Inter-IC

What Does Inter-IC Mean?

An inter-integrated circuit (Inter-IC or I²C) is a multi-master serial bus that connects low-speed peripherals to a motherboard, mobile phone, embedded system or other electronic devices.

Also known as a two-wire interface.

Techopedia Explains Inter-IC

Developed by Phillip Semiconductors in 1980, the I²C was initially designed to lessen costs by streamlining massive wiring systems with an easier interface for connecting a central processing unit (CPU) to peripheral chips in a television. It originally had a battery-controlled interface but later utilized an internal bus system.

In 1992, version 1.0 was the first I²C standardized. By 1995, Intel introduced the system management bus (SMBus), which is derived from the I²C. The SMBus defined firmer protocols for communication with low-bandwidth modules and sometimes supported the I²C that required marginal reconfiguration. The SMBus is comparable to the I2C bus but has different enhanced features such as voltage levels, clock frequency and a preference for an additional interrupt request wire.

Although slower than the majority of buses, the I²C is an inexpensive architecture and is ideal for peripherals that do not require a lot of speed such as digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital controllers, built-in tests, real-time clocks, color balance, tone and volume control.