PCA9536: SW compatibility between different PCA9536 manufacturers?

Hi AnBer,

AnBer said:

-PCA9536:
How much SW compatibility is there between different PCA9536 manufacturer (for example: TI, NXP)?
I assume that the same SW driver can be used with multiple manufacturer. Correct?
The differentiation between the IC is at the HW level and no SW is needed to take advantages of those differentiation?

SW compatibility should be the same for the I2C IO expanders. Our IO expanders were designed to be software compatible (matching I2C addresses and internal registers and bit behavior). There can be some minor differences in electrical parameters but software should be the same.

AnBer said:

-TI PCA9536 vs TI TCA9536:
I assume that an existing TI PCA9536 SW driver can be re-used with TI TCA9536 without any change. Correct?

The older PCA devices from TI has had some bugs (PoR is more sensitive, back biasing from RESET pins into Vcc, INT deasserting). We always recommend the TCA versions which fix the bugs and come in the latest process node (300mm wafer technology) and as a result usually more cost competitive.

Short answer, yes TI PCA SW is compatible to TI TCA software.

AnBer said:

-SW drivers for TI I2C:
Do we make available some specific SW driver for our I2C ICs?
Do we test our ICs with a specific open source SW drivers? or a specific I2C test suite/library that customer can access too?

No, we don't have any SW drivers for our I2C devices. 

No, we don't test against open source SW drivers. We place the responsibility on the customer to develop the SW themselves. 

-Bobby