36.2.3 Transmit and Receive FIFOs

The transmission and reception of data from the SPI module is handled by two FIFOs, one for reception and one for transmission. These are addressed by the SFRs, SPIxRXB and SPIxTXB, respectively.

The transmit FIFO is written to by software and is read by the SPI module to shift the data onto the SDO pin. The receive FIFO is written to by the SPI module as it shifts in the data from the SDI pin and is read by software. Setting the CLB bit resets the occupancy for both FIFOs, emptying both buffers. The FIFOs are also reset by clearing the EN bit, thus disabling the SPI module.

Important: The transmit and receive FIFO occupancy refer to the number of bytes that are currently being stored in each FIFO. These values are used in this chapter to illustrate the function of these FIFOs and are not directly accessible through software.

The SPIxRXB register addresses the receive FIFO and is read-only. Reading from this register will read from the first FIFO location that was written to by hardware and decrease the receive FIFO occupancy. If the FIFO is empty, reading from this register will instead return a value of ’0’ and set the RXRE (Receive Buffer Read Error) bit. The RXRE bit must then be cleared in software to properly reflect the status of the read error. When the receive FIFO is full, the RXBF bit will be set.

The SPIxTXB register addresses the transmit FIFO and is write-only. Writing to the register will write to the first empty FIFO location and increase the occupancy. If the FIFO is full, writing to this register will not affect the data and will set the TXWE bit. When the transmit FIFO is empty, the TXBE bit will be set.

More details on enabling and disabling the receive and transmit functions is summarized in Table 36-1 and Client Mode Transmit Options.