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@@ -1,22 +1,24 @@
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The I2C protocol knows about two kinds of device addresses: normal 7 bit
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addresses, and an extended set of 10 bit addresses. The sets of addresses
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do not intersect: the 7 bit address 0x10 is not the same as the 10 bit
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-address 0x10 (though a single device could respond to both of them). You
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-select a 10 bit address by adding an extra byte after the address
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-byte:
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- S Addr7 Rd/Wr ....
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-becomes
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- S 11110 Addr10 Rd/Wr
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-S is the start bit, Rd/Wr the read/write bit, and if you count the number
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-of bits, you will see the there are 8 after the S bit for 7 bit addresses,
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-and 16 after the S bit for 10 bit addresses.
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+address 0x10 (though a single device could respond to both of them).
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-WARNING! The current 10 bit address support is EXPERIMENTAL. There are
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-several places in the code that will cause SEVERE PROBLEMS with 10 bit
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-addresses, even though there is some basic handling and hooks. Also,
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-almost no supported adapter handles the 10 bit addresses correctly.
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+I2C messages to and from 10-bit address devices have a different format.
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+See the I2C specification for the details.
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-As soon as a real 10 bit address device is spotted 'in the wild', we
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-can and will add proper support. Right now, 10 bit address devices
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-are defined by the I2C protocol, but we have never seen a single device
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-which supports them.
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+The current 10 bit address support is minimal. It should work, however
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+you can expect some problems along the way:
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+* Not all bus drivers support 10-bit addresses. Some don't because the
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+ hardware doesn't support them (SMBus doesn't require 10-bit address
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+ support for example), some don't because nobody bothered adding the
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+ code (or it's there but not working properly.) Software implementation
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+ (i2c-algo-bit) is known to work.
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+* Some optional features do not support 10-bit addresses. This is the
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+ case of automatic detection and instantiation of devices by their,
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+ drivers, for example.
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+* Many user-space packages (for example i2c-tools) lack support for
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+ 10-bit addresses.
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+
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+Note that 10-bit address devices are still pretty rare, so the limitations
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+listed above could stay for a long time, maybe even forever if nobody
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+needs them to be fixed.
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