MCU for MIPI read/write command

There is a standard MIPI for RF front end solution. (RFFE). I am thinking to get this signal with microcontroller, but the controller I know is PIC18F. I can write the command by modifying SPI with PIC18F2550, but it seems it is difficult to make it work for read command. The MIPI master or slaver uses one pin for read and command bi-directionally, but PIC18F read and write SPI from different pin (MISO, MOSI). I try one pin emulate the clock signal, other pin as input/output controlled by timer, but the clock rate can't faster than 50KHz, because the cycle time of the command. The MIPI data rate can be as fast as 26MHz.

It seems the PIC18F is not capable of MIPI in fast rate. How about the other MCU or DSP, such as STM32, AVR?

The MIPI format can be seen in the attachment.

Hello,

Are you building the MCU as a bus master, or are you just trying to monitor the bus activity? If MCU will be the bus master then you can bit-bang the interface because MIPI RFFE allows the clock to be as low as 32 kHz. The bi-directional data can be handled by bit-banging the I/O port as well.

If you are monitoring an existing RFFE bus, then, yes, you will probably need an FPGA or at least a CPLD to handle the high-speed custom logic.

I used an 8-bit PIC for USB-to-MIPI/SPMI interface to control a power management IC with PC software for an IC evaluation board. I am now working on a USB-to-MIPI/RFFE for an RF IC demo board. Just one PIC MCU handles both USB interface and MIPI functions so it can be done with straightforward HW but it does take a bit of SW work.

-Vince