Surerly the ACK is an essential part of the I2C protocol? Therefore, if the peripheral can't send ACK, then it is not an I2C peripheral?!
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
''Or a cunning trick to avoid licencing the real protocol?''
In that case, it must not be called ''I2C''; it would have to be called ''TWI'' or ''I2C-like'' or somesuch - but the name ''I2C'' may only be used for fully-conforming implementations.
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
1. Issue START, 2. Wait for SB, 3. Send ADDRESS, you'll receive NACK. 4. WAIT for AF, it will be set because of NACK. It ''replaces'' for your case the ADDR and TXE bits. 5. do reset AF, send your next byte, WAIT for AF set,until all bytes sent 6. Issue STOP.