Serial Data Transfer

As an example of serial data transfer using

the shift register approach, a set of four shifts
triggered by clock pulses places the contents
of the X-register into the Y-register. Since
four clock cycles are needed, it is much
slower than parallel transfer, but is simpler
and cheaper.

In circuit designs, clock skew (sometimes timing skew) is a phenomenon in synchronous

circuits in which the clock signal (sent from the clock circuit) arrives at different
components at different times.

As the clock rate of a circuit increases, timing becomes more critical and less variation
can be tolerated if the circuit is to function properly.

Maheshwari, N., and Sapatnekar, S.S., Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential
Circuits, Kluwer, 1999.

serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at one time, sequentially,
over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel
communication, where several bits are sent together, on a link with several parallel
channels. Serial communication is used for all long-haul communication and most
computer networks, where the cost of cable and synchronization difficulties make parallel
communication impractical. At shorter distances, serial computer buses are becoming
more common because of a tipping point where the disadvantages of parallel buses (clock
skew, interconnect density) outweigh their advantage of simplicity (no need for serializer
and deserializer (SERDES)). Improved technology to ensure signal integrity and to
transmit and receive at a sufficiently high speed per lane have made serial links
competitive. The migration from PCI to PCI Express is an example.
Integrated circuits are more expensive when they have more pins. To reduce the pins,
many ICs use a serial bus to transfer data when speed is not important. Some examples of
such low-cost serial buses include SPI, I²C, and 1-Wire.

The communication links across which computers—or parts of computers—talk to one

another may be either serial or parallel. A parallel link transmits several streams of data
(perhaps representing particular bits of a stream of bytes) along multiple channels (wires,
printed circuit tracks, optical fibres, etc.); a serial link transmits a single stream of data.

At first sight it would seem that a serial link must be inferior to a parallel one, because it
can transmit less data on each clock tick. However, it is often the case that serial links can
be clocked considerably faster than parallel links, and achieve a higher data rate. A
number of factors allow serial to be clocked at a greater rate:

 Clock skew between different channels is not an issue (for unclocked

asynchronous serial communication links)
 A serial connection requires fewer interconnecting cables (e.g. wires/fibres) and
hence occupies less space. The extra space allows for better isolation of the
channel from its surroundings
 Crosstalk is less of an issue, because there are fewer conductors in proximity.

In many cases, serial is a better option because it is cheaper to implement. Many ICs have
serial interfaces, as opposed to parallel ones, so that they have fewer pins and are
therefore less expensive.

By convention, bus and network speeds are denoted either in bit/s (bits per second) or
byte/s (bytes per second). In general, parallel interfaces are quoted in byte/s and serial in
bit/s. The more commonly used is shown below in bold type.

On devices like modems, bytes may be more than 8 bits long because they may be
individually padded out with additional start and stop bits; the figures below will reflect
this. Where channels use line codes (such as Ethernet, Serial ATA and PCI Express),
quoted speeds are for the decoded signal.

The figures below are simplex speeds, which may conflict with the duplex speeds
vendors sometimes use in promotional materials. Where two values are listed, the first
value is the downstream rate and the second value is the upstream rate.

All quoted figures are in metric decimal units, where:

 1 byte = 8 bits
 1 kbit = 1,000 bits
 1 Mbit = 1,000,000 bits
 1 Gbit = 1,000,000,000 bits
 1 kB = 1,000 bytes
  1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes
 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes
 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes

Wireless networks

802.11 networks are half-duplex; all stations share the medium. In access point mode, all
traffic has to pass through the AP (Access Point). Thus, two stations on the same AP
which are communicating with each other must have each and every frame transmitted
twice: from the sender to the access point, then from the access point to the receiver. This
approximately halves the effective bandwidth.

