SDIO Card Slave Driver

Overview

The ESP32 SDIO Card peripherals (Host, Slave) shares two sets of pins as below table. The first set is usually occupied by SPI0 bus which is responsible for the SPI flash holding the code to run. This means SDIO slave driver can only runs on the second set of pins while SDIO host is not using it.

The SDIO slave can run under 3 modes: SPI, 1-bit SD and 4-bit SD modes, which is detected automatically by the hardware. According to the SDIO specification, CMD and DAT0-3 lines should be pulled up no matter in 1-bit, 4-bit or SPI mode.

Connections

Pin Name

Corresponding pins in SPI mode

Slot1

Slot2

GPIO Number

CLK

SCLK

6

14

CMD

MOSI

11

15

DAT0

MISO

7

2

DAT1

Interrupt

8

4

DAT2

N.C. (pullup)

9

12

DAT3

#CS

10

13

  • 1-bit SD mode: Connect CLK, CMD, DAT0, DAT1 pins and the ground.

  • 4-bit SD mode: Connect all pins and the ground.

  • SPI mode: Connect SCLK, MOSI, MISO, Interrupt, #CS pins and the ground.

Note

Please check if CMD and DATA lines D0-D3 of the card are properly pulled up by 10 KOhm resistors. This should be ensured even in 1-bit mode or SPI mode. Most official modules don’t offer these pullups internally. If you are using official development boards, check Overview of Compatibility to see whether your development boards have such pullups.

Note

Most official modules have conflicts on strapping pins with the SDIO slave function. If you are using a ESP32 module with 3.3 V flash inside, you have to burn the EFUSE when you are developing on the module for the first time. See Overview of Compatibility to see how to make your modules compatible with the SDIO.

Here is a list for modules/kits with 3.3 V flash:

  • Modules: ESP32-PICO-D4, ESP32-WROOM-32 series (including ESP32-SOLO-1), ESP32-WROVER-B and ESP32-WROVER-IB

  • Kits: ESP32-PICO-KIT, ESP32-DevKitC (till v4), ESP32-WROVER-KIT (v4.1 (also known as ESP32-WROVER-KIT-VB), v2, v1 (also known as DevKitJ v1))

You can tell the version of your ESP23-WROVER-KIT version from the module on it: v4.1 are with ESP32-WROVER-B modules, v3 are with ESP32-WROVER modules, while v2 and v1 are with ESP32-WROOM-32 modules.

Refer to SD Pull-up Requirements for more technical details of the pullups.

The host initialize the slave into SD mode by first sending CMD0 with DAT3 pin high, or in SPI mode by sending CMD0 with CS pin (the same pin as DAT3) low.

After the initialization, the host can enable the 4-bit SD mode by writing CCCR register 0x07 by CMD52. All the bus detection process are handled by the slave peripheral.

The host has to communicate with the slave by an ESP-slave-specific protocol. The slave driver offers 3 services over Function 1 access by CMD52 and CMD53: (1) a sending FIFO and a receiving FIFO, (2) 52 8-bit R/W registers shared by host and slave, (3) 16 interrupt sources (8 from host to slave, and 8 from slave to host).

Terminology

The SDIO slave driver uses the following terms:

  • Transfer: a transfer is always started by a command token from the host, and may contain a reply and several data blocks. ESP32 slave software is based on transfers.

  • Sending: slave to host transfers.

  • Receiving: host to slave transfers.

Note

Register names in ESP32 Technical Reference Manual > SDIO Slave Controller [PDF] are oriented from the point of view of the host, i.e. ‘rx’ registers refer to sending, while ‘tx’ registers refer to receiving. We’re not using tx or rx in the driver to avoid ambiguities.

  • FIFO: specific address in Function 1 that can be access by CMD53 to read/write large amount of data. The address is related to the length requested to read from/write to the slave in a single transfer: requested length = 0x1F800-address.

