Is there any advantage of using the SPI interface verses the UART interface?
The SPI port is intended for embedded applications. It allows for simple synchronous communication between the digital compass and a microcontroller or DSP. Data is transmitted in byte format which simplifies the processing of information since there is no text strings to be converted. The UART is intended for remote applications or situations where a spare UART is available. It provides 9600 baud asynchronous communication as a default setting on our SP3003D compass and a user selectable baud rate of 1200 -115200 on our latest design, the SP3004D. The UART can communicate in a byte format (NATIVE mode) similar to the SPI interface. It also offers a NMEA text format communication making interfacing easier with a simple text terminal. The UART is more flexible as it can handle both the NATIVE and NMEA type data format but is slower and requires more data to be transmitted for a given command. The SPI only handles NATIVE or byte-formatted commands but is faster and more efficient in tran
