What is SLIMbus interface | Advantages of SLIMbus protocol

This page covers SLIMbus interface protocol basics. It mentions benefits or advantages of SLIMbus interface.

Introduction : The SLIMbus specifications are developed and managed by MIPI Alliance group of companies which include Intel, NXP, Motorola, Infineon, Texas Instruments, Marvell semiconductor, Freescale semiconductor etc. The latest specifications were released under version 2.0 in Nov 2015. SLIMbus interface supports multiple digital audio components simultaneously. It carries many digital audio streams at varying sampling rates through different bit widths.

What is SLIMbus protocol ?

SLIMbus stands for Serial Low power Inter-chip Media Bus. This interface is designed to transport audio between cellular modems and application processors which interfaces with peripherals such as bluetooth, FM radio, audio codec and audio subsystems such as microphone, speaker etc. It is complement protocol to SoundWire interface. It is a two wire synchronous interface which uses TDM (Time Division Multiplexed) frame structure. It connects multiple components in multi-drop topology using DATA and CLK lines.

Following are the features of SLIMbus interface protocol.
• Synchronous 2-Wire (DATA, Clock) Interface
• Flexible TDM frame structure which Carries audio, data, bus and device control on single bus
• SLIMbus frame consists of cells, slots, frames, subframes and superframes.
• DATA line can be used for data channels or control channels.
• Multiple, concurrent sample rates on a single bus
• Uses dedicated messages for bus management, data transfer and Device control

Benefits or advantages of SLIMbus

Following are the benefits or advantages of SLIMbus:
➨It is used in latest series of 5G smartphones to interface larger sized audio components.
➨It offers high performance.
➨It consumes low power to preserve battery life.
➨It introduces low EMI (electromagnetic interference) to minimize interference between radios and other interface device sub-systems.
➨It offers high bandwidth which supports data intensive applications with more features.
➨It replaces legacy digital interfaces used for audio interfacing such as PCM (Pulse Code Modulation), I2S, SSI (Synchronous Serial Interface).
➨It also replaces digital control buses which include UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO, microWire etc. This offers greater flexibility and simplicity.
➨It reduces pin count for lower overall cost.
➨It supports bus arbitration, contention resolution and collision detection between devices.

➨Also refer advantages or benefits of SoundWire interface protocol >>, Unipro interface protocol >> and M-PHY Physical layer >>.

Refer advantages and disadvantages of following interface protocols.
UART, SPI, I2C, I2S, Serial interface, Parallel interface