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EF_UART
Efabless

EF_UART

General Information

  • Maturity: Integrated. The circuit has been integrated into an IC and has either taped out, or will soon be taped out.
  • Certification: EF Certified
  • Provider: Efabless
  • License: Open Source
  • Catagory: UART
  • PDK: SOFT IP

Overview

A universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) Soft IP with the following features:

  • A configurable frame format
    • Data bits could vary from 5 to 9 bits
    • Even, odd, stick, or no-parity bit generation/detection
    • One or Two stop bit generation
  • Line-break detection
  • Configurable receiver timeout
  • Loopback capability for testing/debugging
  • Glitch Filter on RX enable
  • Matching received data detection
  • 16-byte TX and RX FIFOs with programmable thresholds
  • 16-bit prescaler (PR) for programable baud rate generation
  • Ten Interrupt Sources:
    • RX FIFO is full
    • TX FIFO is empty
    • RX FIFO level is above the set threshold
    • TX FIFO level is below the set threshold
    • Line break detection
    • Receiver data match
    • Frame Error
    • Parity Error
    • Overrun
    • Receiver timeout

System Integration

EF_UART comes with APB, AHB and WB bus wrappers in Verilog HDL; based on your use case, use one of these wrappers or create your own wrapper for your system bus type.

The EF_UART tx and rx ports must be connected, both or one of them, to an input I/O pad for rx and an output I/O pad for tx.

I/O Registers

The I/O registers are provided by the bus wrapper. This section applies to all provided bus wrappers.

Name Offset Reset Value Access Mode Description
RXDATA 0000 0x00000000 r RX Data register; the interface to the Receive FIFO.
TXDATA 0004 0x00000000 w TX Data register; ; the interface to the Receive FIFO.
PR 000c 0x00000000 w The Prescaler register; used to determine the baud rate. Baud_rate = Bus_Clock_Freq/((Prescaler+1)*16)
CTRL 0008 0x00000000 w UART Control Register
CFG 0010 0x00003F08 w UART Configuration Register
FIFOCTRL 0014 0x00000000 w FIFO Control Register
FIFOS 0018 0x00000000 r FIFO Status Register
MATCH 001c 0x00000000 w Match Register
IM 0f00 0x00000000 w Interrupt Mask Register; write 1/0 to enable/disable interrupts; check the interrupt flags table for more details
RIS 0f08 0x00000000 w Raw Interrupt Status; reflects the current interrupts status;check the interrupt flags table for more details
MIS 0f04 0x00000000 w Masked Interrupt Status; On a read, this register gives the current masked status value of the corresponding interrupt. A write has no effect; check the interrupt flags table for more details
IC 0f0c 0x00000000 w Interrupt Clear Register; On a write of 1, the corresponding interrupt (both raw interrupt and masked interrupt, if enabled) is cleared; check the interrupt flags table for more details

RX Data register [Offset: 0x0, mode: r]

RX Data register; the interface to the Receive FIFO.

RX Data Register

TX Data register [Offset: 0x4, mode: w]

TX Data register; ; the interface to the Receive FIFO.

TX Data Register

The Prescaler register [Offset: 0xc, mode: w]

The Prescaler register; used to determine the baud rate. Baud_rate = Bus_Clock_Freq/((Prescaler+1)*16)

Prescaler Register

UART Control Register [Offset: 0x8, mode: w]

UART Control Register

UART Control Register

bit field name width description
0 en 1 UART enable
1 txen 1 UART Transmitter enable
2 rxen 1 UART Receiver enable
3 lpen 1 Loopback (connect RX and TX pins together) enable
4 gfen 1 UART Glitch Filer on RX enable

UART Configuration Register [Offset: 0x10, mode: w]

UART Configuration Register

UART Config Register

bit field name width description
0 wlen 4 Data word length: 5-9 bits
4 stp2 1 Two Stop Bits Select
5 parity 3 Parity Type: 000: None, 001: odd, 010: even, 100: Sticky 0, 101: Sticky 1
8 timeout 6 Receiver Timeout measured in number of bits

FIFO Control Register [Offset: 0x14, mode: w]

FIFO Control Register

FIFO Ctrl Register

bit field name width description
0 TXLT 4 Transmit FIFO Level Threshold
8 RXLT 4 Receive FIFO Level Threshold

FIFO Status Register [Offset: 0x18, mode: r]

FIFO Status Register FIFO Status Register

bit field name width description
0 RXL 4 Receive FIFO Level
8 TXL 4 Transmit FIFO Level

Match Register [Offset: 0x1c, mode: w]

Match Register

Match Register

Interrupt Flags

The following are the bit definitions for the interrupt registers: IM, RIS, MIS, and IC.

