Multi-threading and Harlequin Parallel Pages (HPP)

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; and both Harlequin Core and Harlequin MultiRIP.

Multi-threading allows the RIP to take advantage of hyper threading and multi-core CPU architectures as well as multiple processors and is designed to improve performance.

The RIP tries to keep the number of threads set by this control busy, but may temporarily restrict or over-subscribe the number of threads for short periods.

The Harlequin RIP supports Harlequin Parallel Pages: the interpretation of one page of a job while the previous page of the same job is being composited and/or rendered. This is sometimes called “pipelining” or “concurrent pages”. Harlequin Parallel Pages works in combination with multi-threaded compositing and multi-threaded rendering.

Harlequin Parallel Pages is applied to jobs submitted in all PDLs supported by the RIP.

The use of Harlequin Parallel Pages is protected using a layered-option password tied to the RIP's security number or with a Sentinel LDK product key.

Harlequin Parallel Pages has no effect if there is only one thread.

These features are configured using the HMR GUI, or in Harlequin Core by options set in PostScript language file run as the RIP boots (see next section).