IP Library Granted Patent US 11,809,366
Granted Patent B2
US 11,809,366 · App. 17/636,053 · Granted Nov 7, 2023

Controller in high-speed SPI master mode

Inventors: Tiantian Lan (Guangdong, CN); Norman Shengfa Hu (Guangdong, CN)
Assignee: Guangzhou Anyka Microelectronics Co., Ltd.
G06F13/4291G06F13/1689G06F13/30H03L7/0992
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,809,366
App. No.
17/636,053
Granted
Nov 7, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

In view of defects in the prior art, the present disclosure provides a controller in a high-speed serial peripheral interface (SPI) master mode, where clock signals are provided by a phase locked loop (PLL), and the entire controller includes: a low-speed clock domain and a high-speed clock domain, where the PLL provides two main clock signals by different clock frequency dividers, provides a low-speed clock signal to the low-speed clock domain, and provides a high-speed source clock signal to the high-speed clock domain. By such technical solutions in the present disclosure, functions of different clock domains are divided through asynchronization of a high-speed SPI controller, and the function of a high-speed SPI flash access is implemented, thereby saving a read/write time. Especially in an application scenario of an SPI flash boot, the controller can greatly optimize a startup time.

Claims (21)

1. A controller in a high-speed serial peripheral interface (SPI) master mode, wherein clock signals are provided by a phase locked loop (PLL), and the controller comprises:

a low-speed clock domain, comprising a direct memory access (DMA) control interface, used for data interaction between the controller and a memory, and implementing conversion of a DMA bus protocol; and

a high-speed clock domain, wherein

the high-speed clock domain comprises:

a software interaction interface, configured to control a central processing unit (CPU) to read/write a controller and a status register;

an interface clock generation unit, configured to generate an SPI clock signal after frequency division;

a data readback calibration unit, configured to receive data transmitted from an SPI flash;

a receiving control unit and a sending control unit, configured for receiving and sending data signals of the SPI flash; and

a pin delay control unit, configured to implement timing control of high-speed input/output (IO) of an SPI, wherein

the PLL provides two main clock signals by different clock frequency dividers, provides a low-speed clock signal to the low-speed clock domain, and provides a high-speed source clock signal to the high-speed clock domain.

2. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 1 , wherein the interface clock generation unit provides a clock signal to the pin delay control unit, the pin delay control unit is connected to the data readback calibration unit and provides a compensation clock to the data readback calibration unit, and the data readback calibration unit is connected to the receiving control unit.

3. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 2 , wherein a frequency of the high-speed source clock signal is fixed to an integer multiple of a frequency of the SPI clock signal.

4. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 3 , wherein the frequency of the high-speed source clock signal is fixed to 2 times the frequency of the SPI clock signal, and in this case, the interface clock generation unit generates an SPI clock after divide-by-2 frequency division.

5. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 1 , wherein a frequency of the high-speed source clock signal is fixed to an integer multiple of a frequency of the SPI clock signal.

6. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 5 , wherein the frequency of the high-speed source clock signal is fixed to 2 times the frequency of the SPI clock signal, and in this case, the interface clock generation unit generates an SPI clock after divide-by-2 frequency division.

7. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 1 , wherein the low-speed clock domain and the high-speed clock domain are isolated by data buffer units, and the data buffer units configured to perform isolation are a data receiving buffer unit and a data sending buffer unit.

8. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 7 , wherein both the data receiving buffer unit and the data sending buffer unit are asynchronous first in first out (FIFO) data buffer units.

9. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 1 , wherein the data readback calibration unit comprises two stages of registers connected to each other, an output terminal of a first stage register is connected to an input terminal of a second stage register, and an output terminal of the second stage register is connected to a shift register; and a clock signal of the first stage register comes from a compensation clock signal, and clock signals of the second stage register and the shift register both come from the high-speed source clock signal.

10. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 9 , wherein the second stage register latches output data of the first stage register by directly using a falling edge of the high-speed source clock signal, and an output of the second stage register is then latched to the shift register on a rising edge of the high-speed source clock signal through a combined logic path.

11. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 1 , wherein the pin delay control unit is provided with a compensation circuit configured to compensate for a delay of an SPI clock signal for sampling and receiving a data clock and a pin inside an SPI controller.

12. The controller in a high-speed SPI master mode according to claim 1 , wherein the software interaction interface supports selection of interface modes: a Dual SPI, a Quad SPI, or a standard SPI.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 22, 2022
From: LAN, TIANTIAN; HU, NORMAN SHENGFA
To: GUANGZHOU ANYKA MICROELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
Reel/Frame 059060/0061 →
Priority Claims (1)
CN 201910924892.7 · Sep 27, 2019 · national
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20220342843A1 · Oct 27, 2022