One of the most common communication buses in the world, and hence one that should be well understood by prospective engineers, is the I2C bus.  It may not be as well known as USB or Ethernet, but much of the world of electronic devices is completely dependent on it.

I²C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) is a multi-master serial single-ended computer bus invented by Philips that is used to attach low-speed peripherals to a motherboard, embedded system etc.

The I2C bus physically consists of 2 active wires and a ground connection. The active wires, called SDA and SCL, are both bi-directional.

SDA — Serial DAta line

SCL –  Serial CLock line.

Every device hooked up to the bus has its own unique address, no matter whether it is an MCU, LCD driver, memory. Each of these chips can act as a receiver and/or transmitter, depending on the functionality.

MASTER & SLAVE

The I2C bus is a multi-master bus. This means that more than one IC capable of initiating a data transfer can be connected to it. The I2C protocol specification states that the IC that initiates a data transfer on the bus is considered the Bus Master. Consequently, at that time, all the other ICs are regarded to be Bus Slaves.

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Lets consider the following setup and assume the MCU wants to send data to one of its slaves

First, the MCU will issue a   START condition. This acts as an ‘Attention’ signal to all of the connected devices. All ICs on the bus will listen to the bus for incoming data.

Then the MCU sends the ADDRESS of the device it wants to access, along with an indication whether the access is a Read or Write operation (Write in our example). Having received the address, all IC’s will compare it with their own address. If it doesn’t match, they simply wait until the bus is released by the stop condition. If the address matches, however, the chip will produce a response called the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT signal.

Once the MCU receives the acknowledge, it can start transmitting or receiving DATA. In our case, the MCU will transmit data. When all is done, the MCU will issue the STOP condition. This is a signal that the bus has been released and that the connected ICs may expect another transmission to start any moment.

TRANSMITTING A BYTE TO A SLAVE DEVICE

Once the start condition has been sent, a byte can be transmitted by the MASTER to the SLAVE.
This first byte after a start condition will identify the slave on the bus (address) and will select the mode of operation. The meaning of all following bytes depends on the slave.

An IDLE bus condition is defined as having both SDA and SCL high. A ‘START” condition is generated by the Master, followed by 7 bits of address, then a ReadWrite bit.  If a slave device detects an address match, it will send an ACK by driving SDA low during the next clock cycle; if no slave recognizes the address then the SDA line will be left alone to be pulled up high.  Following a successful ACK, data will be either sent to the slave device or read from the slave device (depending on what was indicated by the Read/Write bit).  Therefore, each byte is 9 bits: either 7 address plus one R/W plus one ACK/NAK, or 8 data plus one ACK/NAK.  The last data byte of a transaction should generally be followed by a NAK, to indicate that it is intended to be the final byte.  After this, either a STOP or a ReSTART should be issued by the Master.

Sample bitstream of the I2C protocol.