I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) Bus Technical Overview and
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
by Axel Wolf, ESAcademy
based on the I2C FAQ by Vince Himpe
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In the early 1980's, Philips Semiconductors developed a simple bi-directional 2-wire bus for efficient inter-IC control. This bus is called the Inter-IC or I2C-bus. At present, Philips’ IC range includes more than 150 CMOS and bipolar I2C-bus compatible types for performing communication functions between intelligent control devices (e.g. microcontrollers), general-purpose circuits (e.g. LCD drivers, remote I/O ports, memories) and application-oriented circuits (e.g. digital tuning and signal processing circuits for radio and video systems).
All I2C-bus compatible devices incorporate an on-chip interface which allows them to communicate directly with each other via the I2C-bus. This design concept solves the many interfacing problems encountered when designing digital control circuits. I2C has become a de facto world standard that is now implemented in over 1000 different ICs and is licensed to more than 50 companies.
Contents
General Introduction
Using the clock synchronizing mechanism as a handshake
I2C Bus Events
Transmitting a byte to a slave device
Receiving a byte from a slave device
Getting Acknowledge from a slave device
Frequently asked question section
Miscellaneous information
Overview about the different versions of the I2C bus specification
ESAcademy, 2000
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