28.3 EUSART Synchronous Mode

Synchronous serial communications are typically used in systems with a single host and one or more clients. The host device contains the necessary circuitry for baud rate generation and supplies the clock for all devices in the system. Client devices can take advantage of the host clock by eliminating the internal clock generation circuitry.

There are two signal lines in Synchronous mode: A bidirectional data line and a clock line. The clients use the external clock supplied by the host to shift the serial data into and out of their respective Receive and Transmit Shift Registers. Since the data line is bidirectional, synchronous operation is half-duplex only. Half-duplex refers to the fact that host and client devices can receive and transmit data, but not both simultaneously. The EUSART can operate as either a host or client device.

Start and Stop bits are not used in synchronous transmissions.