When power-up occurs the I2C-bus interface, the control/status register and all clock counters are reset. The device starts time-keeping in the 32.768 kHz clock mode with the 24 h format on the first of January at 0.00.00: 00. A 1 Hz square wave with 50% duty cycle appears at the interrupt output pin (starts HIGH). It is recommended to set the stop counting flag of the control/status register before loading the actual time into the counters. Loading of illegal states may lead to a temporary clock malfunction.