I2C Protocol Introduction – Part 2 (Advanced Topics) - JohnHau/mis GitHub Wiki

This is the continuation of the I2C Protocol Tutorial Part 1 (I2C Basics).

You can also read the I2C Linux device driver.

Cont ( I2C Tutorial )… The I2C Protocol bus uses two wires: serial data (SDA) and serial clock (SCL). All I2C master and slave devices are connected with only those two wires. Each device can be a transmitter, a receiver, or both. Some devices are masters – they generate bus clocks and initiate communication on the bus, other devices are slaves and respond to the commands on the bus. In order to communicate with a specific device, each slave device must have an address that is unique on the bus. I2C master devices (usual microcontrollers) don’t need an address since no other (slave) device sends commands to the master.

I2C terminology Transmitter – This is the device that transmits data to the bus

Receiver – This is the device that receives data from the bus

Master – This is the device that generates clock, starts communication, sends I2C commands, and stops communication

Slave – This is the device that listens to the bus and is addressed by the master

Multi-master – I2C can have more than one master and each can send commands

Arbitration – A process to determine which of the masters on the bus can use it when more masters need to use the bus

Synchronization – A process to synchronize clocks of two or more devices

I2C Protocol Bus Signals Both signals (SCL and SDA) are bidirectional. They are connected via resistors to a positive power supply voltage. This means that when the bus is free, both lines are high. All devices on the bus must have an open-collector or open-drain pins. Activating the line means pulling it down (wired AND). The number of devices on a single bus is almost unlimited – the only requirement is that the bus capacitance does not exceed 400 pF. Because logical 1 level depends on the supply voltage, there is no standard bus voltage.

Serial Data Transfer

For each clock pulse, one bit of data is transferred. The SDA signal can only change when the SCL signal is low – when the clock is high the data should be stable.

Start and Stop Condition Each I2C command initiated by the master device starts with a START condition and ends with a STOP condition. For both conditions, SCL has to be high. A high to low transition of SDA is considered as START and a low to high transition as STOP.

After the Start condition, the bus is considered as busy and can be used by another master only after a Stop condition is detected. After the Start condition, the master can generate a repeated Start. This is equivalent to a normal Start and is usually followed by the slave I2C address.

Microcontrollers that have dedicated I2C hardware can easily detect bus changes and behave also as I2C slave devices. However, if the I2C communication is implemented in software, the bus signals must be sampled at least two times per clock cycle in order to detect necessary changes.

Data on the I2C Protocol bus is transferred in 8-bit packets (bytes). There is no limitation on the number of bytes, however, each byte must be followed by an Acknowledge bit. This bit signals whether the device is ready to proceed with the next byte. For all data bits including the Acknowledge bit, the master must generate clock pulses. If the slave device does not acknowledges transfer this means that there is no more data or the device is not ready for the transfer yet. The master device must either generate the Stop or Repeated Start condition.

Synchronization Each master must generate its own clock signal and the data can change only when the clock is low. For successful bus arbitration, a synchronized clock is needed. Once a master pulls the clock low it stays low until all masters put the clock into a high state. Similarly, the clock is in a high state until the first master pulls it low. This way by observing the SCL signal, master devices can synchronize their clocks.

Clock Stretching As we told you earlier, the master device determines the clock speed. However, there are situations where an I2C slave is not able to co-operate with the clock speed given by the master and needs to slow down a little. This is done by a mechanism called Clock Stretching.

An I2C slave is allowed to hold down the clock if it needs to reduce the bus speed. The master, on the other hand, is required to read back the clock signal after releasing it to the high state and wait until the line has actually gone high.

Arbitration For normal data transfer on the I2C bus, only one master can be active. If for some reason two masters initiate the I2C command at the same time, the arbitration procedure determines which master wins and can continue with the command. Arbitration is performed on the SDA signal while the SCL signal is high. Each master checks if the SDA signal on the bus corresponds to the generated SDA signal. If the SDA signal on the bus is low but it should be high, then this master has lost arbitration. Master I2C device that has lost arbitration can generate SCL pulses until the byte ends and must then release the bus and go into slave mode. The arbitration procedure can continue until all the data is transferred. This means that in a multi-master system each I2C master must monitor the I2C bus for collisions and act accordingly.

Clock Synchronization and Handshaking Slave devices that need some time to process the received byte or are not ready yet to send the next byte, can pull the clock low to signal to the master that it should wait. Once the clock is released the master can proceed with the next byte.

Each slave device on the bus should have a unique 7-bit address. The communication starts with the Start condition, followed by the 7-bit slave address and the data direction bit. If this bit is 0 then the master will write to the slave device. Otherwise, if the data direction bit is 1, the master will read from the slave device. After the slave address and the data direction is sent, the master can continue with reading or writing. The communication is ended with the Stop condition which also signals that the I2C bus is free. If the master needs to communicate with other slaves it can generate a repeated start with another slave address without the generation Stop condition. All the bytes are transferred with the MSB bit shifted first.

If the master only writes to the slave device then the data transfer direction is not changed.

Sometimes the master needs to write some data and then read from the slave device. In such cases it must first write to the slave device, change the data transfer direction and then read the device. This means sending the I2C address with the R/W bit set to write and then sending some additional data like the register address. After the writing is finished the master device generates repeated start condition and sends the I2C address with the R/W bit set to read. After this, the data transfer direction is changed and the master device starts reading the data.

Extension of the I2C Specifications The standard mode of the I2C Protocol bus uses transfer rates up to 100 kbit/s and 7-bit addressing. Such an I2C interface is used by many hundred I2C Protocol-compatible devices from many manufacturers since its introduction in the 80s. However, with the advance of technology, needs for higher transfer rates and larger address space emerged. There are cases where a large amount of data needs to be transferred. Many complex embedded boards contain a large number of different I2C Protocol devices. In some cases, it is very hard to avoid address collisions since 7 bits for I2C addresses allow only 127 different addresses where only 112 can actually be used. Some I2C devices on the board, despite address pins, have the same address. This resulted in few upgrades to the standard-mode I2C specifications:

Fast Mode – supports transfer rates up to 400 kbit/s High-speed mode (Hs-mode) – supports transfer rates up to 3.4 Mbit/s 10-bit addressing – supports up to 1024 I2C addresses There can be any combination of the devices on the bus regardless of the supported speed and addressing. Fast mode devices are downward-compatible and can work with slower I2C controllers. However, most modern I2C controllers support all speeds and addressing modes.

The high-speed mode uses signals called SCLH and SDAH to emphasize the higher speed. These signals are usually separated from standard SDA and SCL lines. High-speed mode introduces also few differences (or improvements) in the specifications:

Improved data and clock line output drivers Schmitt trigger and spike suppression circuits on data and clock inputs Clock synchronization and arbitration is not used

Clock signal has 1 to 2 high/low ratio