Difference between Can transceiver and controller

Gary,

The CAN transceiver and controller make up the CAN node. A CAN transceiver is the interface between the controller and the CAN bus. The transceiver translates the logic level messages from the controller into the CAN differential scheme on the CANH and CANL pins of the CAN transceiver. The controller can be thought of as an MCU, the part of the CAN node that processes all the information to and from the CAN bus.

While it's true that transceivers typically aren't referred to as CAN FD transceivers, not all CAN transceivers can work in CAN FD applications. Some older CAN transceivers in the market only work up to 1Mbps speeds, sufficient only for classic CAN. From the transceiver point of view, the only limitation between classic CAN and CAN FD is data rate capability of the physical interface. The protocol and controller side of things is a bit more complicated. Not only does the data rate change, but the CAN FD frame and classic CAN frame are structured differently. The CAN FD controller also allows for 64 bytes in the data portion of the CAN FD frame, while classic CAN only allows for up to 8 bytes. There are a few other differences that the controllers have to account for between CAN FD and classic CAN, but those are the most significant ones.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,

Gary,

Yes, please feel free to email me if you have any questions about CAN technology.

Regards,