US 12,182,058 B2Granted

Communications system and method of operating the same

AssigneeAptiv Technologies AG

InventorsEmmanuel Boudoux, Frank Trommer

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Abstract

Communications system including a master circuit having a master serial peripheral interface, SPI, device with an input MISO terminal. A plurality of slave circuits is provided for communication with the master circuit. Each slave includes a slave SPI device, an activation terminal, and an output switch for connecting an output MISO terminal to the input MISO terminal. The master circuit also includes a polling signal terminal for transmitting a polling signal to at least a first group of slave SPI devices for activating them. The master circuit 3 also has a plurality of output CS terminals, each being independently activatable to activate both the respective slave SPI device and the associated output switch.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A communications system comprising:

a master circuit comprising a master serial peripheral interface (SPI) device having an input master-in slave-out (MISO) terminal;
and
a plurality of slave circuits coupled for communication with the master circuit, each slave circuit comprising a slave SPI device, an activation terminal for activating the slave SPI device, and an output switch for connecting a MISO terminal of the slave SPI device to the input MISO terminal when activated,
wherein the master circuit further comprises:
a polling signal terminal for transmitting a polling signal to the activation terminals of at least a first group of the plurality of slave circuits for activating their respective slave SPI devices;
and
a plurality of output chip-select (CS) terminals, each independently activatable for transmitting a CS signal to both the activation terminal and the output switch of a respective one of the plurality of slave circuits for activating the respective slave SPI device and connecting its output MISO terminal for transmitting data to the input MISO terminal.

4 more elements

A method for operating a communications system, the method comprising:

providing a master circuit that comprises a polling signal terminal, a plurality of output chip-select (CS) terminals, and a master serial peripheral interface (SPI) device having an input master-in slave-out (MISO) terminal;
providing a plurality of slave circuits coupled for communication with the master circuit, each slave circuit comprising a slave SPI device, an activation terminal, and an output switch;
transmitting a polling signal from the polling signal terminal to the activation terminals of at least a first group of the plurality of slave circuits for activating their respective slave SPI devices, wherein a respective output MISO terminal is prevented from transmitting data to the input MISO terminal by the output switch unless it is activated;
and
transmitting CS signals from individual ones of the CS terminals to a respective one of the plurality of slave circuits for activating its activation terminal to activate the respective slave SPI device and for activating the output switch to connect its output MISO terminal to the input MISO terminal for transmitting data thereto.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.