Dropping Legacy Terminology

The Binho support portal and product documentation have been updated to replace legacy industry terms with modern terminology.

I2C Terminology

The usage of I2C Master/Slave terminology is considered obsolete. Master and Slave are now Controller and Peripheral.

Regrettably as of yet, there has been very little consensus within the industry as to which terms to adopt for devices on the I2C bus. We're involved in this conversation taking place and plan to update our documentation once the industry has settled on a set new terms.

SPI Terminology

The usage of SPI Master/Slave terminology is considered obsolete. Master and Slave are now Controller and Peripheral. As such, the usage of MOSI/MISO/SS for pin and signal names has been replaced with SDI/SDO/CS.

New Signal Names:

• SDO - Serial Data Out. An output pin on a device where data is sent out to another SPI device.

• SDI - Serial Data In. An input pin on a device where data is received from another SPI device.

• CS - Chip Select. Activated by the controller to initiate communication with a given peripheral. Often drawn C̅S̅ to indicate active low but not required.

Deprecated Signal Names:

• MOSI - Master Out Slave In

• MISO - Master In Slave Out

• SS - Slave Select

Unchanged Signal Names:

• SCK - Serial Clock. The clock for the bus generated by the controller.

While many microcontroller and processor manufacturers lag behind, the SDI/SDO/CS terminology is already widely adopted by several large semiconductor companies and can be found extensively used in the datasheets for their new devices.

1-Wire Terminology

The usage of 1-Wire Master/Slave terminology is considered obsolete. Master and Slave now Host and Device.

Maxim Integrated has already been using the terms Host and Device in their documentation for a while, and regret that we did not make this change to our documentation earlier. Thankfully this means there should be little confusion as a result of this change in our documentation.

Why did we change our documentation?

The electronics industry in particular has been using an embarrassingly outdated lexicon when it comes to discussing communication bus topology and the various roles and modes of operation of devices on the bus. It's unfortunate that this has gone on this long without acknowledging the need to leave these terms in the past. Thankfully, the industry is already making the shift, and many device manufacturers have already begun to adopt new terminology. Binho is proud to help push for the industry-wide adoption of modern terminology that is inclusive. Let's celebrate the ability to change and improve over time!