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Control Channel and Register Programming
The control channel is available for the µC to send and
receive control data over the serial link simultaneously
with the high-speed data. The µC controls the link from
either the serializer or the deserializer side to support
video-display or image-sensing applications. The control
channel between the µC and serializer or deserializer
runs in base mode or bypass mode according to the
mode selection (MS) input of the device connected to the
µC. Base mode is a half-duplex control channel and the
bypass mode is a full-duplex control channel. The total
maximum forward or reverse control channel delay is 2
F
s
(UART) or 2 bit times (I
2
C) from the input of one device
to the output of the other. I
2
C delay is measured from a
START condition to START condition.
UART Interface
In base mode, the µC is the host and can access the
registers of both the serializer and deserializer from either
side of the link using the GMSL UART protocol. The µC
can also program the peripherals on the remote side by
sending the UART packets to the serializer or deserializer,
with the UART packets converted to I
2
C by the device
on the remote side of the link. The µC communicates
with a UART peripheral in base mode (through INTTYPE
register settings), using the half-duplex default GMSL
UART protocol of the serializer/deserializer. The device
addresses of the serializer and deserializer in base mode
are programmable.
When the peripheral interface is I
2
C, the serializer/dese-
rializer converts UART packets to I
2
C that have device
addresses different from those of the serializer or dese-
rializer. The converted I
2
C bit rate is the same as the
original UART bit rate.
The deserializer uses differential line coding to send
signals over the reverse channel to the serializer. The bit
rate of the control channel is 9.6kbps to 1Mbps in both
directions. The serializer and deserializer automatically
detect the control-channel bit rate in base mode. Packet
bit rate changes can be made in steps of up to 3.5 times
higher or lower than the previous bit rate. See “Changing
the Clock Frequency” for more information.
shows the UART protocol for writing and read
-
ing in base mode between the
µ
C and the serializer/
deserializer.
shows the UART data format (even parity is
used).
detail the formats of the
SYNC byte (0x79) and the ACK byte (0xC3). The µC
and
the connected slave chip generate the SYNC byte and
ACK byte, respectively. Events such as device wake-up
and GPI generate transitions on the control channel that
can be ignored by the µC
. Data written to the serializer
registers do not take effect until after the acknowledge
byte is sent. This allows the
µC to verify that write com
-
mands are received without error, even if the result of the
write command directly affects the serial link. The slave
uses the SYNC byte to synchronize with the host UART’s
data rate. If the GPI or MS inputs of the deserializer
toggle while there is control-channel communication, or
if a line fault occurs, the control-channel communication
will be corrupted. In the event of a missed or delayed
acknowledge (~1ms due to control channel timeout),
the
µC should assume there was an error in the packet
transmission or response. In base mode, the
µC
must
keep the UART Tx/Rx lines high no more than four bit
times between bytes in a packet. Keep the UART Tx/Rx
lines high for at least 16 bit-times before starting to send
a new packet.
Figure 25. GMSL UART Protocol for Base Mode
WRITE DATA FORMAT
SYNC
REG ADDR NUMBER OF BYTES
SYNC
DEV ADDR + R/W REG ADDR NUMBER OF BYTES
BYTE 1
BYTE N
ACK
BYTE N
BYTE 1
ACK
MASTER READS FROM SLAVE
READ DATA FORMAT
MASTER WRITES TO SLAVE
MASTER WRITES TO SLAVE
MASTER READS FROM SLAVE
DEV ADDR + R/W
MAX9277/MAX9281
3.12Gbps GMSL Serializers for Coax or
STP Output Drive and LVDS Input
www.maximintegrated.com
Maxim Integrated │
34