SLAU533D September 2013 – April 2017
MSP430 applications typically use a fast clock and a slow clock. The fast clock (called MCLK) sources the CPU and peripherals in some cases, while the slow one keeps timers and peripherals operating during low-power modes. This approach reduces power: slow clocks consume less power, so the more often the fast clock can be disabled, the less power the application may consume.
Typically this fast clock is the digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) integrated in the MCU. The DCO itself is an important low-power tool, because unlike a crystal, it has a very fast start-up time, and thus can be quickly shut down and re-enabled. The DCO can be activated by an interrupt and stabilize fast enough to respond to it. An MCU's low-power modes are only useful if they can be used often.
Many MSP430 devices, including the F5529, couple the DCO with an frequency-locked loop (FLL) module that keeps the DCO locked to a precise slower-frequency reference. This gives good control over the DCO frequency.
The F5529 has three slow clocks available:
To keep things simple, the simpleUsbBackchannel example does not use any low-power modes; the CPU stays active at all times. As a result, all of these clocks are constantly active, and all functions are sourced from the DCO FLL. The emulStorageKeyboard example (see Section 3.5) does make use of low-power modes.
USB operation on the F5529 requires a high-frequency reference clock for the USB PLL. As mentioned in Section 2.2.5, this is sourced on the XT2 oscillator, and the F5529 LaunchPad development kit has a resonator on XT2. XT2 is managed directly by the USB API.
Table 9 shows the simpleUsbBackchannel example's clock configuration.
System Clock | Source | Speed | Description |
---|---|---|---|
MCLK | DCO, FLL | 8 MHz | MCLK is the MSP430 CPU clock. It is disabled in all low-power modes. There is no predefined MCLK lower limit for USB communication, but 8 MHz and higher are commonly used. |
SMCLK | DCO, FLL | 8 MHz | SMCLK drives high-speed peripherals. It is kept alive during LPM0 but disabled in LPM3, LPM4, and LPM5. LPM0 is the lowest power mode permissible during an active USB connection. |
ACLK | REFO | 32 kHz | ACLK is a low-speed clock that drives timers and slower peripherals. It is a very low-power way to keep the MCU alive during low-power modes. It is kept alive during LPM3 but disabled in LPM4 and LPM5. |
USBCLK | XT2 | 4 MHz | USB operation on the F5529 requires a ±2500-ppm clock source on XT2. This application uses a precise crystal resonator. The USB module receives this clock directly from XT2. |
For a full explanation of the MSP430 clock system, see the Unified Clock System (UCS) chapter in the MSP430x5xx and MSP430x6xx Family User's Guide.