MCP2210 Breakout Module User’s Guide

DS52056A-page 14

© 2012 Microchip Technology Inc.

A wider range of tests is available when using this board and the utility software with

the MCP2210 Evaluation Kit (ADM00421). This kit allows communication with several

SPI slave devices (I/O expander, EEPROM, ADC and temperature sensor). For more

details on examples using the SPI Terminal Utility software, see MCP2210 Evaluation

Kit User’s Guide (DS52057).

2.4

MCP2210 TYPICAL USAGE SCENARIOS

MCP2210 can be used in systems where an SPI bus is available. The MCP2210 can

be either the single master on the bus, or one of the masters sharing the bus, if a proper

master access arbitration scheme is in place.

A typical usage scenario is shown in Figure 2-2, where MCP2210 is the only master on

the SPI bus. This links the SPI slave chips in the system, while a few GPs (configured

for Chip Select function) can be used as Chip Select lines.

If SPI slave interrupt monitoring is required, the GP6 needs to be configured for its

dedicated function, in order to monitor the interrupts coming from the SPI slave chips.

The PC application will take care of all the details necessary for data transfer between

the MCP2210 and the SPI slave chips.

FIGURE 2-2:

MCP2210 TYPICAL USAGE DIAGRAM

When a system requires more than one SPI master that share the same bus, an

arbitration scheme needs to be developed, in order to prevent the multiple SPI masters

from accessing the bus at the same time.

MCP2210 has support for an arbitration mechanism which uses GP7 and GP8

(configured for dedicated pin functionality) for this purpose.

MCP2210

SPI bus

Chip Select lines

MOSI, MISO, SCK

CS0-CS8

USB

USB-to-SPI

bridge

SPI slave chip #1

SPI slave chip #n

External

Interrupt

(GP6)

Interrupt

Interrupt

...