The ever-growing ecosystem of developers and companies embraces the flexibility and design advantages of I3C and I3C Basic.
MIPI Alliance is an international organization dedicated to developing interface specifications for the mobile and mobile-related industries. The organization announced the launch of MIPI I3C Basic v1.2 on August 6, 2025, which is a scalable utility and control bus interface for connecting peripherals to microcontrollers or application processors, simplifying integration and enhancing cost-effectiveness. Version 1.2 reorganizes the specification into mandatory and optional functional sections that can be implemented according to application needs.MIPI I3C Basic is a rich subset of the MIPI I3C member version, licensed under royalty-free terms. The I3C interface was introduced in 2016 and underwent a significant update to v1.1 in 2019, designed to retain key features of traditional serial interfaces such as I2C, SPI, and UART while making it easier to implement. At the same time, it offers higher performance and energy efficiency, adding many features that eliminate numerous pain points for developers.MIPI I3C Basic has also been a focal point for collaboration across multiple industries. It has been adopted by PCI-SIG and NVM Express as a System Management Bus (SMBus), by JEDEC in its sideband bus and DDR5 standards, and in ETSI’s Smart Secure Platform (SSP) and Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC), and is a key area of focus for MIPI’s liaison with DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force).Users can download the I3C Basic specification from the MIPI website.
Main Application Scenarios for MIPI I3C and I3C Basic
The MIPI I3C technology is implemented based on standard CMOS I/O, using a two-wire interface and supporting in-band interrupts, thereby reducing pin count and signal paths, providing system designers with less complexity and greater flexibility. It offers a typical data rate of 11.1 megabits per second (Mbps) with a high-performance high data rate mode option of up to 100Mbps, significantly improving performance and power efficiency compared to traditional interfaces.
Main application scenarios include:
- Connecting peripherals to processors in mobile and embedded devices
- System debugging and tracing
- Used as a control auxiliary bus:
- DDR5 DRAM memory interface
- SSD control interface
- MIPI Camera Control Interface (CCI)
Expanding the MIPI I3C Ecosystem
More and more companies and developer communities are recognizing the flexibility, resilience, and design advantages of MIPI I3C and I3C Basic.
The MIPI I3C product ecosystem includes microcontrollers, microprocessor units, wireless IoT SoCs (System on Chip), sensors, and application-specific integrated circuits. A range of tools supports development and testing, from protocol analyzers to development boards to USB host adapters. Software drivers are available for both Linux and Zephyr real-time operating systems, and companies also provide reference implementations for their specific products.MIPI member companies integrating MIPI I3C into their products and services include: Binho LLC; Boréas Technologies Inc; Diodes Incorporated; Microchip Technology; Montage Technology Co., Ltd; NXP Semiconductors; Prodigy Technovations Pvt. Ltd; Renesas Electronics Corporation; Robert Bosch GmbH; SmartDV Technologies India Private Limited; STMicroelectronics; Synopsys, Inc; TDK InvenSense; Teledyne LeCroy; Texas Instruments Incorporated and others.“The MIPI I3C ecosystem has rapidly evolved over the past few years, and we expect this rapid adoption trend to continue,” said MIPI Alliance Chairman, Hitz Sal. “Companies have embraced the I3C interface because it offers innovative features and significant improvements in performance and energy efficiency compared to traditional interfaces. I3C provides developers with extreme flexibility, making it suitable for a wide range of products from smartphones and wearables to data center systems.”