Intel® Arria® 10 Hard Processor System Technical Reference Manual

ID 683711
Date 8/28/2023
Public
Document Table of Contents

20.4.6.1. Motorola SPI Protocol

With SPI, the clock polarity (SCPOL) configuration parameter determines whether the inactive state of the serial clock is high or low. The data frame can be 4 to 16 bits in length. †

When the configuration parameter (SCPH = 0), data transmission begins on the falling edge of the slave select signal. The first data bit is captured by the master and slave peripherals on the first edge of the serial clock; therefore, valid data must be present on the txd and rxd lines prior to the first serial clock edge.  †

The slave select signal takes effect only when used as slave SPI. For master SPI, the data transmission begins as soon as the output enable signal is deasserted.

The following signals are illustrated in the timing diagrams in this section: †

  • sclk_out—serial clock from SPI master †
  • sclk_in—serial clock from SPI slave †
  • ss_0_n—slave select signal from SPI master †
  • ss_oe_n—output enable for the SPI master or slave †
  • txd—transmit data line for the SPI master or slave †
  • rxd—receive data line for the SPI master or slave †
Figure 110. SPI Serial Format (SCPH = 0)

There are four possible transfer modes on the SPI controller for performing SPI serial transactions; refer to “Transfer Modes” . For transmit and receive transfers (transfer mode field (9:8) of the Control Register 0 = 0), data transmitted from the SPI controller to the external serial device is written into the transmit FIFO buffer. Data received from the external serial device into the SPI controller is pushed into the receive FIFO buffer. †

Note: For transmit only transfers (transfer mode field (9:8) of the Control Register 0 = 1), data transmitted from the SPI controller to the external serial device is written into the transmit FIFO buffer. As the data received from the external serial device is deemed invalid, it is not stored in the SPI receive FIFO buffer. †

For receive only transfers (transfer mode field (9:8) of the Control Register 0 = 2), data transmitted from the SPI controller to the external serial device is invalid, so a single dummy word is written into the transmit FIFO buffer to begin the serial transfer. The txd output from the SPI controller is held at a constant logic level for the duration of the serial transfer. Data received from the external serial device into the SPI controller is pushed into the receive FIFO buffer. †

For EEPROM read transfers (transfer mode field [9:8] of the Control Register 0 = 3), the opcode or the EEPROM address, or both, are written into the transmit FIFO buffer. During transmission of these control frames, received data is not captured by the SPI master. After the control frames have been transmitted, receive data from the EEPROM is stored in the receive FIFO buffer.

SPI Serial Format

Two different modes of continuous data transfers are supported:

  • When clock phase SCPH = 0 and clock polarity SCPOL = 0, the SPI Controller deasserts the slave select signal between each data word and the serial clock is held to its default value while the slave select signal is deasserted.†
  • When SCPH = 1 and SCPOL = 1, the slave select is held asserted (active low) for the duration of the transfer.†
Figure 111. Serial Format Continuous Transfers (SCPH = 0 and SCPOL = 0)


Figure 112. Serial Format Continuous Transfers (SCPH = 1 and SCPOL = 1)