An electronic system includes a slave device, multiple master devices and logic circuitry. The slave device is configured to communicate with a single master device in accordance with a single-master communication protocol. The multiple master devices are respectively configured to communicate with the slave device in accordance with the single-master communication protocol. The logic circuitry, which is disposed respectively in the multiple master devices, is configured to exchange control signals indicative of whether the slave device is available for access, so as to prevent simultaneous access attempts to the slave device by more than one of the master devices.