Need suggestions for reading/writing data serially with a clock line

My specific project is to use a microcontroller to emulate a controller on multiple game consoles. A number of them use serial communication with a clock line; NES, SNES, 3DO, Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 are the easiest examples. The frequency of the clock signal varies greatly, but the fastest seems to be the PS2 at 500KHz.

I am looking at using a 18LF4550 as my target microcontroller, but can be swayed to look at others if there is a strong reason to.

My main concern is whether or not there is technology built into the PIC to make this kind of serial communication easier/faster. I could certainly program it to wait for the needed rise or fall on the clock line, and shift each bit I need individually, but this feels very inelegant. Are there any functions for shifting data in time with an external clock signal that I can look into?

The PIC has various hardware interfaces built-in, including a fully functional USART and SPI, which may do what you want?.

The 4550 has USB, MSSP and EUSART. Check the data sheet. I would imagine that the Master Synchronous Serial Port would be the most useful.

Mike.

Looking like the SPI of the MSSP is was I was looking for. Thanks, I'll dig into it.