eCosCentric has donated a generic I2C bus implementation to the open source eCos operating system for deeply embedded systems. The bus implementation provides an API said to simplify the use of real-time clocks, serial EEPROMS, smart-cards, infrared controllers, and other devices attached to I2C connections.

Previously, eCosCentric's I2C bus implementation was available as part of it's commercial tools offering, eCosPro. The company contributed a similar implementation of a similar bus, SPI (serial peripheral interface), in September of 2004.

The I2C or “inter-integrated circuit bus” is sometimes called the “I-squared-C,” “two-wire,” or “TWI” bus. It is a Philips Semiconductors specification for 100KHz (standardD) or 400KHz (high-speed) two-wire synchronous (data and clock), multidrop connections.

eCosCentric says its I2C implementation includes an abstraction layer to enable eCos application developers to make use of devices attached to the bus without implementing all the details of the bus themselves. The implementation supplies all of the timing and protocol handling for bit-banging mode, and requires a minimal amount of platform-specific code to be written for GPIO line manipulation, the company says.

eCosCentric says that in contrast with dedicated hardware drivers, its bus infrastructure is simpler to use. However, dedicated hardware drivers benefit from reduced processor loading through their use of interrupt driven I/O and DMA modes, the company says.

eCosCentric's managing director, Alex Schuilenburg, said, “This contribution again helps to focus developer effort with a uniform API for I2C integration in eCos-based designs.”

The contribution includes documentation, eCosCentric says.

 
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