PROJECT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

PROGRESS 4 : RESEARCH ON UART IN VERILOG HDL

Abbreviation for Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter, UART is a chip used to manage computer serial ports, disk drive interrupts, screen refresh cycles, and any other device that requires timing. With a serial port transmission, the UART converts the bytes into serial bits and transmits those bits through an asynchronous transmission, stripping out the start and stop bits for each character. Below is a listing of various UART chips. The 16550 chip series is the most commonly used UART. The Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) is a popular and widely-used device for data communication in the field of telecommunication. A UART is the microchip with programming that controls a computer's interface to its attached serial devices. Specifically, it provides the computer with the RS-232 Data Terminal Equipment (Data Terminal Equipment ) interface so that it can communicate to and exchange data with modems and other serial devices. More advanced UARTs provide some amount of buffer of data so that the computer and serial devices data streams remain coordinated. The most recent UART, the 16550, has a 16-byte buffer that can get filled before the computer's processor needs to handle the data. The original UART was the 8250. If you purchase an internal modem today, it probably includes a 16550 UART (although you should ask when you buy it). According to modem manufacturer robotics, external modems do not include a UART. For an older computer, we as user want to add an internal 16550 to get the most out of the external modem. Verilog is a verilfication language and hence have rich capabilities for testing. PLI (Programming Language Interface) which gives the added flexibility in testing and verification for the code written in C and then to be integrated with HDL code.Hence, it will connect to DB9 connector which is physical medium through RS-232. Then it will programmed into Altera DE2 board for proof of concept.