29.1 Overview

There are four instances of the Serial Communication interface (SERCOM) peripheral.

A SERCOM can be configured to support a number of modes: I²C, SPI and USART. When an instance of SERCOM is configured and enabled, all of the resources of that SERCOM instance will be dedicated to the selected mode.

The SERCOM serial engine consists of a transmitter and receiver, baud-rate generator and address matching functionality. It can use the internal generic clock or an external clock. Using an external clock allows the SERCOM to be operated in all Sleep modes.

Note: Traditional Serial Communication Interface documentation uses the terminology “Master” and “Slave”. The equivalent Microchip terminology used in this document is “Host” and “Client”, respectively.

Note: SERCOM3 (4th instance of SERCOM) is only supported using Peripheral Pin Select (PPS).