Bit Flag Width Description
0 TXE 1 Transmit FIFO is Empty.
1 RXF 1 Receive FIFO is Full.
2 TXB 1 Transmit FIFO level is Below Threshold.
3 RXA 1 Receive FIFO level is Above Threshold.
4 BRK 1 Line Break; 13 consecutive 0's have been detected on the line.
5 MATCH 1 Match; the receive data matches the MATCH register.
6 FE 1 Framing Error; the receiver does not see a "stop" bit at the expected "stop" bit time.
7 PRE 1 Parity Error; the receiver calculated parity does not match the received one.
8 OR 1 Overrun; data has been received but the RX FIFO is full.
9 RTO 1 Receiver Timeout; no data has been received for the time of a specified number of bits.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default Value
SC Number of samples per bit/baud 8
MDW Max data size/width 9
GFLEN Length (number of stages) of the glitch filter 8
FAW FIFO Address width; Depth=2^AW 4

Interface Description

Port Width Direction
prescaler 16 input
en 1 input
tx_en 1 input
rx_en 1 input
wdata MDW input
timeout_bits 6 input
loopback_en 1 input
glitch_filter_en 1 input
tx_level FAW output
rx_level FAW output
rd 1 input
wr 1 input
data_size 4 input
stop_bits_count 1 input
parity_type 3 input
txfifotr FAW input
rxfifotr FAW input
match_data MDW input
tx_empty 1 output
tx_full 1 output
tx_level_below 1 output
rdata MDW output
rx_empty 1 output
rx_full 1 output
rx_level_above 1 output
break_flag 1 output
match_flag 1 output
frame_error_flag 1 output
parity_error_flag 1 output
overrun_flag 1 output
timeout_flag 1 output
rx 1 input
tx 1 output

F/W Usage Guidelines:

  1. Set the prescaler according to the required transmission and receiving baud rate where: Baud_rate = Bus_Clock_Freq/((Prescaler+1)*16). Setting the prescaler is done through writing to PR register
  2. Configure the frame format by :
    • Choosing the number of data bits which could vary from 5 to 9. This is done by setting the wlen field in the CFG register
    • Choosing whether the stop bits are one or two by setting the stb2 bit in CFG register where ‘0’ means one bit and ‘1’ means two bits
    • Choosing the parity type by setting parity field in CFG register where 000: None, 001: odd, 010: even, 100: Sticky 0, 101: Sticky 1
  3. Set the receiver timeout value which fires the RTO interrupt after a certain amount of bits are received. This would be useful when the message received is not a multiple of the FIFO’s width. Timeout can be set by writing to the timeout field in the CFG register
  4. Set the FIFO thresholds by writing to the RXLT and TXLT fields in FIFOCTRL register. This would fire RXA and TXB interrupts when the RX FIFO level is above the threshold and TX FIFO level is below the threshold.
  5. Enable the UART as well as RX or TX or both by setting en, txen, and rxen bits to ones in the CTRL register
  6. To optionally connect the RX signal to the TX signal so the UART transmits whatever it receives then enable loopback by setting the loopback bit to one in the CTRL register.
  7. To optionally enable glitch filter on RX , set the gfen bit to one in the CTRL register.
  8. To read what was received, you can read RXDATA register. Note: you should check that there is something in the FIFO before reading using the interrupts registers.
  9. To optionally check if the data received matches a certain value by writing to the MATCH register. This would fire the MATCH interrupt if the received data matches the match value.
  10. To transmit, write to the TXDATA register. Note: you should check that the FIFO is not full before adding something to it using the interrupts register to avoid losing data.

Installation:

You can either clone repo or use IPM which is an open-source IPs Package Manager

  • To clone repo git clone https://github.com/efabless/EF_UART.git

  • To download via IPM , follow installation guides here then run ipm install EF_UART

Simulation:

Run Verilog Testbench:

Clone IP_Utilities repo under EF_UART/ directory In the directory EF_UART/verify/utb/ run make APB-RTL

Run cocotb UVM Testbench:

TBD

Summary

Catalog ID

EF_UART

Provider

Vendor

Vendor

Efabless

Node

130nm

Foundry

Skywater

Category

UART

Licensing

Info

Open Source (Free)

Quality

Certification

EF Certified

Maturity

Integrated