ATmega8(L)
Electrical
Interconnection
As depicted in Figure 68 on page 157, both bus lines are connected to the positive supply volt-
age through pull-up resistors. The bus drivers of all TWI-compliant devices are open-drain or
open-collector. This implements a wired-AND function which is essential to the operation of the
interface. A low level on a TWI bus line is generated when one or more TWI devices output a
zero. A high level is output when all TWI devices tri-state their outputs, allowing the pull-up resis-
tors to pull the line high. Note that all AVR devices connected to the TWI bus must be powered
in order to allow any bus operation.
The number of devices that can be connected to the bus is only limited by the bus capacitance
limit of 400pF and the 7-bit slave address space. A detailed specification of the electrical charac-
teristics of the TWI is given in “Two-wire Serial Interface Characteristics” on page 238. Two
different sets of specifications are presented there, one relevant for bus speeds below 100kHz,
and one valid for bus speeds up to 400kHz.
Data Transfer and
Frame Format
Transferring Bits
Each data bit transferred on the TWI bus is accompanied by a pulse on the clock line. The level
of the data line must be stable when the clock line is high. The only exception to this rule is for
generating start and stop conditions.
Figure 69. Data Validity
SDA
SCL
Data Stable
Data Stable
Data Change
START and STOP
Conditions
The Master initiates and terminates a data transmission. The transmission is initiated when the
Master issues a START condition on the bus, and it is terminated when the Master issues a
STOP condition. Between a START and a STOP condition, the bus is considered busy, and no
other master should try to seize control of the bus. A special case occurs when a new START
condition is issued between a START and STOP condition. This is referred to as a REPEATED
START condition, and is used when the Master wishes to initiate a new transfer without relin-
quishing control of the bus. After a REPEATED START, the bus is considered busy until the next
STOP. This is identical to the START behavior, and therefore START is used to describe both
START and REPEATED START for the remainder of this datasheet, unless otherwise noted. As
depicted below, START and STOP conditions are signalled by changing the level of the SDA
line when the SCL line is high.
158
2486AA–AVR–02/2013
ATMEL [ ATMEL ]
