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.
Figure 21-3. START, REPEATED START and STOP conditions
SDA
SCL
START
STOP START
REPEATED START
STOP
21.3.3
Address Packet Format
All address packets transmitted on the TWI bus are 9 bits long, consisting of 7 address bits, one
READ/WRITE control bit and an acknowledge bit. If the READ/WRITE bit is set, a read opera-
tion is to be performed, otherwise a write operation should be performed. When a Slave
recognizes that it is being addressed, it should acknowledge by pulling SDA low in the ninth SCL
(ACK) cycle. If the addressed Slave is busy, or for some other reason can not service the Mas-
ter’s request, the SDA line should be left high in the ACK clock cycle. The Master can then
transmit a STOP condition, or a REPEATED START condition to initiate a new transmission. An
address packet consisting of a slave address and a READ or a WRITE bit is called SLA+R or
SLA+W, respectively.
The MSB of the address byte is transmitted first. Slave addresses can freely be allocated by the
designer, but the address 0000 000 is reserved for a general call.
When a general call is issued, all slaves should respond by pulling the SDA line low in the ACK
cycle. A general call is used when a Master wishes to transmit the same message to several
slaves in the system. When the general call address followed by a Write bit is transmitted on the
bus, all slaves set up to acknowledge the general call will pull the SDA line low in the ack cycle.
The following data packets will then be received by all the slaves that acknowledged the general
call. Note that transmitting the general call address followed by a Read bit is meaningless, as
this would cause contention if several slaves started transmitting different data.
All addresses of the format 1111 xxx should be reserved for future purposes.
212
ATmega48/88/168
2545M–AVR–09/07
ATMEL [ ATMEL ]
