
156
ATmega8A [DATASHEET]
8159E–AVR–02/2013
Figure 21-4. START, REPEATED START and STOP conditions
21.4.3
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 operation 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 Master’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 gen-
eral 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 meaning-
less, 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.
Figure 21-5. Address Packet Format
21.4.4
Data Packet Format
All data packets transmitted on the TWI bus are nine bits long, consisting of one data byte and an acknowledge bit.
During a data transfer, the Master generates the clock and the START and STOP conditions, while the Receiver is
responsible for acknowledging the reception. An Acknowledge (ACK) is signalled by the Receiver pulling the SDA
line low during the ninth SCL cycle. If the Receiver leaves the SDA line high, a NACK is signalled. When the
Receiver has received the last byte, or for some reason cannot receive any more bytes, it should inform the Trans-
mitter by sending a NACK after the final byte. The MSB of the data byte is transmitted first.
SDA
SCL
START
STOP
REPEATED START
STOP
START
SDA
SCL
START
1
2
789
Addr MSB
Addr LSB
R/W
ACK