The I²C bus employs two signals, SDA (data) and SCL (clock), to communicate between integrated circuits in a system using serial data transmission. The address and 8 bit data are transferred starting with the most-significant bit (MSB). In addition, each byte transferred on the bus is acknowledged by the receiving device with an acknowledge bit. Each transfer operation begins with the master device driving a start condition on the bus and ends with the master device driving a stop condition on the bus. The bus uses transitions on the data terminal (SDA) while the clock is at logic high to indicate start and stop conditions. A high-to-low transition on SDA indicates a start, and a low-to-high transition indicates a stop. Normal data-bit transitions must occur within the low time of the clock period.

The master generates the 7-bit slave address and the read/write (R/W) bit to open communication with another device and then waits for an acknowledge condition. The device holds SDA low during the acknowledge clock period to indicate acknowledgment. When this occurs, the master transmits the next byte of the sequence. Each device is addressed by a unique 7-bit slave address plus R/W bit (1 byte). All compatible devices share the same signals via a bi-directional bus using a wired-AND connection.

Figure 8-1 Typical I²C Sequence

There is no limit on the number of bytes that can be transmitted between start and stop conditions. When the last word transfers, the master generates a stop condition to release the bus. Figure 8-1 shows a generic data transfer sequence.

For information about pull-up resistors and single-byte/multiple-byte transfers see .