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ABC of electronics terms

Networks

I2C

Bus definition by Philips
Also called 2-Wire Bus by competitors that don't want to pay licencing fees.
The I2C-bus consists of a clock and a data line each of which are wired-OR, which means that in rest or when transmitting a one they are pulled up by a resistor with a large value and can be driven low with one or more of the open collector outputs of the chips on the bus. The master usually determines the clock speed, but a chip on the bus can slow the transmission down, by prolonging the cycles. The data can from the master to the slave or the other way around, depending on the kind of chip that is being addressed. Different kinds of chips have different byte-addresses on the bus and you can usually also buy an A-version of a certain chip that has a slightly differend address, so it's possible to connect two of each kind of chip to a single bus. The I2C-bus was invented by Philips and was meant to be used inside devices like TV's, so with busses of not much more than a meter.

Companies

My company, Total Phase, has just launched a new I2C* host adapter. On our website is documentation about I2C* and SPI, as well as some example code.
Would it be possible to get a listing?
Derek Fung

See also:

• Other network types