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- GPIO-based I2C Arbitration Using a Challenge & Response Mechanism
- =================================================================
- This uses GPIO lines and a challenge & response mechanism to arbitrate who is
- the master of an I2C bus in a multimaster situation.
- In many cases using GPIOs to arbitrate is not needed and a design can use
- the standard I2C multi-master rules. Using GPIOs is generally useful in
- the case where there is a device on the bus that has errata and/or bugs
- that makes standard multimaster mode not feasible.
- Note that this scheme works well enough but has some downsides:
- * It is nonstandard (not using standard I2C multimaster)
- * Having two masters on a bus in general makes it relatively hard to debug
- problems (hard to tell if i2c issues were caused by one master, another, or
- some device on the bus).
- Algorithm:
- All masters on the bus have a 'bus claim' line which is an output that the
- others can see. These are all active low with pull-ups enabled. We'll
- describe these lines as:
- - OUR_CLAIM: output from us signaling to other hosts that we want the bus
- - THEIR_CLAIMS: output from others signaling that they want the bus
- The basic algorithm is to assert your line when you want the bus, then make
- sure that the other side doesn't want it also. A detailed explanation is best
- done with an example.
- Let's say we want to claim the bus. We:
- 1. Assert OUR_CLAIM.
- 2. Waits a little bit for the other sides to notice (slew time, say 10
- microseconds).
- 3. Check THEIR_CLAIMS. If none are asserted then the we have the bus and we are
- done.
- 4. Otherwise, wait for a few milliseconds and see if THEIR_CLAIMS are released.
- 5. If not, back off, release the claim and wait for a few more milliseconds.
- 6. Go back to 1 (until retry time has expired).
- Required properties:
- - compatible: i2c-arb-gpio-challenge
- - our-claim-gpio: The GPIO that we use to claim the bus.
- - their-claim-gpios: The GPIOs that the other sides use to claim the bus.
- Note that some implementations may only support a single other master.
- - Standard I2C mux properties. See mux.txt in this directory.
- - Single I2C child bus node at reg 0. See mux.txt in this directory.
- Optional properties:
- - slew-delay-us: microseconds to wait for a GPIO to go high. Default is 10 us.
- - wait-retry-us: we'll attempt another claim after this many microseconds.
- Default is 3000 us.
- - wait-free-us: we'll give up after this many microseconds. Default is 50000 us.
- Example:
- i2c@12CA0000 {
- compatible = "acme,some-i2c-device";
- #address-cells = <1>;
- #size-cells = <0>;
- };
- i2c-arbitrator {
- compatible = "i2c-arb-gpio-challenge";
- #address-cells = <1>;
- #size-cells = <0>;
- i2c-parent = <&{/i2c@12CA0000}>;
- our-claim-gpio = <&gpf0 3 1>;
- their-claim-gpios = <&gpe0 4 1>;
- slew-delay-us = <10>;
- wait-retry-us = <3000>;
- wait-free-us = <50000>;
- i2c@0 {
- reg = <0>;
- #address-cells = <1>;
- #size-cells = <0>;
- i2c@52 {
- // Normal I2C device
- };
- };
- };
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