  • Ownership: When the driver takes ownership of a buffer, it means the driver can randomly read/write the buffer (usually via DMA). The application should not read/write the buffer until the ownership is returned to the application. If the application reads from a buffer owned by a receiving driver, the data read can be random; if the application writes to a buffer owned by a sending driver, the data sent may be corrupted.

  • Requested length: The length requested in one transfer determined by the FIFO address.

  • Transfer length: The length requested in one transfer determined by the CMD53 byte/block count field.

Note

Requested length is different from the transfer length. ESP32 slave DMA base on the requested length rather than the transfer length. The transfer length should be no shorter than the requested length, and the rest part will be filled with 0 (sending) or discard (receiving).

  • Receiving buffer size: The buffer size is pre-defined between the host and the slave before communication starts. Slave application has to set the buffer size during initialization by the recv_buffer_size member of sdio_slave_config_t.

  • Interrupts: the esp32 slave support interrupts in two directions: from host to slave (called slave interrupts below) and from slave to host (called host interrupts below). See more in Interrupts.

  • Registers: specific address in Function 1 access by CMD52 or CMD53.

Communication with ESP SDIO Slave

The host should initialize the ESP32 SDIO slave according to the standard SDIO initialization process (Sector 3.1.2 of SDIO Simplified Specification), which is described briefly in ESP SDIO Slave Initialization.

Furthermore, there’s an ESP32-specific upper-level communication protocol upon the CMD52/CMD53 to Func 1. Please refer to ESP SDIO Slave Protocol. There is also a component ESP Serial Slave Link for ESP32 master to communicate with ESP32 SDIO slave, see example peripherals/sdio when programming your host.

Interrupts

There are interrupts from host to slave, and from slave to host to help communicating conveniently.

Slave Interrupts

The host can interrupt the slave by writing any one bit in the register 0x08D. Once any bit of the register is set, an interrupt is raised and the SDIO slave driver calls the callback function defined in the slave_intr_cb member in the sdio_slave_config_t structure.

Note

The callback function is called in the ISR, do not use any delay, loop or spinlock in the callback.

There’s another set of functions can be used. You can call sdio_slave_wait_int to wait for an interrupt within a certain time, or call sdio_slave_clear_int to clear interrupts from host. The callback function can work with the wait functions perfectly.

Host Interrupts

The slave can interrupt the host by an interrupt line (at certain time) which is level sensitive. When the host see the interrupt line pulled down, it may read the slave interrupt status register, to see the interrupt source. Host can clear interrupt bits, or choose to disable a interrupt source. The interrupt line will hold active until all the sources are cleared or disabled.

There are several dedicated interrupt sources as well as general purpose sources. see sdio_slave_hostint_t for more information.

Shared Registers

There are 52 8-bit R/W shared registers to share information between host and slave. The slave can write or read the registers at any time by sdio_slave_read_reg and sdio_slave_write_reg. The host can access (R/W) the register by CMD52 or CMD53.

Receiving FIFO

When the host is going to send the slave some packets, it has to check whether the slave is ready to receive by reading the buffer number of slave.

To allow the host sending data to the slave, the application has to load buffers to the slave driver by the following steps:

  1. Register the buffer by calling sdio_slave_recv_register_buf, and get the handle of the registered buffer. The driver will allocate memory for the linked-list descriptor needed to link the buffer onto the hardware. The size of these buffers should equal to the Receiving buffer size.

  2. Load buffers onto the driver by passing the buffer handle to sdio_slave_recv_load_buf.

  3. Get the received data by calling sdio_slave_recv or sdio_slave_recv_packet. If non-blocking call is needed, set wait=0.

    The difference between two APIs is that, sdio_slave_recv_packet gives more information about packet, which can consist of several buffers. When ESP_ERR_NOT_FINISHED is returned by this API, you should call this API iteratively until the return value is ESP_OK. All the continuous buffers returned with ESP_ERR_NOT_FINISHED, together with the last buffer returned with ESP_OK, belong to one packet from the host. Call sdio_slave_recv_get_buf to get the address of the received data, and the actual length received in each buffer. The packet length is the sum of received length of all the buffers in the packet.

