NAME

     iicbus — I2C bus system

SYNOPSIS

     device iicbus
     device iicbb

     device iic
     device ic
     device iicsmb

DESCRIPTION

     The iicbus system provides a uniform, modular and architecture-independent system for the
     implementation of drivers to control various I2C devices and to utilize different I2C
     controllers.

I2C

     I2C is an acronym for Inter Integrated Circuit bus.  The I2C bus was developed in the early
     1980's by Philips semiconductors.  Its purpose was to provide an easy way to connect a CPU
     to peripheral chips in a TV-set.

     The BUS physically consists of 2 active wires and a ground connection.  The active wires,
     SDA and SCL, are both bidirectional.  Where SDA is the Serial DAta line and SCL is the
     Serial CLock line.

     Every component hooked up to the bus has its own unique address whether it is a CPU, LCD
     driver, memory, or complex function chip.  Each of these chips can act as a receiver and/or
     transmitter depending on its functionality.  Obviously an LCD driver is only a receiver,
     while a memory or I/O chip can both be transmitter and receiver.  Furthermore there may be
     one or more BUS MASTERs.

     The BUS MASTER is the chip issuing the commands on the BUS.  In the I2C protocol
     specification it is stated that the IC that initiates a data transfer on the bus is
     considered the BUS MASTER.  At that time all the others are regarded to as the BUS SLAVEs.
     As mentioned before, the IC bus is a Multi-MASTER BUS.  This means that more than one IC
     capable of initiating data transfer can be connected to it.

DEVICES

     Some I2C device drivers are available:

     Devices           Description
     iic               general i/o operation
     ic                network IP interface
     iicsmb            I2C to SMB software bridge

INTERFACES

     The I2C protocol may be implemented by hardware or software.  Software interfaces rely on
     very simple hardware, usually two lines twiddled by 2 registers.  Hardware interfaces are
     more intelligent and receive 8-bit characters they write to the bus according to the I2C
     protocol.

     I2C interfaces may act on the bus as slave devices, allowing spontaneous bidirectional
     communications, thanks to the multi-master capabilities of the I2C protocol.

     Some I2C interfaces are available:

     Interface            Description
     pcf                  Philips PCF8584 master/slave interface
     iicbb                generic bit-banging master-only driver
     lpbb                 parallel port specific bit-banging interface
     bktr                 Brooktree848 video chipset, hardware and software master-only interface

SEE ALSO

     iic(4), iicbb(4), lpbb(4), pcf(4)

HISTORY

     The iicbus manual page first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

AUTHORS

     This manual page was written by Nicolas Souchu.