A printer has a queue for queuing a queued execution command, an immediate
execution agent for executing a write command, and a queued execution
agent for executing a read command. The immediate execution agent
immediately executes the received write command, and writes data in a
host. The queued execution agent picks up a read command from the queue,
and reads out data from the host. The host appends a data transfer
request from the printer to a queue, issues a write command to the
printer on the basis of that data transfer request, and issues a read
command to the printer on the basis of a print data transmission request
or the like from an application. Independent full-duplex channels can be
provided in two directions. Also, a write command can be immediately
processed.