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Documentation / i2c / smbus-protocol


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:53 EST.

1	SMBus Protocol Summary
2	======================
3	
4	The following is a summary of the SMBus protocol. It applies to
5	all revisions of the protocol (1.0, 1.1, and 2.0).
6	Certain protocol features which are not supported by
7	this package are briefly described at the end of this document.
8	
9	Some adapters understand only the SMBus (System Management Bus) protocol,
10	which is a subset from the I2C protocol. Fortunately, many devices use
11	only the same subset, which makes it possible to put them on an SMBus.
12	
13	If you write a driver for some I2C device, please try to use the SMBus
14	commands if at all possible (if the device uses only that subset of the
15	I2C protocol). This makes it possible to use the device driver on both
16	SMBus adapters and I2C adapters (the SMBus command set is automatically
17	translated to I2C on I2C adapters, but plain I2C commands can not be
18	handled at all on most pure SMBus adapters).
19	
20	Below is a list of SMBus protocol operations, and the functions executing
21	them.  Note that the names used in the SMBus protocol specifications usually
22	don't match these function names.  For some of the operations which pass a
23	single data byte, the functions using SMBus protocol operation names execute
24	a different protocol operation entirely.
25	
26	Each transaction type corresponds to a functionality flag. Before calling a
27	transaction function, a device driver should always check (just once) for
28	the corresponding functionality flag to ensure that the underlying I2C
29	adapter supports the transaction in question. See
30	<file:Documentation/i2c/functionality> for the details.
31	
32	
33	Key to symbols
34	==============
35	
36	S     (1 bit) : Start bit
37	P     (1 bit) : Stop bit
38	Rd/Wr (1 bit) : Read/Write bit. Rd equals 1, Wr equals 0.
39	A, NA (1 bit) : Accept and reverse accept bit. 
40	Addr  (7 bits): I2C 7 bit address. Note that this can be expanded as usual to 
41	                get a 10 bit I2C address.
42	Comm  (8 bits): Command byte, a data byte which often selects a register on
43	                the device.
44	Data  (8 bits): A plain data byte. Sometimes, I write DataLow, DataHigh
45	                for 16 bit data.
46	Count (8 bits): A data byte containing the length of a block operation.
47	
48	[..]: Data sent by I2C device, as opposed to data sent by the host adapter.
49	
50	
51	SMBus Quick Command
52	===================
53	
54	This sends a single bit to the device, at the place of the Rd/Wr bit.
55	
56	A Addr Rd/Wr [A] P
57	
58	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_QUICK
59	
60	
61	SMBus Receive Byte:  i2c_smbus_read_byte()
62	==========================================
63	
64	This reads a single byte from a device, without specifying a device
65	register. Some devices are so simple that this interface is enough; for
66	others, it is a shorthand if you want to read the same register as in
67	the previous SMBus command.
68	
69	S Addr Rd [A] [Data] NA P
70	
71	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_READ_BYTE
72	
73	
74	SMBus Send Byte:  i2c_smbus_write_byte()
75	========================================
76	
77	This operation is the reverse of Receive Byte: it sends a single byte
78	to a device.  See Receive Byte for more information.
79	
80	S Addr Wr [A] Data [A] P
81	
82	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_WRITE_BYTE
83	
84	
85	SMBus Read Byte:  i2c_smbus_read_byte_data()
86	============================================
87	
88	This reads a single byte from a device, from a designated register.
89	The register is specified through the Comm byte.
90	
91	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] S Addr Rd [A] [Data] NA P
92	
93	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_READ_BYTE_DATA
94	
95	
96	SMBus Read Word:  i2c_smbus_read_word_data()
97	============================================
98	
99	This operation is very like Read Byte; again, data is read from a
100	device, from a designated register that is specified through the Comm
101	byte. But this time, the data is a complete word (16 bits).
102	
103	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] S Addr Rd [A] [DataLow] A [DataHigh] NA P
104	
105	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_READ_WORD_DATA
106	
107	Note the convenience function i2c_smbus_read_word_swapped is
108	available for reads where the two data bytes are the other way
109	around (not SMBus compliant, but very popular.)
110	
111	
112	SMBus Write Byte:  i2c_smbus_write_byte_data()
113	==============================================
114	
115	This writes a single byte to a device, to a designated register. The
116	register is specified through the Comm byte. This is the opposite of
117	the Read Byte operation.
118	
119	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] Data [A] P
120	
121	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_WRITE_BYTE_DATA
122	
123	
124	SMBus Write Word:  i2c_smbus_write_word_data()
125	==============================================
126	
127	This is the opposite of the Read Word operation. 16 bits
128	of data is written to a device, to the designated register that is
129	specified through the Comm byte. 
130	
131	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] DataLow [A] DataHigh [A] P
132	
133	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_WRITE_WORD_DATA
134	
135	Note the convenience function i2c_smbus_write_word_swapped is
136	available for writes where the two data bytes are the other way
137	around (not SMBus compliant, but very popular.)
