Low-overhead, bidirectional error checking for a serial peripheral interface

A method comprising:

• providing, to a Master Out Slave In (MOSI) channel of a serial peripheral interface (SPI) of a controller, a write address within a subcontroller to be written to;
• providing, to the MOSI channel, payload data to be written;
• providing, to the MOSI channel, a forward error-checking code usable to identify data corruption within the write address or the payload data;
• receiving, from a Master In Slave Out (MISO) channel of the SPI of the controller, a reverse error-checking code calculated by the subcontroller based on the write address and the payload data, wherein the reverse error-checking code is usable to identify data corruption within the write address or the payload data;
• comparing the reverse error-checking code to the forward error-checking code to determine that a transmission error has occurred;
• and
• initiating, in response to determining that the transmission error has occurred, appropriate remedial action.

A system comprising:

• a subcontroller;
• a controller comprising an integrated circuit, wherein the controller and the subcontroller are communicatively coupled over a serial peripheral interface (SPI) comprising a Master In Slave Out (MISO) channel and a Master Out Slave In (MOSI) channel, and
• wherein the integrated circuit is configured to:
• provide, to the MOSI channel, a write address within the subcontroller to be written to;
• provide, to the MOSI channel, payload data to be written;
• provide, to the MOSI channel, a forward error-checking code usable to identify data corruption within the write address or the payload data;
• receive, from the MISO channel, a reverse error-checking code calculated by the subcontroller based on the write address and the payload data, wherein the reverse error-checking code is usable to identify data corruption within the write address or the payload data;
• compare the reverse error-checking code to the forward error-checking code to determine that a transmission error has occurred;
• and
• initiate, in response to determining that the transmission error has occurred, appropriate remedial action.