xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/uart.4 (revision 65b71c48d226f3ef3eb1c4452dccc678a7d2ac96)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Marcel Moolenaar
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd August 10, 2015
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 Pulse Per Second (PPS) Timing Interface
155The
156.Nm
157driver can capture PPS timing information as defined in RFC 2783.
158The API, accessed via
159.Xr ioctl 8 ,
160is available on the tty device.
161To use the PPS capture feature with
162.Xr ntpd 8 ,
163symlink the tty device to
164.Va /dev/pps0.
165.Pp
166The
167.Va hw.uart.pps_mode
168tunable configures the PPS capture mode for all uart devices;
169it can be set in
170.Xr loader.conf 5 .
171The
172.Va dev.uart.0.pps_mode
173sysctl configures the PPS capture mode for a specific uart device;
174it can be set in
175.Xr loader.conf 5
176or
177.Xr sysctl.conf 5 .
178The following capture modes are available:
179.Bl -tag -compact -offset "mmmm" -width "mmmm"
180.It 0
181Capture disabled.
182.It 1
183Capture pulses on the CTS line.
184.It 2
185Capture pulses on the DCD line (default).
186.El
187.Sh FILES
188.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /dev/ttyu?.init" -compact
189.It Pa /dev/ttyu?
190for callin ports
191.It Pa /dev/ttyu?.init
192.It Pa /dev/ttyu?.lock
193corresponding callin initial-state and lock-state devices
194.Pp
195.It Pa /dev/cuau?
196for callout ports
197.It Pa /dev/cuau?.init
198.It Pa /dev/cuau?.lock
199corresponding callout initial-state and lock-state devices
200.El
201.Sh SEE ALSO
202.Xr puc 4 ,
203.Xr scc 4
204.\"
205.Sh HISTORY
206The
207.Nm
208device driver first appeared in
209.Fx 5.2 .
210.Sh AUTHORS
211The
212.Nm
213device driver and this manual page were written by
214.An Marcel Moolenaar Aq Mt marcel@xcllnt.net .
215