138	
139	
140	SMBus Process Call:
141	===================
142	
143	This command selects a device register (through the Comm byte), sends
144	16 bits of data to it, and reads 16 bits of data in return.
145	
146	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] DataLow [A] DataHigh [A] 
147	                             S Addr Rd [A] [DataLow] A [DataHigh] NA P
148	
149	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_PROC_CALL
150	
151	
152	SMBus Block Read:  i2c_smbus_read_block_data()
153	==============================================
154	
155	This command reads a block of up to 32 bytes from a device, from a 
156	designated register that is specified through the Comm byte. The amount
157	of data is specified by the device in the Count byte.
158	
159	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] 
160	           S Addr Rd [A] [Count] A [Data] A [Data] A ... A [Data] NA P
161	
162	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_READ_BLOCK_DATA
163	
164	
165	SMBus Block Write:  i2c_smbus_write_block_data()
166	================================================
167	
168	The opposite of the Block Read command, this writes up to 32 bytes to 
169	a device, to a designated register that is specified through the
170	Comm byte. The amount of data is specified in the Count byte.
171	
172	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] Count [A] Data [A] Data [A] ... [A] Data [A] P
173	
174	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_WRITE_BLOCK_DATA
175	
176	
177	SMBus Block Write - Block Read Process Call
178	===========================================
179	
180	SMBus Block Write - Block Read Process Call was introduced in
181	Revision 2.0 of the specification.
182	
183	This command selects a device register (through the Comm byte), sends
184	1 to 31 bytes of data to it, and reads 1 to 31 bytes of data in return.
185	
186	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] Count [A] Data [A] ...
187	                             S Addr Rd [A] [Count] A [Data] ... A P
188	
189	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_BLOCK_PROC_CALL
190	
191	
192	SMBus Host Notify
193	=================
194	
195	This command is sent from a SMBus device acting as a master to the
196	SMBus host acting as a slave.
197	It is the same form as Write Word, with the command code replaced by the
198	alerting device's address.
199	
200	[S] [HostAddr] [Wr] A [DevAddr] A [DataLow] A [DataHigh] A [P]
201	
202	This is implemented in the following way in the Linux kernel:
203	* I2C bus drivers which support SMBus Host Notify should report
204	  I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_HOST_NOTIFY.
205	* I2C bus drivers trigger SMBus Host Notify by a call to
206	  i2c_handle_smbus_host_notify().
207	* I2C drivers for devices which can trigger SMBus Host Notify will have
208	  client->irq assigned to a Host Notify IRQ if noone else specified an other.
209	
210	There is currently no way to retrieve the data parameter from the client.
211	
212	
213	Packet Error Checking (PEC)
214	===========================
215	
216	Packet Error Checking was introduced in Revision 1.1 of the specification.
217	
218	PEC adds a CRC-8 error-checking byte to transfers using it, immediately
219	before the terminating STOP.
220	
221	
222	Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
223	=================================
224	
225	The Address Resolution Protocol was introduced in Revision 2.0 of
226	the specification. It is a higher-layer protocol which uses the
227	messages above.
228	
229	ARP adds device enumeration and dynamic address assignment to
230	the protocol. All ARP communications use slave address 0x61 and
231	require PEC checksums.
232	
233	
234	SMBus Alert
235	===========
236	
237	SMBus Alert was introduced in Revision 1.0 of the specification.
238	
239	The SMBus alert protocol allows several SMBus slave devices to share a
240	single interrupt pin on the SMBus master, while still allowing the master
241	to know which slave triggered the interrupt.
242	
243	This is implemented the following way in the Linux kernel:
244	* I2C bus drivers which support SMBus alert should call
245	  i2c_setup_smbus_alert() to setup SMBus alert support.
246	* I2C drivers for devices which can trigger SMBus alerts should implement
247	  the optional alert() callback.
248	
249	
250	I2C Block Transactions
251	======================
252	
253	The following I2C block transactions are supported by the
254	SMBus layer and are described here for completeness.
255	They are *NOT* defined by the SMBus specification.
256	
257	I2C block transactions do not limit the number of bytes transferred
258	but the SMBus layer places a limit of 32 bytes.
259	
260	
261	I2C Block Read:  i2c_smbus_read_i2c_block_data()
262	================================================
263	
264	This command reads a block of bytes from a device, from a 
265	designated register that is specified through the Comm byte.
266	
267	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] 
268	           S Addr Rd [A] [Data] A [Data] A ... A [Data] NA P
269	
270	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_READ_I2C_BLOCK
271	
272	
273	I2C Block Write:  i2c_smbus_write_i2c_block_data()
274	==================================================
275	
276	The opposite of the Block Read command, this writes bytes to 
277	a device, to a designated register that is specified through the
278	Comm byte. Note that command lengths of 0, 2, or more bytes are
279	supported as they are indistinguishable from data.
280	
281	S Addr Wr [A] Comm [A] Data [A] Data [A] ... [A] Data [A] P
282	
283	Functionality flag: I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_WRITE_I2C_BLOCK
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