Speed
Device Speed (bit/s)
(byte/s)
802.11 (legacy) 0.125 2.0 Mbit/s 0.25 MB/s
802.11b DSSS 0.125 11.0 Mbit/s 1.375 MB/s
802.11b+ (TI-proprietary extension to 802.11b, non-
44.0 Mbit/s 5.5 MB/s
IEEE standard[22][23]) DSSS 0.125
802.11a 0.75 54.0 Mbit/s 6.75 MB/s
802.11g OFDM 0.125 54.0 Mbit/s 6.75 MB/s
802.16 (WiMAX) 70.0 Mbit/s 8.75 MB/s
802.11g with Super G (Atheros-proprietary extension
108.0 Mbit/s 13.5 MB/s
to 802.11g) DSSS 0.125
802.11g with 125HSM (a.k.a. Afterburner,
125.0 Mbit/s 15.625 MB/s
Broadcom-proprietary extension to 802.11g)
802.11g with Nitro (Conexant-proprietary extension
140.0 Mbit/s 17.5 MB/s
to 802.11g)
Varies, 600.0 Varies, 75 MB/s
802.11n
Mbit/s Max Max

Wireless personal area networks

Device Speed (bit/s) Speed (byte/s)
IrDA-Control 72 kbit/s 9 kB/s
IrDA-SIR 115.2 kbit/s 14 kB/s
802.15.4 (2.4 GHz) 250 kbit/s 31.25 kB/s
Bluetooth 1.1 1,000 kbit/s 125 kB/s
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR 3,000 kbit/s 375 kB/s
IrDA-FIR 4,000 kbit/s 510 kB/s
IrDA-VFIR 16,000 kbit/s 2,000 kB/s
IrDA-UFIR 100,000 kbit/s 12,500 kB/s
Bluetooth 3.0 480,000 kbit/s 60,000 kB/s
WUSB-UWB 480,000 kbit/s 60,000 kB/s
Computer buses
Device Speed (bit/s) Speed (byte/s)
I2c 3.4 Mbit/s 425 kB/s
[24]
ISA 8-Bit/4.77 MHz 9.6 Mbit/s 1.2 MB/s
Zorro II 16-Bit/7.14 MHz[25] 28.56 Mbit/s 3.56 MB/s
[24]
ISA 16-Bit/8.33 MHz 42.4 Mbit/s 5.3 MB/s
Low Pin Count 133.33 Mbit/s 16.67 MB/s
HP-Precision Bus 184 Mbit/s 23 MB/s
EISA 8-16-32bits/8.33 MHz 320 Mbit/s 32 MB/s
VME64 32-64bits 400 Mbit/s 40 MB/s
NuBus 10 MHz 400 Mbit/s 40 MB/s
DEC TURBOchannel 32-bit/12.5 MHz 400 Mbit/s 50 MB/s
MCA 16-32bits/10 MHz 660 Mbit/s 66 MB/s
NuBus90 20 MHz 800 Mbit/s 80 MB/s
Sbus 32-bit/25 MHz 800 Mbit/s 100 MB/s
DEC TURBOchannel 32-bit/25 MHz 800 Mbit/s 100 MB/s
VLB 32-bit/33 MHz 1,067 Mbit/s 133.33 MB/s
PCI 32-bit/33 MHz 1,067 Mbit/s 133.33 MB/s
HP GSC-1X 1,136 Mbit/s 142 MB/s
[26][27][28]
Zorro III 32-Bit/37.5 MHz 1,200 Mbit/s 150 MB/s
Sbus 64-bit/25 MHz 1,600 Mbit/s 200 MB/s
PCI Express 1.0 (x1 link)[29] 2,000 Mbit/s 250 MB/s
HP GSC-2X 2,048 Mbit/s 256 MB/s
PCI 64-bit/33 MHz 2,133 Mbit/s 266.7 MB/s
PCI 32-bit/66 MHz 2,133 Mbit/s 266.7 MB/s
AGP 1x 2,133 Mbit/s 266.7 MB/s
HIO bus 2,560 Mbit/s 320 MB/s
PCI Express 1.0 (x2 link)[29] 4,000 Mbit/s 500 MB/s
AGP 2x 4,266 Mbit/s 533.3 MB/s
PCI 64-bit/66 MHz 4,266 Mbit/s 533.3 MB/s
PCI-X DDR 16-bit 4,266 Mbit/s 533.3 MB/s
PCI 64-bit/100 MHz 6,399 Mbit/s 800 MB/s
RapidIO (1 lane) 6,500 Mbit/s 812,5 MB/s
PCI Express 1.0 (x4 link) 8,000 Mbit/s 1,000 MB/s
AGP 4x 8,533 Mbit/s 1,067 MB/s
PCI-X 133 8,533 Mbit/s 1,067 MB/s
PCI-X QDR 16-bit 8,533 Mbit/s 1,067 MB/s
[21]
InfiniBand single 4X 8,000 Mbit/s 1,000 MB/s
UPA 15,360 Mbit/s 1,920 MB/s
PCI Express 1.0 (x8 link)[29] 16,000 Mbit/s 2,000 MB/s
AGP 8x 17,066 Mbit/s 2,133 MB/s
PCI-X DDR 17,066 Mbit/s 2,133 MB/s
HyperTransport (800 MHz, 16-pair) 25,600 Mbit/s 3,200 MB/s
HyperTransport (1 GHz, 16-pair) 32,000 Mbit/s 4,000 MB/s
PCI Express 1.0 (x16 link)[29] 32,000 Mbit/s 4,000 MB/s
PCI Express 2.0 (x8 link)[30] 32,000 Mbit/s 4,000 MB/s
PCI-X QDR 34,133 Mbit/s 4,266 MB/s
AGP 8x 64-bit 34,133 Mbit/s 4,266 MB/s
PCI Express (x32 link)[29] 64,000 Mbit/s 8,000 MB/s
PCI Express 2.0 (x16 link)[30] 64,000 Mbit/s 8,000 MB/s
PCI Express 2.0 (x32 link)[30] 128,000 Mbit/s 16,000 MB/s
QuickPath Interconnect (2.4 GHz) 153,600 Mbit/s 19,200 MB/s
HyperTransport (2.8 GHz, 32-pair) 179,200 Mbit/s 22,400 MB/s
QuickPath Interconnect (3.2 GHz) 204,800 Mbit/s 25,600 MB/s
HyperTransport 3.1 (3.2 GHz, 32-pair) 409,600 Mbit/s 51,200 MB/s

