4.10.5 Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)
The SPI is a high-speed synchronous serial input/output (I/O) port that allows a serial bit stream of programmed length (1 to 16 bits) to be shifted into and out of the device at a programmed bit-transfer rate. The SPI is normally used for communications between the microcontroller and external peripherals or another controller. Typical applications include external I/O or peripheral expansion through devices such as shift registers, display drivers, and ADCs. Multidevice communications are supported by the master/slave operation of the SPI. The port supports 16-level receive and transmit FIFOs for reducing CPU servicing overhead.
The SPI module features include:
- SPISOMI: SPI slave-output/master-input pin
- SPISIMO: SPI slave-input/master-output pin
- SPISTE: SPI slave transmit-enable pin
- SPICLK: SPI serial-clock pin
- Two operational modes: master and slave
- Baud rate: 125 different programmable rates
- Data word length: 1 to 16 data bits
- Four clocking schemes (controlled by clock polarity and clock phase bits) include:
- Falling edge without phase delay: SPICLK active-high. SPI transmits data on the falling edge of the SPICLK signal and receives data on the rising edge of the SPICLK signal.
- Falling edge with phase delay: SPICLK active-high. SPI transmits data one half-cycle ahead of the falling edge of the SPICLK signal and receives data on the falling edge of the SPICLK signal.
- Rising edge without phase delay: SPICLK inactive-low. SPI transmits data on the rising edge of the SPICLK signal and receives data on the falling edge of the SPICLK signal.
- Rising edge with phase delay: SPICLK inactive-low. SPI transmits data one half-cycle ahead of the rising edge of the SPICLK signal and receives data on the rising edge of the SPICLK signal.
- Simultaneous receive-and-transmit operation (transmit function can be disabled in software)
- Transmitter and receiver operations are accomplished through either interrupt-driven or polled algorithms.
- 16-level transmit and receive FIFO
- Delayed transmit control
- 3-wire SPI mode
- SPISTE inversion for digital audio interface receive mode on devices with two SPI modules
- DMA support
- High-speed mode for up to 50-MHz full-duplex communication
The SPI operates in master or slave mode. The master initiates data transfer by sending the SPICLK signal. For both the slave and the master, data is shifted out of the shift registers on one edge of the SPICLK and latched into the shift register on the opposite SPICLK clock edge. If the CLOCK PHASE bit (SPICTL.3) is high, data is transmitted and received a half-cycle before the SPICLK transition. As a result, both controllers send and receive data simultaneously. The application software determines whether the data is meaningful or dummy data. There are three possible methods for data transmission:
- Master sends data; slave sends dummy data
- Master sends data; slave sends data
- Master sends dummy data; slave sends data
The master can initiate a data transfer at any time because it controls the SPICLK signal. The software, however, determines how the master detects when the slave is ready to broadcast data.
Figure 4-68 shows the SPI CPU Interface.