    If the host never send data longer than the Receiving buffer size, or you don’t care about the packet boundary (e.g. the data is only a byte stream), you can call the simpler version sdio_slave_recv instead.

  4. Pass the handle of processed buffer back to the driver by sdio_recv_load_buf again.

Note

To avoid overhead from copying data, the driver itself doesn’t have any buffer inside, the application is responsible to offer new buffers in time. The DMA will automatically store received data to the buffer.

Sending FIFO

Each time the slave has data to send, it raises an interrupt and the host will request for the packet length. There are two sending modes:

  • Stream Mode: when a buffer is loaded to the driver, the buffer length will be counted into the packet length requested by host in the incoming communications. Regardless previous packets are sent or not. This means the host can get data of several buffers in one transfer.

  • Packet Mode: the packet length is updated packet by packet, and only when previous packet is sent. This means that the host can only get data of one buffer in one transfer.

Note

To avoid overhead from copying data, the driver itself doesn’t have any buffer inside. Namely, the DMA takes data directly from the buffer provided by the application. The application should not touch the buffer until the sending is finished.

The sending mode can be set in the sending_mode member of sdio_slave_config_t, and the buffer numbers can be set in the send_queue_size. All the buffers are restricted to be no larger than 4092 bytes. Though in the stream mode several buffers can be sent in one transfer, each buffer is still counted as one in the queue.

The application can call sdio_slave_transmit to send packets. In this case the function returns when the transfer is successfully done, so the queue is not fully used. When higher effeciency is required, the application can use the following functions instead:

  1. Pass buffer information (address, length, as well as an arg indicating the buffer) to sdio_slave_send_queue. If non-blocking call is needed, set wait=0. If the wait is not portMAX_DELAY (wait until success), application has to check the result to know whether the data is put in to the queue or discard.

  2. Call sdio_slave_send_get_finished to get and deal with a finished transfer. A buffer should be keep unmodified until returned from sdio_slave_send_get_finished. This means the buffer is actually sent to the host, rather than just staying in the queue.

There are several ways to use the arg in the queue parameter:

  1. Directly point arg to a dynamic-allocated buffer, and use the arg to free it when transfer finished.

  2. Wrap transfer informations in a transfer structure, and point arg to the structure. You can use the structure to do more things like:

    typedef struct {
    uint8_t* buffer;
    size_t   size;
    int      id;
}sdio_transfer_t;

//and send as:
sdio_transfer_t trans = {
    .buffer = ADDRESS_TO_SEND,
    .size = 8,
    .id = 3,  //the 3rd transfer so far
};
sdio_slave_send_queue(trans.buffer, trans.size, &trans, portMAX_DELAY);

//... maybe more transfers are sent here

//and deal with finished transfer as:
sdio_transfer_t* arg = NULL;
sdio_slave_send_get_finished((void**)&arg, portMAX_DELAY);
ESP_LOGI("tag", "(%d) successfully send %d bytes of %p", arg->id, arg->size, arg->buffer);
some_post_callback(arg); //do more things

  3. Working with the receiving part of this driver, point arg to the receive buffer handle of this buffer. So that we can directly use the buffer to receive data when it’s sent:

    uint8_t buffer[256]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};
sdio_slave_buf_handle_t handle = sdio_slave_recv_register_buf(buffer);
sdio_slave_send_queue(buffer, 8, handle, portMAX_DELAY);

//... maybe more transfers are sent here

//and load finished buffer to receive as
sdio_slave_buf_handle_t handle = NULL;
sdio_slave_send_get_finished((void**)&handle, portMAX_DELAY);
sdio_slave_recv_load_buf(handle);

    More about this, see peripherals/sdio.

Application Example

Slave/master communication: peripherals/sdio.

API Reference

Header File

Enumerations

enum sdio_slave_hostint_t

Mask of interrupts sending to the host.

Values:

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT0

General purpose interrupt bit 0.

