Patent ID: 7802036

Claim:
A serial communication system, comprising: a master; a plurality of slaves; and a serial communication bus connecting the master and the plurality of slaves, the master being configured so as to perform peer-to-peer control, via the serial communication bus, of the plurality of slaves, each of the plurality of slaves having: an I/O portion for controlling communication with the master; a control portion for controlling a driving portion of the slave; and a register portion, the register portion comprising a control program for the driving portion, the control program comprising a plurality of functions, and the register portion storing control information to which are allocated all or a portion of the plurality of functions corresponding to all or to a portion of the plurality of program steps, the master issuing a command specifying the program step to each of the slaves, each of the slaves receiving the command via the serial communication bus, and each of the control programs of the plurality of slaves determining a program step specified by the command based on the received command, and the slaves simultaneously executing the function relevant to the relevant program step based on the control information, the command stipulating the program steps being inserted into communication on the serial communication bus, the master issuing information specifying the program step to the plurality of slaves according to relevant commands, and each of the plurality of slaves receiving the information executing the functions in the control programs corresponding to the specified program steps.