Patent ID: 7847174

Claim:
A tone generation system composed of a plurality of processor devices connected to a star-type network, individual ones of the processor devices being arranged to function as processing elements corresponding to respective programs executed in the processor devices, said tone generation system comprising at least: a first processor device functioning as a performance-information generating element that creates a frame including generated performance information and respective identification information of a source processing element and destination processing element and transmits the created frame to the network; a second processor device functioning as a tone-generator-providing processing element that receives a frame matching identification information of the processing element functioning in said second processor device, synthesizes a tone signal on the basis of performance information taken out from the received frame, creates a frame including the synthesized signal and respective identification information of a source processing element and destination processing element and transmits to the network the frame created thereby; and a third processor device functioning as a sounding processing element that receives a frame matching identification information of the processing element functioning in said third processor device and performs a sounding process on a tone signal taken out from the received frame, wherein each of said processor devices is capable of selecting and setting a destination processing element that should receive a frame transmitted from the processing element functioning in said processor device, and communication is carried out between the processing elements using a communication protocol intended for retransmission control.