable container. For example, the chip suitable for the S model printer is divided into Chinese version. In the Americas and Europe editions, the data in the applicable area data area of the storage unit stores data applicable to the above-mentioned sales regions, such as CHN, EXP, and EUR, and the chips used in different sales regions are different.

technical problem

When the consumable container is mounted on the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus reads the consumable container model data from the storage unit in the chip 13, and determines whether the consumable container is suitable for the image forming apparatus, and if the consumable container model data matches the model data of the image forming apparatus , indicating that the consumable container is suitable for the imaging device, the imaging device further reads data in the data area of the chip applicable area, and determines whether the chip is suitable for the sales area of the imaging device; otherwise, the consumable container is unsuitable for the imaging Equipment, imaging equipment terminated work. If the data in the area data area of the chip matches the area data saved in the image forming apparatus, it indicates that the chip is suitable for the sales area of the image forming apparatus, and then the image forming apparatus starts the next work; otherwise, the image forming apparatus terminates the work.

Since the chip suitable for a certain type of imaging device in a certain sales area is not applicable to other sales regions, that is, the data in the applicable regional data area is a CHN chip, which is applicable to the S model printer whose sales area is China, but cannot It is used for S model printers whose sales area is America, and can not be used for S model printers with sales area in Europe. In this way, not only the development and sales costs of the manufacturer are increased, but also the use of a plurality of chips for the same model causes waste of raw materials, which also causes great inconvenience to the user.

Technical solution

A first object of the present invention is to provide a general-purpose chip that can be commonly used in the sales field of the same type of image forming apparatus to compensate for the above-mentioned deficiencies of the prior art.

To achieve the above objective, the general-purpose chip provided by the present invention comprises a communication part and an integrated circuit part connected to the communication part, the integrated circuit part comprises a control unit, a storage unit and a region matching judging unit, and the storage unit is connected with the control unit, and the storage unit comprises Applicable area data area, the applicable area data area stores two or more applicable area data, and the area matching judging unit is configured to determine whether the current data in the applicable area data area matches the sales area of the imaging device, and send the judgment result to And a control unit, configured to control data communication with the imaging device, and further configured to perform data operations on the storage unit according to the determination result.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a general chip area matching method, the logic structure of which is as described above, and the area matching method is: when the imaging device reads data from the general-purpose chip, the area matching judging unit judges Whether the imaging device stops accessing the general-purpose chip after reading the current data in the applicable area data area more than 2 times, and if so, determining that the general-purpose chip is not applicable to the sales area of the imaging device and transmitting the determination result to the control unit; otherwise, judging the general-purpose chip Applicable to the sales area of the imaging device and transmitting the judgment result to the control unit; the control unit receives the judgment result, and when determining that the current data is data applicable to the sales area, the control unit continues to perform the next data communication with the imaging device; When the current data is data that is not applicable to the sales area, the control unit marks the current data as a mismatch and points to the next data of the current data, and performs the next round of judging operation when the imaging device accesses the general-purpose chip again.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a consumable container comprising a housing enclosing a cavity for accommodating a consumable, and a general-purpose chip as described above is mounted on an outer wall of the housing.

A fourth object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus including an image forming unit and a consumable container on which a general-purpose chip as described above is mounted.

Beneficial effect

Since the area matching judging unit is provided in the general-purpose chip, the image forming apparatus judges whether the general-purpose chip is suitable for the sales area of the image forming apparatus by reading the current data in the applicable area data area, and if it does not match, the image forming apparatus is continuous. Reading the current data in the applicable area data area 2 or more times, after which the imaging device stops accessing the general-purpose chip, and the area matching judging unit judges whether the chip is suitable for the sales area of the image forming apparatus by the operation of the above-mentioned image forming apparatus. And send the result to the control unit. When the control unit receives the judgment result of the mismatch, the current data in the applicable area data area is marked as a mismatch, and then the next data of the current data is pointed to facilitate the next round of reading and matching. After the image forming apparatus prompts to restart or reinstall the consumable container, the control unit and the area matching judging unit repeats the above operations until the applicable area data matching the sales area of the image forming apparatus is found. At this point, the control unit continues to perform data communication with the imaging device. Thus, the universal chip can be used in various sales areas of the image forming device model, which saves development and production costs, is easy to use, and avoids waste of raw materials using a plurality of chips.

