Looking for SPI documentation

Question

I'm trying to use an Arduino as a slave and was searching for examples which I found many. But apart from the examples, I haven't found any documentation explaining many thing that show up in those examples.

For example, I'd like a document that would state what things like the following are:
-SPCR
-SPE
-SPDR
-ISR
-SPI_STC_vect

I'm asking this, because I don't and can't just copy an example and hope that it'll work, I really need to know what I'm doing.

Thank you,
João

• Juraj: you know, there is a SPI library?
• João Costa: Yes, I do know there's a library. But is there any document available that says what are the resources of that library?
• Juraj: reference of he SPI library arduino.cc/en/Reference/SPI
• Juraj: Atmega datasheet ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/…
• João Costa: Thank you very much, I'll look into the Atmega datasheet, didn't occur to me looking into it.

Answer 1

You are confusing SPI, a de facto standard, with the Arduino/Atmel hardware support for SPI.

SPCR, SPE and SPDR are registers of the Atmel MCU, part of the hardware support.

ISR is Interrupt Service Routine and SPI_STC_vect is the vector that point to that code. That is where the data received from the cable is read finally.

Answer 2

Take a look at Nick Gammon's SPI explanations also. Very good, with timing explained as well.

http://www.gammon.com.au/spi

• João Costa: His work is amazing, unfortunately he doesn't explain what those things are, apart from ISR and SPDR. And I had no idea from where the other things came. But there are already good answers that give me somewhere to look into. Thank you very much!
• Nick Gammon: I also explain SPI right here on this site: arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/16348/… - As for the register names, they are explained in the datasheet.
• Nick Gammon: Whilst I have a personal interest in the answer, it simply isn't practical to include or even summarize a lengthy post like an explanation of how SPI works. The OP is asking for documentation and this answer is giving a link to it. In my comment above I point out that there is more documentation available on this site which means it is less likely to go link-dead. Another answer might be to reference the datasheet, which again would have to be link-only, unless maybe you quoted a couple of pages.