Method and system for interrupt signaling in an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9959223-B2
Application number	US-201314053823-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 15, 2013
Priority date	May 8, 2013
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

Embodiments of a method and system are disclosed. One embodiment of a method for signaling an interrupt in an I2C system that includes a master I2C device and at least one slave I2C device that are connected by an SDA line and an SCL line is disclosed. The method involves, at the slave I2C device, pulling the SDA line low to signal an interrupt and at the slave I2C device, releasing the SDA line in response to either the SCL line having been pulled low or the expiration of a predetermined time period, whichever occurs first. In an embodiment, the predetermined time period is 1 ms.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for signaling an interrupt in an I2C system that includes a master I2C device and at least one slave I2C device that are connected by an SDA line and an SCL line, the method comprising:
at the at least one slave I2C device, pulling the SDA line low to signal an interrupt;
at the master I2C device, after the at least one slave I2C device pulled the SDA line low to signal the interrupt, pulling the SCL line low to complete a START and then emitting an address request command to the at least one slave I2C device; and
at the at least one slave I2C device, responding to the address request command by sending an I2C address of the at least one slave I2C device to the master I2C device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one slave I2C device releases the SDA line after the SCL line is not pulled low following a predetermined slave-controlled time period.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
at the master I2C device, emitting the address request command to a plurality of slave I2C devices, wherein the plurality of slave I2C devices respond to the address request command.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
at the master I2C device, detecting the SDA line being pulled low by the slave I2C device to signal the interrupt;
at the master I2C device, pulling the SCL line low in response to detecting the SDA line having been pulled low; and
at the master I2C device, implementing an interrupt operation after the SCL line is pulled low, wherein the interrupt operation comprises arbitrating amongst multiple slave devices that pull the SDA line low at the same time and respond to the address request command from the master I2C device, the arbitration based upon relative values of slave addresses of the multiple slave devices.

5. A method for signaling an interrupt in an I2C system that includes a master I2C device and at least one slave I2C device that are connected by an SDA line and an SCL line, the method comprising:
at the at least one slave I2C device, pulling the SDA line low to signal the interrupt;
at the master I2C device, after the at least one slave I2C device pulled the SDA line low to signal the interrupt, pulling the SCL line low to complete a START and then emitting an address request command to the at least one slave I2C device;
at the at least one slave I2C device, responding to the address request command by sending an I2C address of the at least one slave I2C device to the master I2C device;
arbitrating amongst multiple slave devices that pull the SDA line low at the same time and respond to the address request command from the master I2C device, the arbitration based upon relative values of slave addresses of the multiple slave devices.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the at least one slave I2C device releases the SDA line after the SCL line is not pulled low following a predetermined slave-controlled time period.

7. The device of claim 5 , wherein the arbitration uses I2C arbitration.

8. A device comprising:
at least one slave I2C device having an SDA interface for connection to an SDA line and an SCL interface for connection to an SCL line, the at least one slave I2C device being configured to pull the SDA line low to signal an interrupt; and
a master I2C device including an SDA interface for connection to the SDA line and an SCL interface for connection to the SCL line, configured to, after the at least one slave I2C device pulled the SDA line low to signal the interrupt, pull the SCL line low to complete a START and then emit an address request command to the at least one slave I2C device, and receive, in response to the address request command, an I2C address of the at least one slave I2C device.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the at least one slave I2C device is configured to release the SDA line after the SCL line is not pulled low following a predetermined slave-controlled time period.

10. The device of claim 8 , wherein the I2C module of the master I2C device is further configured to pull the SCL line low in response to detecting the SDA line having been pulled low arbitrate amongst multiple slave devices that pull the SDA line low at an identical time and respond to the IRA message, wherein the arbitration is based on relative values of slave addresses of the multiple slave devices.

11. A device comprising:
a master I2C device having an SDA interface for connection to an SDA line and an SCL interface for connection to an SCL line, the master I2C device being configured to detect the SDA line being pulled low to signal an interrupt pull the SCL line low in response to detecting the SDA line having been pulled low, and after at least one slave I2C device of multiple slave devices pulled the SDA line low to signal the interrupt, pulling the SCL line low to complete a START and then emitting an address request command to the at least one slave I2C device, and arbitrating amongst the multiple slave devices that pull the SDA line low at the same time and respond with the IRA address request command message, the arbitration based upon relative values of slave addresses of the multiple slave devices; and
a plurality of slave I2C devices, each slave I2C device including a SDA interface for connection to the SDA line and a SCL interface for connection to the SCL line, configured to pull the SDA line low to signal the interrupt, and respond to the address request command by sending an I2C address of the slave I2C device to the master I2C device, wherein there is arbitration among multiple slave devices of the plurality of slave I2C devices that pull the SDA line low at the same time, the arbitration based upon relative values of slave addresses of the multiple slave devices.

12. The device of claim 11 , wherein the slave I2C device is configured to release the SDA line after the SCL line is not pulled low following a predetermined slave-controlled time period.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the arbitration uses I2C arbitration.

14. The device of claim 11 , wherein the master I2C device is configured to select a slave IC device of the multiple slave devices having a slave address with a lowest binary value.

Assignees

• Nxp Bv

Inventors

• Du David Alan
• Gupta Anubhav
• Stonard Peter James

Classifications

• G06F13/24 Primary

  using interrupt (G06F13/32 takes precedence) · CPC title