UNIT -5 Serial Front Panel Data Port (SFPDP)

Serial Front Panel Data Port[1](Serial FPDP or SFPDP) is a high speed low latency data
streaming serial communication protocol. It currently supports three distinct speeds, 1.0625 Gbit/s,
2.125 Gbit/s, 2.5 Gbit/s. Serial FPDP can operate over long distances, up to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi),
using optical fiber cables, or shorter distances over copper cables.

Abstract:
This paper presents design & realization of Serial Front Panel Data Port (SFPDP) protocol
for high speed data transfer. High-speed data transfer finds application in most modern day
communication systems. This design has been mainly done for data transfer in radar
systems but can be programmed and used for variety of applications involving high-speed
data transfer. The design follows a systematic approach with design of SFPDP protocol and
implementation on FPGA and explains all these stages of design in detail. The design can
be programmed to work at different speeds as required by different systems and thus can
be used in variety of systems involving high-speed data transfers. The efficient use of
customized IP cores and resources of FPGA delivers high level of performance and area
efficiency.

Synchronous Serial Protocols

The synchronous type of serial protocols such as SPI, I2C, CAN and LIN are used in
different projects because it is one of the best resources for onboard peripherals. Also these
are the widely used protocols in major applications.

SPI Protocol

The Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is a synchronous interface which allows several SPI
microcontrollers to be interconnected. In SPI, separate wires are required for data and clock
line. Also the clock is not included in the data stream and must be furnished as a separate
signal. The SPI may be configured either as master or as a slave. The four basic SPI signals
(MISO, MOSI, SCK and SS), Vcc and Ground are the part of data communication. So it needs
6 wires to send and receive data from slave or master. Theoretically, the SPI can have
unlimited number of slaves. The data communication is configured in SPI registers. The SPI
can deliver up to 10Mbps of speed and is ideal for high speed data communication.
SPI Communication

Most of the microcontrollers have inbuilt support for SPI and can be directly connected SPI
supported device:

I2C Serial Communication

I2C Communication

Inter integrated circuit (I2C) two-line communication between different ICs or modules where
two lines are SDA (Serial Data Line) and SCL (Serial Clock Line). Both the lines must be
connected to a positive supply using a pull up resistor. I2C can deliver speed up to 400Kbps
and it uses 10 bit or 7 bit addressing system to target a specific device on the i2c bus so it
can connect up to 1024 devices. It has limited length communication and is ideal for onboard
communication. I2C networks are easy to setup since it uses only two wires and new devices
can simply be connected to the two common I2C bus lines. Same like SPI, microcontroller
generally have I2C pins to connect any I2C device:

USB

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is widely protocol with different versions and speeds. A maximum
of 127 peripherals can be connected to a single USB host controller. USB acts as "plug and
play" device. The USB are used in almost devices such as keyboards, printers, media
devices, cameras, scanners and mouse. It is designed for easy installation, faster data rated,
less cabling and hot swapping. It has replaced the bulkier and slower serial and parallel ports.
USB uses differential signalling to reduce interference and allow high-speed transmission
over a long distance.

A differential bus is built with two wire, one of represents the transmitted data and the other
its complement. The idea is that the 'average' voltage on the wires does not carry any
information, resulting in less interference. In USB, the devices are allowed to draw a certain
amount of power without asking the host. USB uses only two wires to for data transfer and
are faster than the serial and parallel interface. USB versions supports different speeds such
as 1.5Mbps (USB v1.0), 480 Mbps (USB2.0), 5Gbps (USB v3.0). Length of individual USB
cable can reach up to 5 meters without a hub and 40 meters with hub.

CAN

The Controller Area Network (CAN) is used in e.g. automotive to allow communication
between ECUs (Engine Control Units) and sensors. The CAN protocol is robust, low-cost and
message based and covers in many applications - e.g. cars, trucks, tractors, industrial robots.
The CAN bus system allows for central error diagnosis and configuration across all ECUs.
CAN messages are prioritized via IDs so that the highest priority IDs are non-interrupted.
Each ECU contains a chip for receiving all transmitted messages, decide relevance and act
accordingly - this allows easy modification and inclusion of additional nodes (e.g. CAN bus
data loggers). The applications include start/stop of vehicles, collision avoidance systems.
The CAN bus systems can provide speed up to 1Mbps.

Asynchronous Serial Protocols

The asynchronous type of serial protocols are very essential when it comes to longer distance
reliable data transfer. Asynchronous communication does not require a timing
clock that is common to both devices. Each device independently listens and sends digital
pulses that represent bits of data at an agreed-upon rate. Asynchronous serial communication
is sometimes referred to as Transistor-Transistor Logic (TTL) serial, where the high voltage
level is logic 1, and the low voltage equates to logic 0. Almost every microcontroller on the
market today has at least one Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART) for
serial communication. The examples are RS232, RS422, RS485 etc.

RS232
The RS232 (Recommended Standard 232) is very common protocol used to connect
different peripherals such as Monitors, CNCs etc. The RS232 comes in male and female
connectors. The RS232 is point-to-point topology with maximum one device connected and
covers distance up to 15 meters at 9600 bps. Information on the RS-232 interface is
transmitted digitally by logical 0 and 1. The logical "1" (MARK) corresponds to a voltage in
the range from -3 to -15 V. The logical "0" (SPACE) corresponds to a voltage in the range
from +3 to +15 V. It comes in DB9 connector which has 9 pinouts such as TxD, RxD, RTS,
CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, GND.

RS422

The RS422 is similar to RS232 which allows to simultaneously send and receive messages
on separate lines but uses a differential signal for this. In the RS-422 network, there can only
be one transmitting device and up to 10 receiving devices. The data transfer speed in RS-
422 depends on the distance and can vary from 10 kbps (1200 meters) to 10 Mbps (10
meters). The RS-422 line is 4 wires for data transmission (2 twisted wires for transmission
and 2 twisted wires for receiving) and one common GND ground wire. The voltage on the
data lines can be in the range from -6 V to +6 V. The logical difference between A and B is
greater than +0.2 V. Logical 1 corresponds to the difference between A and B less than -0.2
V. The RS-422 standard does not define a specific type of connector, usually it can be a
terminal block or a DB9 connector.

RS485

Since RS485 uses multi-point topology, it is most used in the industries and are industry
preferred protocol. RS422 can connect 32 line drivers and 32 receivers in a differential
configurations but with the help of additional repeaters and signal amplifiers up to 256
devices. The RS-485 does not define a specific type of connector, but it is often a terminal
block or a DB9 connector. The speed of operation also depends on the length of the line and
can reach 10 Mbit / s at 10 meters. The voltage on the lines is in the range from -7 V to +12
V. There are two types of RS-485 such as half duplex mode RS-485 with 2 contacts and full
duplex mode RS-485 with 4 contacts. To learn more about using RS485 with other
microcontrollers, check the links:

Conclusion
Serial Communication is one of the widely used communication interface systems in
electronics and embedded systems. The data rates can be different for different applications.
The Serial Communication Protocols can play decisive role when dealing in this kind of
applications. So choosing the right Serial protocol becomes very important.