Mode 0, selected by writing 0s into bits SM1 and SM0 of SCON, puts the serial port into 8-bit shift register mode. Serial data enter and exit through RXD, and TXD outputs the shift clock. Eight bits are transmitted or received with the least-significant (LSB) first.
TABLE 5-1
SCON (serial port control) register summary
TABLE5-2 Serial Dort modes
The baud rate is fixed at 1/12ththe on-chip oscillator frequency. The terms "RXD"
and "TXD" are misleading in this mode. The RXD line is used for both data input and out-put, and the TXD line serves as the clock.
Transmission is initiated by any instruction that writes data to SBUF. Data are shifted out on the RXD line (P3.0) with clock pulses sent out the TXD line (P3.1). Each transmitted bit is valid on the RXD pin for one machine cycle. During each machine cycle, the clock signal goes low on S3P1 and returns high on S6P1. The timing for output data is shown in Figure 5-2.
Reception is initiated when the receiver enable bit (REN) is 1 and the receive interrupt bit (RI) is 0. The general rule is to set REN at the beginning of a program to initialize the serial port and then clear RI to begin a data input operation. When RI is cleared, clock pulses are written out the TXD line, beginning the following machine cycle, and data are clocked in the RXD line. Obviously, it is up to the attached circuitry to provide data on the
FIGURE5-2
Serial port transmit timing for mode 0
FIGURE 5-3
Serial port receive timing for mode 0
RXD line as synchronized by the clock signal on TXD. The clocking of data into the serial port occurs on the positive edge of TXD. (See Figure 5-3.) Notice that in this mode of operation, the data transfers between the 8051 serial port and the attached circuitry are via synchronous communication where both parties are synchronized to the clock signal on TXD. As will be uncovered in the later sections, the other operating modes of the serial port operate via asynchronous communication.
One possible application of shift register mode is to expand the output capability of the 8051. A serial-to-parallel shift register IC can be connected to the 8051 TXD and RXD lines to provide an extra eight output lines. (See Figure 5-4.) Additional shift registers may be cascaded to the first for further expansion.
5.5.2 8-Bit UART with Variable Baud Rate (Mode 1)
In mode 1 the 8051 serial port operates as an 8-bit UART with variable baud rate. A UART, or "universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter," is a device that receives and transmits serial data with each data character preceded by a start bit (low) and followed by a stop bit (high). A parity bit is sometimes inserted between the last data bit and the stop bit. The essential operation of a UART is parallel-to-serial conversion of output data and serial-toparallel conversion of input data.
In mode 1, 10 bits are transmitted on TXD or received on RXD. These consist of a start bit (always 0), eight data bits (LSB first), and a stop bit (always 1). For a receive operation, the stop bit goes into RB8 in SCON. In the 8051, the baud rate is set by the Timer 1 overflow rate; the 8052 baud rate is set by the overflow rate of Timer 1 or Timer 2 or a combination of the two (one for transmit, the other for receive).
FIGURE 5-4 Serial port shift register mode
Clocking and synchronizing the serial port shift registers in modes 1, 2, and 3 is established by a 4-bit divide-by-16 counter, the output of which is the baud rate clock. (See Figure 5-5.) The input to this counter is selected through software, as discussed later.
Transmission is initiated by writing to SBUF but does not actually start until the next rollover of the divide-by-16 counter supplying the serial port baud rate. Shifted data are out-putted on the TXD line beginning with the start bit, followed by the eight data bits, then the stop bit. The period for each bit is the reciprocal of the baud rate as programmed in the timer. The transmit interrupt flag (TI) is set as soon as the stop bit appears on TXD. (See Figure 5-6.)
Reception is initiated by a 1-to-0 transition on RXD. The divide-by-16 counter is immediately reset to align the counts with the incoming bit stream (the next bit arrives on the next divide-by-16 rollover, and so on). The incoming bit stream is sampled in the middle of the 16 counts.
The receiver includes "false start bit detection" by requiring a 0 state eight counts after the first 1-to-0 transition. If this does not occur, it is assumed that the receiver was triggered by noise rather than by a valid character. The receiver is reset and returns to the idle state, looking for the next 1-to-0 transition.
Assuming a valid start bit was detected, character reception continues. The start bit skipped and eight data bits are clocked into the serial port shift register. When all eight bits have been clocked in, the following occur:
1. The ninth bit (the stop bit) is clocked into RB8 in SCON, 2. SBUF is loaded with the eight data bits, and
3. The receiver interrupt flag (RI) is set.
FIGURE 5-6
Setting the serial port T1 flag
FIGURE 5-5 Serial port clocking
These only occur, however, if the following conditions exist:
1. RI = 0, and
2. SM2 = 1 and the received stop bit = 1, or SM2 = 0.
The requirement that RI = 0 ensures that software has read the previous character (and cleared RI). The second condition sounds complicated but applies only in multi-processor communications mode (see below). It implies, "Do not set RI in multimulti-processor communications mode when the ninth data bit is 0."