9.3.7.3.2 Manchester Encoder

When the Manchester encoder is in use, characters transmitted through the USART are encoded based on biphase Manchester II format. To enable this mode, set the FLEX_US_MR.MAN bit to 1. Depending on polarity configuration, a logic level (zero or one), is transmitted as a coded signal one-to-zero or zero-to-one. Thus, a transition always occurs at the midpoint of each bit time. It consumes more bandwidth than the original NRZ signal (2x) but the receiver has more error control since the expected input must show a change at the center of a bit cell. An example of Manchester encoded sequence is: the byte 0xB1 or 10110001 encodes to 10 01 10 10 01 01 01 10, assuming the default polarity of the encoder. The following figure illustrates this coding scheme.

The Manchester encoded character can also be encapsulated by adding both a configurable preamble and a start frame delimiter pattern. Depending on the configuration, the preamble is a training sequence, composed of a predefined pattern with a programmable length from 1 to 15 bit times. If the preamble length is set to 0, the preamble waveform is not generated prior to any character. The preamble pattern is chosen among the following sequences: ALL_ONE, ALL_ZERO, ONE_ZERO or ZERO_ONE, writing the FLEX_US_MAN.TX_PP field. The TX_PL field is used to configure the preamble length. The following figure illustrates and defines the valid patterns. To improve flexibility, the encoding scheme can be configured using the FLEX_US_MAN.TX_MPOL bit. If the TX_MPOL bit is set to zero (default), a logic zero is encoded with a zero-to-one transition and a logic one is encoded with a one-to-zero transition. If the TX_MPOL bit is set to one, a logic one is encoded with a one-to-zero transition and a logic zero is encoded with a zero-to-one transition.

A start frame delimiter is to be configured using the FLEX_US_MR.ONEBIT bit. It consists of a user-defined pattern that indicates the beginning of a valid data. The following figure illustrates these patterns. If the start frame delimiter, also known as the start bit, is one bit, (ONEBIT = 1), a logic zero is Manchester encoded and indicates that a new character is being sent serially on the line. If the start frame delimiter is a synchronization pattern also referred to as sync (ONEBIT = 0), a sequence of three bit times is sent serially on the line to indicate the start of a new character. The sync waveform is in itself an invalid Manchester waveform as the transition occurs at the middle of the second bit time. Two distinct sync patterns are used: the command sync and the data sync. The command sync has a logic one level for one and a half bit times, then a transition to logic zero for the second one and a half bit times. If the FLEX_US_MR.MODSYNC bit is set to 1, the next character is a command. If it is set to 0, the next character is a data. When direct memory access is used, the MODSYNC bit can be immediately updated with a modified character located in memory. To enable this mode, the FLEX_US_MR.VAR_SYNC bit must be set. In this case, the FLEX_US_MR.MODSYNC bit is bypassed and the sync configuration is held in the FLEX_US_THR.TXSYNH bit. The USART character format is modified and includes sync information.