Patent ID: 8917793

Claim:
A communication circuit comprising: a communication line comprising three or more signal lines; and a plurality of nodes, each of the nodes connected to an end of the communication line, and each of the nodes including: a signal distributing section, which is connected to a respective one of the ends of the communication line, for distributing and transmitting a signal input into an input/output terminal to the signal lines; a majority selection receiving circuit for comparing a plurality of reception signals received via the signal lines and selecting reception signals of the plurality of reception signals that are most matched with each other as true so as to output them to the input/output terminal; and a time division communication control section for switching communication directions of the signal distributing section and the majority selection receiving circuit at time-divided timing so as to hold bidirectional communication, wherein the time division communication control section includes a token call control section for transmitting tokens according to a number of the plurality of nodes at predetermined times, and wherein, at synchronous timings given to the plurality of the nodes and following the tokens to the communication line, one of the plurality of nodes outputs the signal input into its input/output terminal and a remainder of the plurality of nodes provides interlocking to prevent their signals from being input from their input/output terminals.