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT1
enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT2
enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT3
enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT4
enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT5
enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT6
enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_BIT7
enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_HOSTINT_SEND_NEW_PACKET

New packet available.

enum sdio_slave_timing_t

Timing of SDIO slave.

Values:

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_TIMING_PSEND_PSAMPLE

Send at posedge, and sample at posedge. Default value for HS mode. If :c:macro:SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_HIGH_SPEED is specified in :cpp:class:sdio_slave_config_t, this should be selected. Normally there’s no problem using this to work in DS mode.

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_TIMING_NSEND_PSAMPLE

Send at negedge, and sample at posedge. Default value for DS mode and below. If :c:macro:SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_DEFAULT_SPEED is specified in :cpp:class:sdio_slave_config_t, this should be selected.

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_TIMING_PSEND_NSAMPLE

Send at posedge, and sample at negedge.

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_TIMING_NSEND_NSAMPLE

Send at negedge, and sample at negedge.

enum sdio_slave_sending_mode_t

Configuration of SDIO slave mode.

Values:

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_SEND_STREAM

Stream mode, all packets to send will be combined as one if possible.

enumerator SDIO_SLAVE_SEND_PACKET

Packet mode, one packets will be sent one after another (only increase packet_len if last packet sent).

Header File

Functions

esp_err_t sdio_slave_initialize(sdio_slave_config_t *config)

Initialize the sdio slave driver

Parameters

config – Configuration of the sdio slave driver.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_NOT_FOUND if no free interrupt found.

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_STATE if already initialized.

  • ESP_ERR_NO_MEM if fail due to memory allocation failed.

  • ESP_OK if success

void sdio_slave_deinit(void)

De-initialize the sdio slave driver to release the resources.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_start(void)

Start hardware for sending and receiving, as well as set the IOREADY1 to 1.

Note

The driver will continue sending from previous data and PKT_LEN counting, keep data received as well as start receiving from current TOKEN1 counting. See sdio_slave_reset.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_STATE if already started.

  • ESP_OK otherwise.

void sdio_slave_stop(void)

Stop hardware from sending and receiving, also set IOREADY1 to 0.

Note

this will not clear the data already in the driver, and also not reset the PKT_LEN and TOKEN1 counting. Call sdio_slave_reset to do that.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_reset(void)

Clear the data still in the driver, as well as reset the PKT_LEN and TOKEN1 counting.

Returns

always return ESP_OK.

sdio_slave_buf_handle_t sdio_slave_recv_register_buf(uint8_t *start)

Register buffer used for receiving. All buffers should be registered before used, and then can be used (again) in the driver by the handle returned.

Note

The driver will use and only use the amount of space specified in the recv_buffer_size member set in the sdio_slave_config_t. All buffers should be larger than that. The buffer is used by the DMA, so it should be DMA capable and 32-bit aligned.

Parameters

start – The start address of the buffer.

Returns

The buffer handle if success, otherwise NULL.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_recv_unregister_buf(sdio_slave_buf_handle_t handle)

Unregister buffer from driver, and free the space used by the descriptor pointing to the buffer.

Parameters

handle – Handle to the buffer to release.

Returns

ESP_OK if success, ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if the handle is NULL or the buffer is being used.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_recv_load_buf(sdio_slave_buf_handle_t handle)

Load buffer to the queue waiting to receive data. The driver takes ownership of the buffer until the buffer is returned by sdio_slave_send_get_finished after the transaction is finished.

Parameters

handle – Handle to the buffer ready to receive data.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if invalid handle or the buffer is already in the queue. Only after the buffer is returened by sdio_slave_recv can you load it again.

  • ESP_OK if success

esp_err_t sdio_slave_recv_packet(sdio_slave_buf_handle_t *handle_ret, TickType_t wait)

Get buffer of received data if exist with packet information. The driver returns the ownership of the buffer to the app.

When you see return value is ESP_ERR_NOT_FINISHED, you should call this API iteratively until the return value is ESP_OK. All the continuous buffers returned with ESP_ERR_NOT_FINISHED, together with the last buffer returned with ESP_OK, belong to one packet from the host.