[edit] Portable
Device Speed (bit/s) Speed (byte/s)
PC Card 16 bit 255ns Byte mode 31.36 Mbit/s 3.92 MB/s
PC Card 16 bit 255ns Word mode 62.72 Mbit/s 7.84 MB/s
PC Card 16 bit 100ns Byte mode 80 Mbit/s 10 MB/s
PC Card 16 bit 100ns Word mode 160 Mbit/s 20 MB/s
PC Card 32 bit (CardBus) Byte mode 267 Mbit/s 33.33 MB/s
ExpressCard 1.2 USB 2.0 mode 480 Mbit/s 60 MB/s
PC Card 32 bit (CardBus) Word mode 533 Mbit/s 66.66 MB/s
PC Card 32 bit (CardBus) DWord mode 1,067 Mbit/s 133.33 MB/s
ExpressCard 1.2 PCI Express mode 2,500 Mbit/s 312.5 MB/s
ExpressCard 2.0 USB 3.0 mode 4,800 Mbit/s 600 MB/s
ExpressCard 2.0 PCI Express mode 5,000 Mbit/s 625 MB/s

[edit] Storage
Speed Speed
Device
(bit/s) (byte/s)
PC Floppy Disk Controller (1.44MB) 0.5 Mbit/s 0.062 MB/s
1.171875 0.146484375
CD Controller (1x)
Mbit/s MB/s
MFM 5 Mbit/s 0.625 MB/s
RLL 7.5 Mbit/s 0.9375 MB/s
DVD Controller (1x) 11.1 Mbit/s 1.32 MB/s
ESDI 24 Mbit/s 3 MB/s
ATA PIO Mode 0 26.4 Mbit/s 3.3 MB/s
HD DVD Controller (1x) 36 Mbit/s 4.5 MB/s
Blu-ray Controller (1x) 36 Mbit/s 4.5 MB/s
SCSI (Narrow SCSI) (5 MHz)[31] 40 Mbit/s 5 MB/s
ATA PIO Mode 1 41.6 Mbit/s 5.2 MB/s
ATA PIO Mode 2 66.4 Mbit/s 8.3 MB/s
Fast SCSI (8 bits/10 MHz) 80 Mbit/s 10 MB/s
ATA PIO Mode 3 88.8 Mbit/s 11.1 MB/s
iSCSI over Fast Ethernet 100 Mbit/s 12.5 MB/s
ATA PIO Mode 4 133.3 Mbit/s 16.7 MB/s
Fast Wide SCSI (16 bits/10 MHz) 160 Mbit/s 20 MB/s
Ultra SCSI (Fast-20 SCSI) (8 bits/20 MHz) 160 Mbit/s 20 MB/s
Ultra DMA ATA 33 264 Mbit/s 33 MB/s
Ultra Wide SCSI (16 bits/20 MHz) 320 Mbit/s 40 MB/s
Ultra-2 SCSI 40 (Fast-40 SCSI) (8 bits/40 MHz) 320 Mbit/s 40 MB/s
Ultra DMA ATA 66 528 Mbit/s 66 MB/s
Ultra-2 wide SCSI (16 bits/40 MHz) 640 Mbit/s 80 MB/s
Serial Storage Architecture SSA 640 Mbit/s 80 MB/s
Ultra DMA ATA 100 800 Mbit/s 100 MB/s
Fibre Channel 1GFC (1.0625 GHz)[32] 850 Mbit/s 106.25 MB/s
iSCSI over Gigabit Ethernet 1,000 Mbit/s 125 MB/s
Ultra DMA ATA 133 1,064 Mbit/s 133 MB/s
Ultra-3 SCSI (Ultra 160 SCSI; Fast-80 Wide SCSI) (16
1,280 Mbit/s 160 MB/s
bits/40 MHz DDR)
Serial ATA (SATA-150)[33] 1,200 Mbit/s 150 MB/s
Fibre Channel 2GFC (2.125 GHz)[32] 1,700 Mbit/s 212.5 MB/s
Serial ATA 2 (SATA-300)[33] 2,400 Mbit/s 300 MB/s
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)[33] 2,400 Mbit/s 300 MB/s
Ultra-320 SCSI (Ultra4 SCSI) (16 bits/80 MHz DDR) 2,560 Mbit/s 320 MB/s
Fibre Channel 4GFC (4.25 GHz)[32] 3,400 Mbit/s 425 MB/s
Serial ATA (SATA-600)[33] 4,800 Mbit/s 600 MB/s
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 2[33] 4,800 Mbit/s 600 MB/s
Ultra-640 SCSI (16 bits/160 MHz DDR) 5,120 Mbit/s 640 MB/s
