xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/uart.4 (revision 4f29da19bd44f0e99f021510460a81bf754c21d2)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Marcel Moolenaar
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd March 29, 2006
29.Dt UART 4
30.Os
31.\"
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm uart
34.Nd driver for Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) devices
35.\"
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Cd "device uart"
38.Pp
39.Cd "device puc"
40.Cd "device uart"
41.Pp
42.Cd "device scc"
43.Cd "device uart"
44.\"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48device driver provides support for various classes of UARTs implementing the
49EIA RS-232C (CCITT V.24) serial communications interface.
50Each such interface is controlled by a separate and independent instance of
51the
52.Nm
53driver.
54The primary support for devices that contain multiple serial interfaces or
55that contain other functionality besides one or more serial interfaces is
56provided by the
57.Xr puc 4 ,
58or
59.Xr scc 4
60device drivers.
61However, the serial interfaces of those devices that are managed by the
62.Xr puc 4 ,
63or
64.Xr scc 4
65driver are each independently controlled by the
66.Nm
67driver.
68As such, the
69.Xr puc 4 ,
70or
71.Xr scc 4
72driver provides umbrella functionality for the
73.Nm
74driver and hides the complexities that are inherent when elementary components
75are packaged together.
76.Pp
77The
78.Nm
79driver has a modular design to allow it to be used on differing hardware and
80for various purposes.
81In the following sections the components are discussed in detail.
82Options are described in the section that covers the component to which each
83option applies.
84.\"
85.Ss CORE COMPONENT
86At the heart of the
87.Nm
88driver is the core component.
89It contains the bus attachments and the low-level interrupt handler.
90.\"
91.Ss HARDWARE DRIVERS
92The core component and the kernel interfaces talk to the hardware through the
93hardware interface.
94This interface serves as an abstraction of the hardware and allows varying
95UARTs to be used for serial communications.
96.\"
97.Ss SYSTEM DEVICES
98System devices are UARTs that have a special purpose by way of hardware
99design or software setup.
100For example, Sun UltraSparc machines use UARTs as their keyboard interface.
101Such an UART cannot be used for general purpose communications.
102Likewise, when the kernel is configured for a serial console, the
103corresponding UART will in turn be a system device so that the kernel can
104output boot messages early on in the boot process.
105.\"
106.Ss KERNEL INTERFACES
107The last but not least of the components is the kernel interface.
108This component ultimately determines how the UART is made visible to the
109kernel in particular and to users in general.
110The default kernel interface is the TTY interface.
111This allows the UART to be used for terminals, modems and serial line IP
112applications.
113System devices, with the notable exception of serial consoles, generally
114have specialized kernel interfaces.
115.\"
116.Sh HARDWARE
117The
118.Nm
119driver supports the following classes of UARTs:
120.Pp
121.Bl -bullet -compact
122.It
123NS8250: standard hardware based on the 8250, 16450, 16550, 16650, 16750 or
124the 16950 UARTs.
125.It
126SCC: serial communications controllers supported by the
127.Xr scc 4
128device driver.
129.El
130.\"
131.Sh FILES
132.Bl -tag -width /dev/ttyu?.init -compact
133.It Pa /dev/ttyu?
134for callin ports
135.It Pa /dev/ttyu?.init
136.It Pa /dev/ttyu?.lock
137corresponding callin initial-state and lock-state devices
138.Pp
139.It Pa /dev/cuau?
140for callout ports
141.It Pa /dev/cuau?.init
142.It Pa /dev/cuau?.lock
143corresponding callout initial-state and lock-state devices
144.El
145.Sh SEE ALSO
146.Xr puc 4 ,
147.Xr scc 4
148.\"
149.Sh HISTORY
150The
151.Nm
152device driver first appeared in
153.Fx 5.2 .
154.Sh AUTHORS
155The
156.Nm
157device driver and this manual page were written by
158.An Marcel Moolenaar Aq marcel@xcllnt.net .
159