PMBus Group Command

When the PMBus Group Command bit in the CTRLB register is set (CTRLB.GCMD=1) and 7-bit addressing is used, INTFLAG.PREC will be set if the client has been addressed since the last STOP condition. When CTRLB.GCMD=0, a STOP condition without address match will not be set INTFLAG.PREC.

The group command protocol is used to send commands to more than one device. The commands are sent in one continuous transmission with a single STOP condition at the end. When the STOP condition is detected by the clients addressed during the group command, they all begin executing the command they received.

The following figure shows an example where this client, bearing ADDRESS 1, is addressed after a repeated START condition. There can be multiple clients addressed before and after this client. Eventually, at the end of the group command, a single STOP is generated by the host. At this point a STOP interrupt is asserted.