Since the consumable container is equipped with the above-mentioned general-purpose chip, it can be used for various sales areas of the image forming device model, which saves development cost and is easy to use.

The above-mentioned general-purpose chip is mounted on the image forming apparatus in the consumable container, that is, the consumable container. The general-purpose chip can be commonly used in various sales areas of the imaging device model, which saves development and production costs, is convenient to apply, and avoids waste of raw materials.

DRAWINGS

1 is a structural view of a conventional ink jet printer.

2 is an enlarged view showing the structure of a conventional ink cartridge.

Fig. 3 is a structural view of a conventional toner cartridge.

4 is a block diagram showing the structure of an integrated circuit portion of a conventional chip.

Figure 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of an integrated circuit portion of a general-purpose chip embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a general chip area matching method of the present invention.

The invention will now be further described with reference to the drawings and embodiments.

Embodiments of the invention

General chip embodiment:

The general-purpose chip of this embodiment is mounted on the outer wall of the toner cartridge, and has a substrate and an electronic module mounted on the substrate. The electronic module includes a contact group and an integrated circuit portion, and the contact group serves as a communication portion for receiving the laser printer signal. And electrical energy.

The block diagram of the integrated circuit portion 40 is as shown in FIG. 5, and includes a control unit 41, a storage unit 43 connected to the control unit 41, and a region matching judging unit 42. The storage unit 43 includes a metering area 44, a non-metering area 45, and a applicable area. Data area 46. The memory unit 43 in this example includes a volatile memory SRAM and a non-volatile memory EEPROM. The non-metering area 45 is disposed in the EEPROM for storing information such as a toner cartridge model, a manufacturer code, a production date, and the like. The metering area 44 is disposed in the SRAM for storing the remaining amount of toner, the total printing amount, the number of printed pages consumed, the last printing operation time, the use state of the printing process, and the like, and the applicable area data area 46 is set in the EEPROM. For storing the data of the sales area to which the general-purpose chip is applied, that is, applicable area data, such as CHN, EXP, EUR, KOR, and the like.

The data in the non-metering area 45 can be read and accessed by the control unit 41, and the data in the metering area 44 and the applicable area data area 46 can be read and written by the control unit 41, so that the toner cartridge identification and use process state can be realized. record of.

The area matching determination unit 42 is connected to the storage unit 43 and the control unit 41 for determining whether the current data in the applicable area data area 46 matches the sales area of the laser printer, and transmits the determination result to the control unit 41. The control unit 41 is a control core for communicating the toner cartridge with the laser printer, and is used for controlling data communication between the general-purpose chip and the laser printer, that is, controlling the read and write operations of the storage unit 43, and the control unit 41 is further configured to use the above-mentioned determination result. The data operation on the storage unit 43 is performed.

The specific working process is: when the toner cartridge is mounted on the laser printer, the laser printer reads the toner cartridge model data from the storage unit 43 in the general-purpose chip, and determines whether the toner cartridge is suitable for the laser printer, if the toner The model data of the box is matched with the model data of the laser printer, indicating that the toner cartridge is suitable for the laser printer, and the laser printer further reads the current data in the area data area 46 of the general-purpose chip to determine whether the general-purpose chip is suitable for the laser. The sales area of the printer. When the current data in the general-purpose chip applicable area data area 46 does not match the sales area of the laser printer, the laser printer reads the current data twice or more times, after which the laser printer stops accessing the general-purpose chip. When the area matching determination unit 42 determines whether the laser printer reads the current data twice or more times and then stops accessing the general-purpose chip, it is determined whether the general-purpose chip is suitable for the sales area of the laser printer, and the result is sent to Control unit 41. When receiving the result of the mismatch, the control unit 41 marks the current data in the applicable area data area 46 as a mismatch, and then points to the next data of the current data in the applicable area data area 46 for the next round of reading and match. When the data in the applicable area data area 46 read by the laser printer does not match the sales area, a prompt prompt to restart the laser printer or reinstall the toner cartridge or open the laser printer lid and then close, the laser printer restarts the above operation. The control unit 41 and the area matching judging unit 42 perform the above operations until the applicable area data matching the laser printer sales area is found, at which time the control unit 41 continues the data communication with the laser printer.