Fibre Channel 8GFC (8.50 GHz)[32] 6,800 Mbit/s 850 MB/s
iSCSI over 10GbE 10,000 Mbit/s 1,250 MB/s
FCoE over 10GbE 10,000 Mbit/s 1,250 MB/s
iSCSI over InfiniBand 4x 40,000 Mbit/s 5,000 MB/s
100,000
iSCSI over 100G Ethernet (hypothetical)[citation needed] 12,500 MB/s
Mbit/s
A wide variety of different wireless data technologies now exist, some in direct
competition with one another, others designed to be optimal for specific applications.
Wireless technologies can be evaluated by a variety of different metrics described below.

Of the standards evaluated, these can be grouped as follows:

UWB, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Wireless USB are intended for use as so called Wireless
PAN systems. They are intended for short range communication between devices
typically controlled by a single person. A keyboard might communicate with a computer,
or a mobile phone with a handsfree kit, using any of these technologies.

WiFi is the most successful system intended for use as a WLAN system. A WLAN is an
implementation of a LAN over a microcellular wireless system. Such systems are used to
provide wireless Internet access (and access to other systems on the local network such as
other computers, shared printers, and other such devices) throughout a private property.
Typically a WLAN offers much better bandwidth and latency than the user's Internet
connection, being designed as much for local communication as for access to the Internet,
and while WiFi may be offered in many places as an Internet access system, access
speeds are usually more limited by the shared Internet connection and number of users
than the technology itself. Other systems that provide WLAN functionality include
DECT and HIPERLAN.

GPRS, EDGE and 1xRTT are bolt-ons to existing 2G cellular systems, providing Internet
access to users of existing 2G networks (it should be noted that technically both EDGE
and 1xRTT are 3G standards, as defined by the ITU, but are generally deployed on
existing networks.) 3G systems such as EV-DO, W-CDMA (including HSDPA and
HSUPA) provide combined circuit switched and packet switched data and voice services
as standard, usually at better data rates than the 2G extensions. All of these services can
be used to provide combined mobile phone access and Internet access at remote
locations. Typically GPRS and 1xRTT are used to provide stripped down, mobile phone
oriented, Internet access, such as WAP, multimedia messaging, and the downloading of
ring-tones, whereas EV-DO and HSDPA's higher speeds make them suitable for use as a
broadband replacement.

