
CHAPTER 18 IEBus CONTROLLER
User’s Manual U17790EJ2V0UD
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18.1.5 Broadcast communication
Normally, transmission or reception is performed between the master unit and its partner slave unit on a one-to-
one basis. During broadcast communication, however, two or more slave units exist and the master unit executes
transmission to these slave units.
Because two or more slave units exist, the NACK signal is returned by the
communicating slave unit as an acknowledge bit.
Whether broadcast communication or normal communication is to be executed is selected by the broadcast bit (for
this bit, see 18.1.6 (2) Broadcast bit).
Broadcast communication is classified into two types: group-unit broadcast communication and all-unit broadcast
communication. Group-unit broadcast and all-unit broadcast are identified by the value of the slave address (for the
slave address, see 18.1.6 (4) Slave address field).
(1) Group-unit broadcast communication
Broadcast communication is performed to the units in a group identified by the group number indicated by the
higher 4 bits of the communication address.
(2) All-unit broadcast communication
Broadcast communication is performed to all the units, regardless of the value of the group number.
18.1.6 Transfer format of IEBus
Figure 18-1 shows the transfer signal format of the IEBus.
Figure 18-1. IEBus Transfer Signal Format
Header
Master
address
field
Slave
address
field
Control field
Telegraph
length
field
Data field
Start
bit
Broad-
cast
bit
Master
address
bit
P
Frame format
Slave
address
bit
PA
Control
bit
PA
Tele-
graph
length
bit
PA
Data
bit
PA
Data
bit
PA
Remarks 1. P: Parity bit
A: Acknowledge (ACK/NACK) bit
2. The master unit ignores the acknowledge bit during broadcast communication.
(1) Start bit
The start bit is a signal that informs the other units of the start of data transfer. The unit that is to start data
transfer outputs a high-level signal (start bit) from the IETX pin for a specific time, and then starts outputting
the broadcast bit.
If another unit has already output its start bit when one unit is to output the start bit, this unit does not output
the start bit but waits for completion of output of the start bit by the other unit. When the output of the start bit
by the other unit is complete, the unit starts outputting the broadcast bit in synchronization with the completion
of the start bit output by the other unit.
The units other than the one that has started communication detect this start bit, and enter the reception
status.