You can call simpler sdio_slave_recv instead, if the host never send data longer than the Receiving buffer size, or you don’t care about the packet boundary (e.g. the data is only a byte stream).

Note

Call sdio_slave_load_buf with the handle to re-load the buffer onto the link list, and receive with the same buffer again. The address and length of the buffer got here is the same as got from sdio_slave_get_buffer.

Parameters

  • handle_ret – Handle of the buffer holding received data. Use this handle in sdio_slave_recv_load_buf() to receive in the same buffer again.

  • wait – Time to wait before data received.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if handle_ret is NULL

  • ESP_ERR_TIMEOUT if timeout before receiving new data

  • ESP_ERR_NOT_FINISHED if returned buffer is not the end of a packet from the host, should call this API again until the end of a packet

  • ESP_OK if success

esp_err_t sdio_slave_recv(sdio_slave_buf_handle_t *handle_ret, uint8_t **out_addr, size_t *out_len, TickType_t wait)

Get received data if exist. The driver returns the ownership of the buffer to the app.

Note

Call sdio_slave_load_buf with the handle to re-load the buffer onto the link list, and receive with the same buffer again. The address and length of the buffer got here is the same as got from sdio_slave_get_buffer.

Parameters

  • handle_ret – Handle to the buffer holding received data. Use this handle in sdio_slave_recv_load_buf to receive in the same buffer again.

  • out_addr – [out] Output of the start address, set to NULL if not needed.

  • out_len – [out] Actual length of the data in the buffer, set to NULL if not needed.

  • wait – Time to wait before data received.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if handle_ret is NULL

  • ESP_ERR_TIMEOUT if timeout before receiving new data

  • ESP_OK if success

uint8_t *sdio_slave_recv_get_buf(sdio_slave_buf_handle_t handle, size_t *len_o)

Retrieve the buffer corresponding to a handle.

Parameters

  • handle – Handle to get the buffer.

  • len_o – Output of buffer length

Returns

buffer address if success, otherwise NULL.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_send_queue(uint8_t *addr, size_t len, void *arg, TickType_t wait)

Put a new sending transfer into the send queue. The driver takes ownership of the buffer until the buffer is returned by sdio_slave_send_get_finished after the transaction is finished.

Parameters

  • addr – Address for data to be sent. The buffer should be DMA capable and 32-bit aligned.

  • len – Length of the data, should not be longer than 4092 bytes (may support longer in the future).

  • arg – Argument to returned in sdio_slave_send_get_finished. The argument can be used to indicate which transaction is done, or as a parameter for a callback. Set to NULL if not needed.

  • wait – Time to wait if the buffer is full.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if the length is not greater than 0.

  • ESP_ERR_TIMEOUT if the queue is still full until timeout.

  • ESP_OK if success.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_send_get_finished(void **out_arg, TickType_t wait)

Return the ownership of a finished transaction.

Parameters

  • out_arg – Argument of the finished transaction. Set to NULL if unused.

  • wait – Time to wait if there’s no finished sending transaction.

Returns

ESP_ERR_TIMEOUT if no transaction finished, or ESP_OK if succeed.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_transmit(uint8_t *addr, size_t len)

Start a new sending transfer, and wait for it (blocked) to be finished.

Parameters

  • addr – Start address of the buffer to send

  • len – Length of buffer to send.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if the length of descriptor is not greater than 0.

  • ESP_ERR_TIMEOUT if the queue is full or host do not start a transfer before timeout.

  • ESP_OK if success.

uint8_t sdio_slave_read_reg(int pos)

Read the spi slave register shared with host.

Note

register 28 to 31 are reserved for interrupt vector.

Parameters

pos – register address, 0-27 or 32-63.

Returns

value of the register.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_write_reg(int pos, uint8_t reg)

Write the spi slave register shared with host.

Note

register 29 and 31 are used for interrupt vector.

Parameters

  • pos – register address, 0-11, 14-15, 18-19, 24-27 and 32-63, other address are reserved.

  • reg – the value to write.

