Version 2.0 Specification for SLIMbus
17-Aug-2015
Copyright © 2007-2015 MIPI Alliance, Inc. 1
All rights reserved.
Confidential
1 Introduction
Demand for multimedia functions within mobile terminals is increasing. A key driver for unit growth and 1
product differentiation is digital audio. 2
Commonly used digital audio interfaces in mobile terminals such as I
2
S and PCM are generally intended for 3
point-to-point connection between an application processor and a single digital audio device. Typically, these 4
interfaces only support one or two digital audio channels. As such, adding functions and digital audio 5
channels to mobile terminals beyond those for voice communication and simple stereo music applications is 6
very difficult without increasing the number of bus structures in the mobile terminal. Though scalable, just 7
adding bus structures limits design flexibility and is costly in terms of pin count, package size, and PCB 8
layout area and power consumption. 9
In addition, numerous control bus structures such as I
2
C, SPI, microWire™, UART and GPIOs, typically 10
reside in parallel to audio buses not only for audio device control, but handling the countless low bandwidth 11
control tasks required for lighting, haptic feedback, temperature monitoring and power sequencing. 12
SLIMbus provides the mobile terminal industry a standard, robust, scalable, low-power, high-speed, cost-13
effective bus configuration using a minimum of two wires, and optionally up to seven additional wires. 14
SLIMbus supports a wide range of digital audio and control solutions for mobile terminals. 15
SLIMbus effectively replaces many other digital audio buses such as PCM and I
2
S, as well as control buses 16
such as I
2
C, SPI, or UART, in a mobile terminal by providing flexible and dynamic assignment of bus 17
bandwidth between digital audio and non-audio control and data functions. 18
SLIMbus is not backward compatible with any current digital audio bus or digital control bus. 19
1.1 Scope
SLIMbus interface protocols and commands are within the scope of this specification. 20
Electrical specifications at the physical terminals of SLIMbus Devices, as well as a description of signal 21
timing relationships, are also within the scope of this specification. 22
Implementation details of the SLIMbus interface within an electronic device are not within the scope of this 23
document. 24
1.2 Purpose
The purpose of this document is to specify a standard interface between baseband or application processors 25
and peripheral components. 26
Implementing the SLIMbus Specification greatly increases the flexibility for mobile terminal system 27
designers to realize multiple products within a product line quickly, each with widely varying digital audio 28
and user interface features, without the addition of multiple bus structures. 29
SLIMbus reduces the time-to-market and design cost of mobile terminals by simplifying the interconnection 30
of products from different manufacturers. 31