Its only a matter of speed.

For slow speed communications you can connect them all on a single wire as open drain with a pull up and use a protocol e.g. like the Maxim 1-wire parts.


On the other end for high speed, easy using and less protocol overhead you can use 8051 derivates with CAN, e.g. T89C51CC01, P8xC592, DS80C390, ...


Peter