xref: /linux/Documentation/i2c/i2c-protocol.rst (revision b77e0ce62d63a761ffb7f7245a215a49f5921c2f)
1================
2The I2C Protocol
3================
4
5This document describes the I2C protocol. Or will, when it is finished :-)
6
7Key to symbols
8==============
9
10=============== =============================================================
11S               Start condition
12P               Stop condition
13Rd/Wr (1 bit)   Read/Write bit. Rd equals 1, Wr equals 0.
14A, NA (1 bit)   Acknowledge (ACK) and Not Acknowledge (NACK) bit
15Addr  (7 bits)  I2C 7 bit address. Note that this can be expanded as usual to
16                get a 10 bit I2C address.
17Comm  (8 bits)  Command byte, a data byte which often selects a register on
18                the device.
19Data  (8 bits)  A plain data byte. Sometimes, I write DataLow, DataHigh
20                for 16 bit data.
21Count (8 bits)  A data byte containing the length of a block operation.
22
23[..]            Data sent by I2C device, as opposed to data sent by the
24                host adapter.
25=============== =============================================================
26
27
28Simple send transaction
29=======================
30
31Implemented by i2c_master_send()::
32
33  S Addr Wr [A] Data [A] Data [A] ... [A] Data [A] P
34
35
36Simple receive transaction
37==========================
38
39Implemented by i2c_master_recv()::
40
41  S Addr Rd [A] [Data] A [Data] A ... A [Data] NA P
42
43
44Combined transactions
45=====================
46
47Implemented by i2c_transfer().
48
49They are just like the above transactions, but instead of a stop
50condition P a start condition S is sent and the transaction continues.
51An example of a byte read, followed by a byte write::
52
53  S Addr Rd [A] [Data] NA S Addr Wr [A] Data [A] P
54
55
56Modified transactions
57=====================
58
59The following modifications to the I2C protocol can also be generated by
60setting these flags for I2C messages. With the exception of I2C_M_NOSTART, they
61are usually only needed to work around device issues:
62
63I2C_M_IGNORE_NAK:
64    Normally message is interrupted immediately if there is [NA] from the
65    client. Setting this flag treats any [NA] as [A], and all of
66    message is sent.
67    These messages may still fail to SCL lo->hi timeout.
68
69I2C_M_NO_RD_ACK:
70    In a read message, master A/NA bit is skipped.
71
72I2C_M_NOSTART:
73    In a combined transaction, no 'S Addr Wr/Rd [A]' is generated at some
74    point. For example, setting I2C_M_NOSTART on the second partial message
75    generates something like::
76
77      S Addr Rd [A] [Data] NA Data [A] P
78
79    If you set the I2C_M_NOSTART variable for the first partial message,
80    we do not generate Addr, but we do generate the start condition S.
81    This will probably confuse all other clients on your bus, so don't
82    try this.
83
84    This is often used to gather transmits from multiple data buffers in
85    system memory into something that appears as a single transfer to the
86    I2C device but may also be used between direction changes by some
87    rare devices.
88
89I2C_M_REV_DIR_ADDR:
90    This toggles the Rd/Wr flag. That is, if you want to do a write, but
91    need to emit an Rd instead of a Wr, or vice versa, you set this
92    flag. For example::
93
94      S Addr Rd [A] Data [A] Data [A] ... [A] Data [A] P
95
96I2C_M_STOP:
97    Force a stop condition (P) after the message. Some I2C related protocols
98    like SCCB require that. Normally, you really don't want to get interrupted
99    between the messages of one transfer.
100