Omega RS-232 Appendix D - Asynchronous Communications, Asynchronous Communications Bit Diagram

Appendix D - Asynchronous Co mmunications

Appendix D - Asynchronous Communications

Serial data communications implies that 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. Character boundaries for asynchronous communications are defined by a starting bit followed by a pre -defined number of data bits (5, 6, 7, or 8). The end of the character is defined by the transmission of a pre -defined number of stop bits (usually 1, 1.5 or 2). An extra bit used for error detection is often appended before the stop bits.

Idle state of
line	5 to 8 Data Bits

1

0

Odd, Even
		or		Remain Idle or
Unused				next start bit
		P	STOP
	BIT

1

1.52

Figure 1 - Asynchronous Communications Bit Diagram

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. Because each bit in asynchronous communications is sent consecutively, it is easy to generalize asynchronous communications by stating that each character is wrapped (framed) by pre-defined bits to mark the beginning and end of the serial transmission of the character. The data rate and communication parameters for asynchronous communications have to be the same at both the transmitting and receiving ends. The communication parameters are baud rate, parity, number

of data bits per character, and stop bits (i.e. 9600,N,8,1).

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