As a modification of the general-purpose chip embodiment of the present invention, the region matching judging unit 42 may be disposed in the control unit 41 as a part of the control unit 41. The region matching judging unit 42 may be disposed outside the control unit 41 as in this example. The above-described conversion is also connected to the control unit 41 and the storage unit 43, and the above-described transformation can also achieve the object of the present invention.

As another variation of the general-purpose chip embodiment of the present invention, the storage unit 43 may include only a non-volatile memory, and the non-metering area 45, the metering area 44, and the applicable area data area 46 are all disposed in the non-volatile memory; Flash can be used as a non-volatile memory, and SDRAM is used as a volatile memory; the above transformation can also achieve the object of the present invention.

As a further modification of the general-purpose chip embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 41 can adopt other controllers (such as a microcontroller MCU) to implement its functions by using software design; and can also adopt programmable logic devices (such as CPLD, FPGA). The above transformation can be achieved by hardware programming, and the above transformation can achieve the object of the present invention.

As another variation of the general-purpose chip embodiment of the present invention, the memory chip may be a non-contact chip. At this time, the induction coil receives the signal and the power of the printer as a communication part, and the working principle and implementation process thereof are similar to the above principles and processes. The transformation can also achieve the object of the invention.

As a further modification of the general-purpose chip embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 41 may include an interface unit that provides a protocol or interface for data communication, or the interface unit is disposed outside the control unit 41, within the electronic module, and the interface unit. In connection with the control unit 41, the above-described transformation can also achieve the object of the present invention.

As another variation of the general-purpose chip embodiment of the present invention, it can also be used for a general-purpose chip of an ink cartridge. At this time, the storage unit 43 stores data related to the ink cartridge, and its structure and working principle are similar to those of the embodiment, and the transformation is also the same. The object of the invention can be achieved.

General chip area matching method embodiment:

The structure of the general-purpose chip in this embodiment is as described in the above general-purpose chip embodiment. The area matching method is: when the laser printer reads data from the general-purpose chip, the area matching determining unit 42 determines whether the laser printer reads the general-purpose two or more times. After the chip applies the current data in the area data area 46, the access to the general-purpose chip is stopped. If yes, it is determined that the general-purpose chip is not applicable to the sales area of the laser printer, that is, the current data read in the applicable area data area 46 is determined to be It is not applicable to the data of the general chip sales area, and the area matching judging unit 42 transmits the judgment result to the control unit 41. Otherwise, it is judged that the general-purpose chip is suitable for the sales area of the laser printer, that is, it is judged that the applicable area data area 46 is read. The current data is data applicable to the general chip sales area, and the area matching judging unit 42 transmits the judgment result to the control unit.

The control unit 41 performs the following operations after receiving the determination result, and when it is judged that the consumable container is applicable to the sales area, the control unit 41 continues to perform data communication with the laser printer. When judging that the consumable container is not suitable for the sales area, the control unit 41 marks the current data in the applicable area data area 46 as a mismatch, and points to the next data of the current data in the applicable area data area 46 for the next round of matching operation. . In this embodiment, the model of the toner cartridge to which the laser printer is applied is S, the sales area is South Korea, that is, the area data is KOR, and the plurality of applicable area data stored in the general chip applicable area data area 46 are: CHN, EXP, EUR, KOR. The method using the present invention is shown in Figure 6, and the specific steps are as follows:

S10: Start; that is, the laser printer powers up the general-purpose chip, and after the general-purpose chip matches the toner cartridge model by the laser printer, the laser printer starts the next step of data communication with the general-purpose chip. At this time, the current data in the applicable area It is "CHN".

S20: It is judged whether the laser printer stops accessing the general-purpose chip after reading the current data in the applicable area twice or more, and if yes, the process proceeds to step s30, otherwise, the process proceeds to step s50. It is judged whether or not the current data in the applicable area data area 46 is "KOR" with the sales area data of the laser printer by judging whether the laser printer reads the data in the general-purpose chip applicable area data area 46 twice or more and then stops accessing the general-purpose chip. Matching, if it matches, continues the communication operation with the laser printer. If not, the current data in the applicable area data area 46 is identified as a mismatch and points to the next data of the current data in the applicable area data area 46.

S30: Mark the current data in the applicable area data area 46 as a mismatch.

S40: The next data pointing to the current data in the applicable area data area 46, proceeds to step s60.

S50: Continue to communicate with the laser printer. If you find the applicable area data matching the laser printer, continue to communicate with the laser printer for the next step.