Returns

ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if address wrong, otherwise ESP_OK.

sdio_slave_hostint_t sdio_slave_get_host_intena(void)

Get the interrupt enable for host.

Returns

the interrupt mask.

void sdio_slave_set_host_intena(sdio_slave_hostint_t mask)

Set the interrupt enable for host.

Parameters

mask – Enable mask for host interrupt.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_send_host_int(uint8_t pos)

Interrupt the host by general purpose interrupt.

Parameters

pos – Interrupt num, 0-7.

Returns

  • ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG if interrupt num error

  • ESP_OK otherwise

void sdio_slave_clear_host_int(sdio_slave_hostint_t mask)

Clear general purpose interrupt to host.

Parameters

mask – Interrupt bits to clear, by bit mask.

esp_err_t sdio_slave_wait_int(int pos, TickType_t wait)

Wait for general purpose interrupt from host.

Note

this clears the interrupt at the same time.

Parameters

  • pos – Interrupt source number to wait for. is set.

  • wait – Time to wait before interrupt triggered.

Returns

ESP_OK if success, ESP_ERR_TIMEOUT if timeout.

Structures

struct sdio_slave_config_t

Configuration of SDIO slave.

Public Members

sdio_slave_timing_t timing

timing of sdio_slave. see sdio_slave_timing_t.

sdio_slave_sending_mode_t sending_mode

mode of sdio_slave. SDIO_SLAVE_MODE_STREAM if the data needs to be sent as much as possible; SDIO_SLAVE_MODE_PACKET if the data should be sent in packets.

int send_queue_size

max buffers that can be queued before sending.

size_t recv_buffer_size

If buffer_size is too small, it costs more CPU time to handle larger number of buffers. If buffer_size is too large, the space larger than the transaction length is left blank but still counts a buffer, and the buffers are easily run out. Should be set according to length of data really transferred. All data that do not fully fill a buffer is still counted as one buffer. E.g. 10 bytes data costs 2 buffers if the size is 8 bytes per buffer. Buffer size of the slave pre-defined between host and slave before communication. All receive buffer given to the driver should be larger than this.

sdio_event_cb_t event_cb

when the host interrupts slave, this callback will be called with interrupt number (0-7).

uint32_t flags

Features to be enabled for the slave, combinations of SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_*.

Macros

SDIO_SLAVE_RECV_MAX_BUFFER
SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_DAT2_DISABLED

It is required by the SD specification that all 4 data lines should be used and pulled up even in 1-bit mode or SPI mode. However, as a feature, the user can specify this flag to make use of DAT2 pin in 1-bit mode. Note that the host cannot read CCCR registers to know we don’t support 4-bit mode anymore, please do this at your own risk.

SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_HOST_INTR_DISABLED

The DAT1 line is used as the interrupt line in SDIO protocol. However, as a feature, the user can specify this flag to make use of DAT1 pin of the slave in 1-bit mode. Note that the host has to do polling to the interrupt registers to know whether there are interrupts from the slave. And it cannot read CCCR registers to know we don’t support 4-bit mode anymore, please do this at your own risk.

SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_INTERNAL_PULLUP

Enable internal pullups for enabled pins. It is required by the SD specification that all the 4 data lines should be pulled up even in 1-bit mode or SPI mode. Note that the internal pull-ups are not sufficient for stable communication, please do connect external pull-ups on the bus. This is only for example and debug use.

SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_DEFAULT_SPEED

Disable the highspeed support of the hardware.

SDIO_SLAVE_FLAG_HIGH_SPEED

Enable the highspeed support of the hardware. This is the default option. The host will see highspeed capability, but the mode actually used is determined by the host.

Type Definitions

typedef void (*sdio_event_cb_t)(uint8_t event)
typedef void *sdio_slave_buf_handle_t

Handle of a receive buffer, register a handle by calling sdio_slave_recv_register_buf. Use the handle to load the buffer to the driver, or call sdio_slave_recv_unregister_buf if it is no longer used.

Provide feedback about this document