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The UART

The UART takes bytes of data and transmits individual bits sequentially, while a second UART reassembles the bits into complete bytes. Asynchronous transmission allows data transfer without a clock signal, instead using start and stop bits to synchronize sending and receiving units. The UART adds a start bit to alert the receiver, then sends each data bit in order from least to most significant. When all data bits and optional parity bit are sent, the transmitter sends a stop bit to signal the end of transmission.

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145 views2 pages

The UART

The UART takes bytes of data and transmits individual bits sequentially, while a second UART reassembles the bits into complete bytes. Asynchronous transmission allows data transfer without a clock signal, instead using start and stop bits to synchronize sending and receiving units. The UART adds a start bit to alert the receiver, then sends each data bit in order from least to most significant. When all data bits and optional parity bit are sent, the transmitter sends a stop bit to signal the end of transmission.

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siddu. siddu
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The UART: What it is and how it works

The Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) controller is the


key component of the serial communications subsystem of a computer. The
UART takes bytes of data and transmits the individual bits in a sequential
fashion. At the destination, a second UART re-assembles the bits into complete
bytes.

Serial transmission is commonly used with modems and for non-networked


communication between computers, terminals and other devices.

There are two primary forms of serial transmission: Synchronous and


Asynchronous. Depending on the modes that are supported by the hardware,
the name of the communication sub-system will usually include a A if it
supports Asynchronous communications, and a S if it supports Synchronous
communications.

UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter

Asynchronous Serial Transmission


Asynchronous transmission allows data to be transmitted without the sender
having to send a clock signal to the receiver. Instead, the sender and receiver
must agree on timing parameters in advance and special bits are added to
each word which are used to synchronize the sending and receiving units.

When a word is given to the UART for Asynchronous transmissions, a bit


called the "Start Bit" is added to the beginning of each word that is to be
transmitted. The Start Bit is used to alert the receiver that a word of data is
about to be sent, and to force the clock in the receiver into synchronization
with the clock in the transmitter. These two clocks must be accurate enough
to not have the frequency drift by more than 10% during the transmission of
the remaining bits in the word. (This requirement was set in the days of
mechanical teleprinters and is easily met by modern electronic equipment.)

After the Start Bit, the individual bits of the word of data are sent, with the
Least Significant Bit (LSB) being sent first. Each bit in the transmission is
transmitted for exactly the same amount of time as all of the other bits, and
the receiver “looks” at the wire at approximately halfway through the period
assigned to each bit to determine if the bit is a 1 or a 0. For example, if it takes
two seconds to send each bit, the receiver will examine the signal to
determine if it is a 1 or a 0 after one second has passed, then it will wait two
seconds and then examine the value of the next bit, and so on.

The sender does not know when the receiver has “looked” at the value of the
bit. The sender only knows when the clock says to begin transmitting the next
bit of the word.

When the entire data word has been sent, the transmitter may add a Parity Bit
that the transmitter generates. The Parity Bit may be used by the receiver to
perform simple error checking. Then at least one Stop Bit is sent by the
transmitter.

When the receiver has received all of the bits in the data word, it may check
for the Parity Bits (both sender and receiver must agree on whether a Parity
Bit is to be used), and then the receiver looks for a Stop Bit. If the Stop Bit does
not appear when it is supposed to, the UART considers the entire word to be
garbled and will report a Framing Error to the host processor when the data
word is read. The usual cause of a Framing Error is that the sender and
receiver clocks were not running at the same speed, or that the signal was
interrupted.

Regardless of whether the data was received correctly or not, the UART
automatically discards the Start, Parity and Stop bits. If the sender and
receiver are configured identically, these bits are not passed to the host.

If another word is ready for transmission, the Start Bit for the new word can
be sent as soon as the Stop Bit for the previous word has been sent.

Because asynchronous data is “self synchronizing”, if there is no data to


transmit, the transmission line can be idle

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