Patent attributes
A multi-protocol bus circuit is provided. The multi-protocol bus circuit includes multiple master circuits each configured to communicate a respective master bus command(s) via a respective one of multiple master buses based on a respective one of multiple master bus protocols, and a slave circuit(s) configured to communicate a slave bus command(s) via a slave bus based on a slave bus protocol that is different from any of the master bus protocols. To enable bidirectional bus communications between the master circuits and the slave circuit(s), the multi-protocol bus circuit further includes a multi-protocol bridge circuit configured to perform a bidirectional conversion between the slave bus protocol and each of the master bus protocols. As a result, it is possible to support bidirectional bus communications based on heterogeneous bus protocols with minimal impact on cost and/or footprint.