Communications and High-Speed Signals with Raspberry Pi

Communications Protocols

In this first module, we will discuss a variety of modern communications protocols and point out features that we will refer back to in later discussions. These are digital signals, but if you think digital communications is all 1's and 0's, I'd like you to change your thinking and start thinking of every signal as an analog waveform. We'll discuss what that means and why it's important when building projects with high-performance communications links. We'll introduce some well-known protocols and also the emergning I3C protocol, the successor to I2C. Lastly, we'll take an in-depth look at a type of circuit called an open-drain driver. This is how an IC communicates on an I2C (and I3C) bus and is a great example circuit for studying all sorts of real-world effects on high-speed signals. We'll use this open-drain configuration as an example throughout the entire course. You may have seen some of this information before but it's worth briefly seeing again as this is the foundation that we'll be referring back to throughout the whole course. And it's worth building a strong foundation now, because Module 4 wraps up everything we've learned into five very useful rules of thumb that you can you in all of your future projects. One more thing. I know I speak slowly, so feel free to use the Coursera video player feature to play the videos at 1.5x or 2x speed.