
Philips Semiconductors
Product data sheet
PCA9541
2-to-1 I
2
C demultiplexer with interrupt logic and reset
2004 Oct 01
19
I
2
C commands are sent via the primary or back-up master and
either master can take command of the I
2
C-bus. Either master at
any time can gain control of the slave devices if the other master is
disabled or removed from the system. The failed master is isolated
from the system and will not affect communication between the
on-line master and the slave devices located on the cards.
For even higher reliability in multi-point backplane applications,
two dedicated masters can be used for every card as shown in
Figure 18.
SR02463
SCL0
SDA0
SCL1
SDA1
M
M
P
SCL0
SDA0
SCL1
SDA1
M
M
P
SCL0
SDA0
SCL1
SDA1
M
M
P
SCL0
SDA0
SCL1
SDA1
M
M
P
Figure 18. Very High Reliability Backplane Application
MASTERS WITH SHARED RESOURCES
Some masters may not be multi-master capable or some masters
may not work well together and continually lock up the bus. The
PCA9541 can be used to separate the masters, as shown in
Figure 19, but still allow shared access to slave devices, such as
Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) EEPROMs or temperature sensors.
PCA9541
SLAVE A0
SLAVE A1
SLAVE A2
MASTER A
PCA9541
SLAVE B0
SLAVE B1
SLAVE B2
MASTER B
MAIN
MASTER
SW02101
ASSEMBLY A
ASSEMBLY B
SDA/SCL
SDA/SCL
Figure 19. Masters with Shared Resources Application
GATEKEEPER MULTIPLEXER
The PCA9541/03 can act as a gatekeeper multiplexer in applications
where there are multiple I
2
C devices with the same fixed address
(e.g., EEPROMs with address of “Z” as shown in Figure 20)
connected in a multi-point arrangement to the same I
2
C-bus. Up to
16 hot swappable cards/devices can be multiplexed to the same bus
master by using one PCA9541/03 per card/device. Since each
PCA9541/03 has its own unique address (e.g., “A”, “B”, “C”, etc), the
EEPROMs can be connected to the master, one at a time, by
connecting one PCA9541/03 (Master 0 position) while keeping the
rest of the cards/devices isolated (off position).
The alternative, shown with dashed lines, is to use a PCA9548
1-to-8 channel switch on the master card and run 8 I
2
C-buses, one
to each EEPROM card, to multiplex the master to each card. The
number of card pins used is the same in either case, but there are 7
less pairs of SDA/SCL traces on the PC board if the PCA9541/03 is
used.
SW02099
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
M
P
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
A
Z
B
Z
C
Z
D
Z
E
Z
F
Z
G
Z
H
Z
Figure 20. Gatekeeper Multiplexer Application
BUS INITIALIZATION/RECOVERY
If the I
2
C-bus is hung, I
2
C devices without a hardware reset pin
(e.g., Slave 1 and 2 in Figure 21) can be isolated from the master by
the PCA9541/03. The PCA9541/03 disconnects the bus when it is
reset via the hardware reset line, restoring the master’s control of
the rest of the bus (e.g., Slave 0). The bus master can then
command the PCA9541/03 to send 9 clock pulses/ stop condition to
reset the downstream I
2
C devices before they are reconnected to
the master or leave the downstream devices isolated.
MASTER
SW02100
SLAVE 0
SLAVE 1
SLAVE 2
SDA/SCL
SDA
SCL
RESET
SLAVE
I
2
C-bus
P
Figure 21. Bus Initialization/Recovery Application