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diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..dae3b6d32c6b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst @@ -0,0 +1,203 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +============ +I3C protocol +============ + +Disclaimer +========== + +This chapter will focus on aspects that matter to software developers. For +everything hardware related (like how things are transmitted on the bus, how +collisions are prevented, ...) please have a look at the I3C specification. + +This document is just a brief introduction to the I3C protocol and the concepts +it brings to the table. If you need more information, please refer to the MIPI +I3C specification (can be downloaded here +http://resources.mipi.org/mipi-i3c-v1-download). + +Introduction +============ + +The I3C (pronounced 'eye-three-see') is a MIPI standardized protocol designed +to overcome I2C limitations (limited speed, external signals needed for +interrupts, no automatic detection of the devices connected to the bus, ...) +while remaining power-efficient. + +I3C Bus +======= + +An I3C bus is made of several I3C devices and possibly some I2C devices as +well, but let's focus on I3C devices for now. + +An I3C device on the I3C bus can have one of the following roles: + +* Master: the device is driving the bus. It's the one in charge of initiating + transactions or deciding who is allowed to talk on the bus (slave generated + events are possible in I3C, see below). +* Slave: the device acts as a slave, and is not able to send frames to another + slave on the bus. The device can still send events to the master on + its own initiative if the master allowed it. + +I3C is a multi-master protocol, so there might be several masters on a bus, +though only one device can act as a master at a given time. In order to gain +bus ownership, a master has to follow a specific procedure. + +Each device on the I3C bus has to be assigned a dynamic address to be able to +communicate. Until this is done, the device should only respond to a limited +set of commands. If it has a static address (also called legacy I2C address), +the device can reply to I2C transfers. + +In addition to these per-device addresses, the protocol defines a broadcast +address in order to address all devices on the bus. + +Once a dynamic address has been assigned to a device, this address will be used +for any direct communication with the device. Note that even after being +assigned a dynamic address, the device should still process broadcast messages. + +I3C Device discovery +==================== + +The I3C protocol defines a mechanism to automatically discover devices present +on the bus, their capabilities and the functionalities they provide. In this +regard I3C is closer to a discoverable bus like USB than it is to I2C or SPI. + +The discovery mechanism is called DAA (Dynamic Address Assignment), because it +not only discovers devices but also assigns them a dynamic address. + +During DAA, each I3C device reports 3 important things: + +* BCR: Bus Characteristic Register. This 8-bit register describes the device bus + related capabilities +* DCR: Device Characteristic Register. This 8-bit register describes the + functionalities provided by the device +* Provisional ID: A 48-bit unique identifier. On a given bus there should be no + Provisional ID collision, otherwise the discovery mechanism may fail. + +I3C slave events +================ + +The I3C protocol allows slaves to generate events on their own, and thus allows +them to take temporary control of the bus. + +This mechanism is called IBI for In Band Interrupts, and as stated in the name, +it allows devices to generate interrupts without requiring an external signal. + +During DAA, each device on the bus has been assigned an address, and this +address will serve as a priority identifier to determine who wins if 2 different +devices are generating an interrupt at the same moment on the bus (the lower the +dynamic address the higher the priority). + +Masters are allowed to inhibit interrupts if they want to. This inhibition +request can be broadcast (applies to all devices) or sent to a specific +device. + +I3C Hot-Join +============ + +The Hot-Join mechanism is similar to USB hotplug. This mechanism allows +slaves to join the bus after it has been initialized by the master. + +This covers the following use cases: + +* the device is not powered when the bus is probed +* the device is hotplugged on the bus through an extension board + +This mechanism is relying on slave events to inform the master that a new +device joined the bus and is waiting for a dynamic address. + +The master is then free to address the request as it wishes: ignore it or +assign a dynamic address to the slave. + +I3C transfer types +================== + +If you omit SMBus (which is just a standardization on how to access registers +exposed by I2C devices), I2C has only one transfer type. + +I3C defines 3 different classes of transfer in addition to I2C transfers which +are here for backward compatibility with I2C devices. + +I3C CCC commands +---------------- + +CCC (Common Command Code) commands are meant to be used for anything that is +related to bus management and all features that are common to a set of devices. + +CCC commands contain an 8-bit CCC ID describing the command that is executed. +The MSB of this ID specifies whether this is a broadcast command (bit7 = 0) or a +unicast one (bit7 = 1). + +The command ID can be followed by a payload. Depending on the command, this +payload is either sent by the master sending the command (write CCC command), +or sent by the slave receiving the command (read CCC command). Of course, read +accesses only apply to unicast commands. +Note that, when sending a CCC command to a specific device, the device address +is passed in the first byte of the payload. + +The payload length is not explicitly passed on the bus, and should be extracted +from the CCC ID. + +Note that vendors can use a dedicated range of CCC IDs for their own commands +(0x61-0x7f and 0xe0-0xef). + +I3C Private SDR transfers +------------------------- + +Private SDR (Single Data Rate) transfers should be used for anything that is +device specific and does not require high transfer speed. + +It is the equivalent of I2C transfers but in the I3C world. Each transfer is +passed the device address (dynamic address assigned during DAA), a payload +and a direction. + +The only difference with I2C is that the transfer is much faster (typical clock +frequency is 12.5MHz). + +I3C HDR commands +---------------- + +HDR commands should be used for anything that is device specific and requires +high transfer speed. + +The first thing attached to an HDR command is the HDR mode. There are currently +3 different modes defined by the I3C specification (refer to the specification +for more details): + +* HDR-DDR: Double Data Rate mode +* HDR-TSP: Ternary Symbol Pure. Only usable on busses with no I2C devices +* HDR-TSL: Ternary Symbol Legacy. Usable on busses with I2C devices + +When sending an HDR command, the whole bus has to enter HDR mode, which is done +using a broadcast CCC command. +Once the bus has entered a specific HDR mode, the master sends the HDR command. +An HDR command is made of: + +* one 16-bits command word in big endian +* N 16-bits data words in big endian + +Those words may be wrapped with specific preambles/post-ambles which depend on +the chosen HDR mode and are detailed here (see the specification for more +details). + +The 16-bits command word is made of: + +* bit[15]: direction bit, read is 1, write is 0 +* bit[14:8]: command code. Identifies the command being executed, the amount of + data words and their meaning +* bit[7:1]: I3C address of the device this command is addressed to +* bit[0]: reserved/parity-bit + +Backward compatibility with I2C devices +======================================= + +The I3C protocol has been designed to be backward compatible with I2C devices. +This backward compatibility allows one to connect a mix of I2C and I3C devices +on the same bus, though, in order to be really efficient, I2C devices should +be equipped with 50 ns spike filters. + +I2C devices can't be discovered like I3C ones and have to be statically +declared. In order to let the master know what these devices are capable of +(both in terms of bus related limitations and functionalities), the software +has to provide some information, which is done through the LVR (Legacy I2C +Virtual Register). |