S60: End. After the current round of data communication, the general-purpose chip is ready to start the next round of data communication with the laser printer.

In this embodiment, after the first chip and the laser printer perform the first round of data communication, the current data "CHN" in the applicable area data area 46 is marked as "unmatched", and then the next data "EXP" is pointed to continue to the next. For the data communication of the round, in the subsequent two rounds of data communication, "EXP" and "EUR" are respectively marked as "mismatch", and in the next data communication, the current data in the applicable area data area 46 is "KOR". ", matching with the sales area of the laser printer, at this time, "KOR" in the applicable area is marked as "match", and the control unit 41 controls the general-purpose chip to continue the next data communication with the laser printer.

As a further variation of the embodiment of the universal chip area matching method of the present invention, the method provided by the present invention can also be directed to an ink cartridge chip mounted on an inkjet printer, the specific working process of which is the same as the above method embodiment.

Toner cartridge embodiment:

The toner cartridge of this embodiment includes a casing that encloses a cavity for accommodating toner, and a general-purpose chip as described in the above embodiment is mounted on the outer wall of the casing.

Ink cartridge embodiment:

The ink cartridge of this embodiment has a casing surrounding the cavity for accommodating the ink, and the lower end of the cavity is provided with an ink outlet, and the ink can flow out from the ink outlet. Further, the above-described general-purpose chip is mounted on the outer wall of the casing.

Printer embodiment:

The laser printer includes an image forming unit and a toner cartridge on which a general-purpose chip as described above is mounted.

As a modification of the embodiment of the printer of the present invention, it may also be another image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a facsimile machine or an all-in-one machine, and the above-described transformation can also achieve the object of the present invention.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and variations, and other variations of the methods and combinations thereof based on the technical solutions of the present invention and not departing from the object of the present invention are also included in the scope of the present invention.

Industrial applicability

A general-purpose chip is mounted in the consumable container of the imaging device, and a region matching judging unit is disposed in the general-purpose chip, and the imaging device judges whether the general-purpose chip is suitable for the imaging device by reading current data in the applicable region data region. When the sales area is not matched, the imaging device reads the current data in the applicable area data area twice or more times, after which the imaging device stops accessing the general-purpose chip, and the area matching judging unit passes the operation of the above-mentioned imaging apparatus. It is judged whether the chip is suitable for the sales area of the image forming apparatus, and the result is sent to the control unit. When the control unit receives the judgment result of the mismatch, the current data in the applicable area data area is marked as a mismatch, and then the next data of the current data is pointed to facilitate the next round of reading and matching. After the image forming apparatus prompts to restart or reinstall the consumable container, the control unit and the area matching judging unit repeats the above operations until the applicable area data matching the sales area of the image forming apparatus is found. At this point, the control unit continues to perform data communication with the imaging device.

Thus, the universal chip can be used in various sales areas of the image forming device model, which saves development and production costs, is easy to use, and avoids waste of raw materials using a plurality of chips.

Therefore, the general-purpose chip can be mounted on a consumable container used for an image forming apparatus such as an ink cartridge or a toner cartridge.

Claims

General purpose chip, including

Communication part;

An integrated circuit portion connected to the communication portion;

The integrated circuit portion includes

a control unit for controlling data communication with the imaging device;

a storage unit connected to the control unit, including a applicable area data area;

It is characterized by:

The applicable area data area stores two or more sets of applicable area data;

The integrated circuit portion further includes a region matching determining unit, configured to determine whether current data in the applicable region data region matches a sales region of the imaging device, and send the determination result to the control unit;

The control unit is further configured to perform a data operation on the storage unit according to the determination result.
The general purpose chip of claim 1 wherein:

The area matching determining unit determines whether the current data matches the sales area of the imaging device, and determines whether the imaging device stops accessing the current data in the applicable area data area after reading the current data twice or more. a general-purpose chip, if yes, determining that the general-purpose chip is not suitable for a sales area of the imaging device; otherwise, determining that the universal chip is suitable for a sales area of the imaging device;

When the control unit performs the data operation on the storage unit according to the determination result, when the current data is data applicable to the sales area, the control unit continues to communicate data with the imaging device; When the current data is data that is not applicable to the sales area, the control unit marks the current data as a mismatch, and points to the next data of the current data in the applicable area data area, and accesses the image device again. A new round of judgment is performed when the general-purpose chip is described.
A general-purpose chip according to claim 1 or 2, wherein:

The area matching judging unit is disposed in the control unit.
A general-purpose chip according to claim 1 or 2, wherein:

The area matching judging unit is disposed outside the control unit, and is respectively connected to the control unit and the storage unit.
A general-purpose chip according to claim 1 or 2, wherein:

The memory unit includes a non-volatile memory, and the applicable area data area is disposed in the non-volatile memory.
a general-purpose chip area matching method, the general-purpose chip has a control unit and a storage unit, and the storage unit includes a applicable area data area;

It is characterized by:

The applicable area data area stores two or more sets of applicable area data;

The general-purpose chip is further provided with a region matching judging unit;

The method includes, when determining that the imaging device reads data from the general-purpose chip, the region matching determination unit determines whether the imaging device stops accessing the universal after reading the current data in the applicable region data region twice or more a chip, if yes, determining that the general-purpose chip is not applicable to a sales area of the imaging device and transmitting a determination result to the control unit; otherwise, determining that the universal chip is applicable to a sales area of the imaging device and The judgment result is sent to the control unit;

When the control unit receives the determination result, and determines that the current data is data applicable to a sales area, the control unit continues to communicate data with the imaging device; and determines that the current data is not applicable to a sales area. In the case of data, the control unit marks the current data as a mismatch and points to the next data of the current data in the applicable area, and performs a new round of determining operation when the imaging device accesses the general-purpose chip again.
The universal chip area matching method according to claim 6, wherein:

The storage unit includes a non-volatile memory, and the applicable area is disposed in the non-volatile memory.
a consumable container comprising a housing enclosing a cavity for accommodating a consumable, the outer wall of the housing being mounted with a universal chip, the universal chip having

Communication part;

An integrated circuit portion connected to the communication portion;

The integrated circuit portion includes

a control unit for controlling data communication with the imaging device;

a storage unit connected to the control unit, including a applicable area data area;

It is characterized by:

The applicable area data area stores two or more sets of applicable area data;

The integrated circuit portion further includes a region matching determining unit, configured to determine whether current data in the applicable region data region matches a sales region of the imaging device, and send the determination result to the control unit;

The control unit is further configured to perform a data operation on the storage unit according to the determination result.
A consumable container according to claim 8 wherein:

The area matching determining unit determines whether the current data matches the sales area of the imaging device, and determines whether the imaging device stops accessing the current data in the applicable area data area after reading the current data twice or more. a general-purpose chip, if yes, determining that the general-purpose chip is not suitable for a sales area of the imaging device; otherwise, determining that the universal chip is suitable for a sales area of the imaging device;

When the control unit performs the data operation on the storage unit according to the determination result, when the current data is data applicable to the sales area, the control unit continues to communicate data with the imaging device; When the current data is data that is not applicable to the sales area, the control unit marks the current data as a mismatch, and points to the next data of the current data in the applicable area data area, and accesses the image device again. A new round of judgment is performed when the general-purpose chip is described.
An image forming apparatus comprising an image forming unit and a consumable container, the consumable container comprising a housing enclosing a cavity for accommodating a consumable, the outer wall of the housing being mounted with a universal chip, the universal chip having

Communication part;

An integrated circuit portion connected to the communication portion;

The integrated circuit portion includes

a control unit for controlling data communication with the imaging device;

a storage unit connected to the control unit, including a applicable area data area;

It is characterized by:

The data area stores two or more sets of applicable area data;

The integrated circuit portion further includes a region matching determining unit, configured to determine whether current data in the applicable region data region matches a sales region of the imaging device, and send the determination result to the control unit;

The control unit is further configured to perform a data operation on the storage unit according to the determination result.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

The area matching determining unit determines whether the current data matches the sales area of the imaging device, and determines whether the imaging device stops accessing the current data in the applicable area data area after reading the current data twice or more. a general-purpose chip, if yes, determining that the general-purpose chip is not suitable for a sales area of the imaging device; otherwise, determining that the universal chip is suitable for a sales area of the imaging device;

When the control unit performs the data operation on the storage unit according to the determination result, when the current data is data applicable to the sales area, the control unit continues to communicate data with the imaging device; When the current data is data that is not applicable to the sales area, the control unit marks the current data as a mismatch, and points to the next data of the current data in the applicable area data area, and accesses the image device again. A new round of judgment is performed when the general-purpose chip is described.