SHDesigns: Embedded Systems Design, Consulting and Developer Resources Page hits:

SPI-200 Fast SPI Controller

The SPI-200 is a master SPI controller. It was originally designed for use with the Rabbit Semiconductor Rabbit 2000/3000 chips and modules.

The Rabbit processor has poor syncronous serial ports. They are slow and require a considerable amount of code to support. They do not support MSB-first transmission so all the data has to be reversed before transmitting and after receive. SPI clock modes are difficult to support.

The SPI-200 features are:

  • High-speed, up to 25MBit/sec.
  • 16-bit serial data register.
  • Programmable Transmit Length from 1 to 31 bits.
  • Programmable clock polarity.
  • Programmable input clock edge.
  • Programmable output clock edge.
  • Programmable RX polarity.
  • 8-bit Input or Output port, each pin has programmable direction.
  • 8-Bit input port.
  • 3.3V power, 5V tolerant I/O.
  • Small PLCC-44 or PQFP-44 package.
  • MSB-first out (no need for software bit reversal.)
  • Programmable clock divider From CLK_IN/2 to CK_IN/256.
  • I/O interface compatible with most processors.
  • Programmable interrupt output.

The SPI-200 is designed to support any SPI device. The programmable clock polarity and in/out clock edge options allow any SPI mode to be implemented.

The chip can be added to the data bus or Aux I/O bus of almost any Rabbit module. It will work on most any processor with a data bus. The interface is a standard /Chip enable, /Read and /Write lines.

The 8-bit I/O port can be used for chip selects or general I/O. There is also an 8-bit input port. One of the IO pins can be programmed as an interrupt output.

The chip has been tested and is working properly. Libraries for the Rabbit processor are in development. A demo board is also planned. The chip has achieved burst data trasmission of well over 1.5MBytes/sec at 33mbit/sec.. The limiting factor is the speed of the rabbit processor.

The data sheet for the part can be viewed here: SPI-200.pdf

For additional information, contact rabbit@shdesigns.org

Additional Information: Rabbit Libraries Home Page - SHDesigns Home Page