The Spark Gap - Episode 18
Hosts Karl and Corey provide a technical overview of four common serial communication protocols used for chip-to-chip communication: UART, SPI, I2C, and CAN bus. They compare the protocols based on their wiring requirements, speed capabilities, duplexing modes, and signal integrity characteristics, noting that UART is simple but asynchronous, SPI is fast but point-to-point, I2C is multi-device but power-hungry due to pull-up resistors, and CAN bus offers robust differential signaling for noisy environments. The discussion highlights specific engineering trade-offs, such as the capacitance limits of SPI, the voltage level translation challenges in I2C, and the bus arbitration mechanics of CAN.