US Patent 7545542 Image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus in which an input module, an output module, a process module, and a memory have a plurality of ports and are connected by a packet switch having independent paths for data transmission, a path controlling part determines a process path based on data information from the input module and data transmission ability of paths within the image forming apparatus, and conducts a selection control to select a data transmission path in response to data transmission delay time for each process path and a data type of data to be transmitted.