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Based on kernel version 3.9. Page generated on 2013-05-02 23:08 EST.

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