Patent 7894108 was granted and assigned to Xerox on February, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A system controls multiple digital printers, each printer including a processor, which processes incoming image data to be printed, and an engine, which places marks on a print sheet. A system-wide database includes a software portion, which contains data relating to the processors in the various printers, and a hardware portion, which contains data relating to the various engines. A central control system can recognize, for each printer, whether a condition within the printer is primarily hardware- or software-related, and influence the printer accordingly.