Black Box IC187C, IC133C-R2 manual Appendix D Asynchronous Communication

2-PORT RS-232/422/485 PCI HOST ADAPTER

Appendix D:

Asynchronous Communication

In serial data communication, individual bits of a character are transmitted consecutively to a receiver that assembles the bits back into a character. Data rate, error checking, handshaking, and character framing (start/stop bits) are pre- defined and must correspond at both the transmitting and receiving ends.

Asynchronous communications is the standard means of serial data communication for PC compatibles and PS/2 computers. The original PC was equipped with a communication or COM port that was designed around an 8250 Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART). This device allows asynchronous serial data to be transferred through a simple and straightforward programming interface. A start bit, followed by a pre-defined number of data bits (5, 6, 7, or 8), defines character boundaries for asynchronous communications. The end of the character is defined by the transmission of a pre-defined number of stop bits (usually 1, 1.5, or 2).

Figure D-1. Bit diagram for asynchronous communication.

An extra bit used for error detection is often appended before the stop bits. This special bit is called the parity bit. Parity is a simple method of determining if a data bit has been lost or corrupted during transmission. There are several methods for implementing a parity check to guard against data corruption. Common methods are called (E)ven Parity or (O)dd Parity. Sometimes parity is not used to detect errors on the data stream. This is refereed to as (N)o parity.

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