Communication controller for controlling multi-channel multiplex communication and having channel selection functions and memory for storing communication control data for each channel

Claim 1

A multi-channel multiplex communication controller comprising: a serial data reception unit connected to a single serial data transmission line; a serial data transmission unit connected to the single serial data transmission line; a channel selection unit for selecting a channel from among a plurality of channels as specified by a channel number input; a communication processing unit for controlling data transmission and reception over a channel selected by the channel selection unit by assigning the serial data transmission line to channels selected by the channel selection unit on a time-division basis from among the plurality of channels; and a memory having a storage area for storing communication control data on data transmission and reception operations for each channel, a storage area for storing transmission data for each channel and a storage area for storing reception data for each channel; wherein the communication processing unit comprises a controller which directly accesses the memory when a channel is selected by the channel selection unit, and which (a) reads communication control data for the selected channel and takes transmission data from the memory based on the communication control data to transmit the transmission data over the selected channel, (b) reads communication control data for the selected channel and receives reception data based on the communication control data to receive the reception data over the selected channel and stores the data in the memory, (c) corrects the read communication control data based on transmission and reception operations after completion of transmission and reception operations and (d) stores corrected communication control data in the storage area of the selected channel in the memory.