xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/uart.4 (revision 40a8ac8f62b535d30349faf28cf47106b7041b83)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Marcel Moolenaar
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd March 12, 2008
29.Dt UART 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm uart
33.Nd driver for Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) devices
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Cd "device uart"
36.Pp
37.Cd "device puc"
38.Cd "device uart"
39.Pp
40.Cd "device scc"
41.Cd "device uart"
42.Pp
43In
44.Pa /boot/device.hints :
45.Cd hint.uart.0.disabled="1"
46.Cd hint.uart.0.baud="38400"
47.Cd hint.uart.0.port="0x3f8"
48.Cd hint.uart.0.flags="0x10"
49.Pp
50With
51.Ar flags
52encoded as:
53.Bl -tag -compact -width 0x000000
54.It 0x00010
55device is potential system console
56.It 0x00080
57use this port for remote kernel debugging
58.It 0x00100
59set RX FIFO trigger level to ``low'' (NS8250 only)
60.It 0x00200
61set RX FIFO trigger level to ``medium low'' (NS8250 only)
62.It 0x00400
63set RX FIFO trigger level to ``medium high'' (default, NS8250 only)
64.It 0x00800
65set RX FIFO trigger level to ``high'' (NS8250 only)
66.El
67.\"
68.Sh DESCRIPTION
69The
70.Nm
71device driver provides support for various classes of UARTs implementing the
72EIA RS-232C (CCITT V.24) serial communications interface.
73Each such interface is controlled by a separate and independent instance of
74the
75.Nm
76driver.
77The primary support for devices that contain multiple serial interfaces or
78that contain other functionality besides one or more serial interfaces is
79provided by the
80.Xr puc 4 ,
81or
82.Xr scc 4
83device drivers.
84However, the serial interfaces of those devices that are managed by the
85.Xr puc 4 ,
86or
87.Xr scc 4
88driver are each independently controlled by the
89.Nm
90driver.
91As such, the
92.Xr puc 4 ,
93or
94.Xr scc 4
95driver provides umbrella functionality for the
96.Nm
97driver and hides the complexities that are inherent when elementary components
98are packaged together.
99.Pp
100The
101.Nm
102driver has a modular design to allow it to be used on differing hardware and
103for various purposes.
104In the following sections the components are discussed in detail.
105Options are described in the section that covers the component to which each
106option applies.
107.\"
108.Ss CORE COMPONENT
109At the heart of the
110.Nm
111driver is the core component.
112It contains the bus attachments and the low-level interrupt handler.
113.\"
114.Ss HARDWARE DRIVERS
115The core component and the kernel interfaces talk to the hardware through the
116hardware interface.
117This interface serves as an abstraction of the hardware and allows varying
118UARTs to be used for serial communications.
119.\"
120.Ss SYSTEM DEVICES
121System devices are UARTs that have a special purpose by way of hardware
122design or software setup.
123For example, Sun UltraSparc machines use UARTs as their keyboard interface.
124Such an UART cannot be used for general purpose communications.
125Likewise, when the kernel is configured for a serial console, the
126corresponding UART will in turn be a system device so that the kernel can
127output boot messages early on in the boot process.
128.\"
129.Ss KERNEL INTERFACES
130The last but not least of the components is the kernel interface.
131This component ultimately determines how the UART is made visible to the
132kernel in particular and to users in general.
133The default kernel interface is the TTY interface.
134This allows the UART to be used for terminals, modems and serial line IP
135applications.
136System devices, with the notable exception of serial consoles, generally
137have specialized kernel interfaces.
138.\"
139.Sh HARDWARE
140The
141.Nm
142driver supports the following classes of UARTs:
143.Pp
144.Bl -bullet -compact
145.It
146NS8250: standard hardware based on the 8250, 16450, 16550, 16650, 16750 or
147the 16950 UARTs.
148.It
149SCC: serial communications controllers supported by the
150.Xr scc 4
151device driver.
152.El
153.\"
154.Sh FILES
155.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /dev/ttyu?.init" -compact
156.It Pa /dev/ttyu?
157for callin ports
158.It Pa /dev/ttyu?.init
159.It Pa /dev/ttyu?.lock
160corresponding callin initial-state and lock-state devices
161.Pp
162.It Pa /dev/cuau?
163for callout ports
164.It Pa /dev/cuau?.init
165.It Pa /dev/cuau?.lock
166corresponding callout initial-state and lock-state devices
167.El
168.Sh SEE ALSO
169.Xr puc 4 ,
170.Xr scc 4
171.\"
172.Sh HISTORY
173The
174.Nm
175device driver first appeared in
176.Fx 5.2 .
177.Sh AUTHORS
178The
179.Nm
180device driver and this manual page were written by
181.An Marcel Moolenaar Aq Mt marcel@xcllnt.net .
182