Filter
Top Products
. . . . .
I2C MASTER/SLAVE INTERFACE
Physical I2C bus
www.digiembedded.com 447
I2C Master/Slave Interface
CHAPTER 13
The I2C master/slave interface provides an interface between the ARM CPU and
the I2C bus.
The I2C master/slave interface basically is a parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel
converter. The parallel data received from the ARM CPU has to be converted to an
appropriate serial form to be transmitted to an external component using the I2C
bus. Similarly, the serial data received from the I2C bus has to be converted to an
appropriate parallel form for the ARM CPU. The I2C master interface also manages
the interface timing, data structure, and error handling.
Overview The I2C module is designed to be a master and slave. The slave is active only when
the module is being addressed during an I2C bus transfer; the master can arbitrate
for and access the I2C bus only when the bus is free (idle) — therefore, the master
and slave are mutually exclusive.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Physical I
2
C bus
The physical I
2
C bus consists of two open-drain signal lines: serial data (SDA) and
serial clock (SCL). Pullup resistors are required; see the standard I
2
C bus
specification for the correct value for the application. Each device connected to the
bus is software-addressable by a unique 7- or 10-bit address, and a simple
master/slave relationship exists at all times.
A master can operate as a master-transmitter (writes)) or a master-receiver
(reads). The slaves respond to the received commands accordingly:
• In transmit mode (slave is read), the host interface receives character-based
parallel data from the ARM. The module converts the parallel data to serial
format and transmits the serial data to the I
2
C bus.
• In receive mode (slave is written to), the I
2
C bus interface receives 8-bit-
based serial data from the I
2
C bus. The module converts the serial data to
parallel format and interrupts the host. The host’s interrupt service routine
reads the parallel data from the data register inside the I
2
C module. The
serial data stream synchronization and throttling are done by modulating the