16.2 Overview

The I/O pins of the device are controlled by instances of the PORT peripheral registers. This device has up to three instances of the I/O Pin Configuration (PORT) called PORTA, PORTB, and PORTC. Each instance controls a pin group of up to eight pins, called PA[7:0], PB[7:0], and PC[7:0].

Refer to the I/O Multiplexing table to see which pins are controlled by what instance of PORT. The offsets of the PORT instances and of the corresponding Virtual PORT instances are listed in the Peripherals and Architecture section.

Each of the port pins has a corresponding bit in the Data Direction (PORT.DIR) and Data Output Value (PORT.OUT) registers to enable that pin as an output and to define the output state. For example, pin PB3 is controlled by DIR[3] and OUT[3] of the PORTB instance.

The Data Input Value (PORT.IN) is set as the input value of a PORT pin with resynchronization to the Main Clock. To reduce power consumption, these input synchronizers are not clocked if the Input Sense Configuration bit field (ISC) in PORT.PINnCTRL is INPUT_DISABLE. The value of the pin can always be read, whether the pin is configured as input or output.

The PORT also supports synchronous and asynchronous input sensing with interrupts for selectable pin change conditions. Asynchronous pin-change sensing means that a pin change can wake the device from all sleep modes, including the modes where no clocks are running.

All pin functions are configurable individually per pin. The pins have hardware read-modify-write (RMW) functionality for safe and correct change of drive value and/or pull resistor configuration. The direction of one port pin can be changed without unintentionally changing the direction of any other pin.

The PORT pin configuration also controls input and output selection of other device functions.