Pure packet-switched only systems can be created using 3G network technologies, and
UMTS-TDD is one example of this. Alternatively, next generation systems such as
WiMAX also provide pure packet switched services with no need to support the circuit
switching services required for voice systems. WiMAX is available in multiple
configurations, including both NLOS and LOS variants. UMTS-TDD, WiMAX, and
proprietary systems such as Canopy are used by Wireless ISPs to provide broadband
access without the need for direct cable access to the end user.

Some systems are designed for point-to-point line-of-sight communications, such as

RONJA and IrDA; once 2 such nodes get too far apart to directly communicate, they can
no longer communicate. Other systems are designed to form a wireless mesh network
using one of a variety of routing protocols. In a mesh network, when 2 nodes get too far
apart to directly communicate, they can still indirectly communicate through intermediate
nodes.

Frequency
Allocated Frequencies
Standard Frequencies Spectrum Type
850 MHz, 1.9, 1.9/2.1, and
UMTS over W-CDMA Licensed (Cellular/PCS/3G/AWS)
1.7/2.1 GHz
450, 850 MHz, 1.9, 2, 2.5, Licensed (Cellular, 3G TDD,
UMTS-TDD and 3.5 GHz[3] BRS/IMT-ext, FWA)
2 GHz Unlicensed (see note)
CDMA2000 (inc. EV- 450, 850, 900 MHz 1.7, 1.8,
Licensed (Cellular/PCS/3G/AWS)
DO, 1xRTT) 1.9, and 2.1 GHz
850 MHz 900 MHz 1.8 GHz
EDGE/GPRS Licensed (Cellular/PCS/PCN)
1.9 GHz
iBurst 1.8, 1.9 and 2.1 GHz Licensed
Flash-OFDM 450 and 870 MHz Licensed
802.16e 2.3, 2.5, 3.5, 3.7 and 5.8 GHz Licensed
802.11a 5.25, 5.6 and 5.8 GHz Unlicensed 802.11a and ISM
802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz Unlicensed ISM
Bluetooth 2.4 GHz Unlicensed ISM
Wibree 2.4 GHz Unlicensed ISM
868 MHz, 915 MHz, 2.4
ZigBee Unlicensed ISM
GHz
Wireless USB, UWB 3.1 to 10.6 GHz Unlicensed Ultrawideband
EnOcean 868.3 MHz Unlicensed ISM
http://cnx.org/content/m12293/latest/

Serial communication is a popular means

of transmitting data between a computer and a peripheral device
such as a programmable instrument or even another
computer. Serial communication uses a transmitter to send data,
one bit at a time, over a single communication line to a
receiver. You can use this method when data transfer rates are
low or you must transfer data over long distances. Serial
communication is popular because most computers have one or more
serial ports, so no extra hardware is needed other than a cable
to connect the instrument to the computer or two computers
together.

Figure 1:
1: RS-232 Instrument,2: RS-232 Cable, 3: Serial Port
Figure 1 (sercomm.png)

Serial communication requires that you specify the following

four parameters:
 *

The baud rate of the transmission

The number of data bits encoding a character

The sense of the optional parity bit

The number of stop bits

Each transmitted character is packaged in a character frame that

consists of a single start bit followed by the data bits, the
optional parity bit, and the stop bit or bits. Figure 2 shows a typical character frame
encoding the
letter m.

Figure 2Figure 2 (charframe.png)

Baud rate is a measure of how fast data are moving between

instruments that use serial communication. RS-232 uses only two
voltage states, called MARK and SPACE. In such a two-state
coding scheme, the baud rate is identical to the maximum number
of bits of information, including control bits, that are
transmitted per second.
 MARK is a negative voltage, and SPACE is positive. Figure 2 shows how the
idealized signal looks on an
oscilloscope. The following is the truth table for RS-232:

Signal>3V=0

Signal

3
V

Signal>-3V=1

Signal

-3
V

The output signal level usually swings between +12 V and -12
V. The dead area between +3 V and -3 V is designed to absorb
line noise.
A start bit signals the beginning of each character frame. It is
a transition from negative (MARK) to positive (SPACE)
voltage. Its duration in seconds is the reciprocal of the baud
rate. If the instrument is transmitting at 9,600 baud, the
duration of the start bit and each subsequent bit is about 0.104
ms. The entire character frame of eleven bits would be
transmitted in about 1.146 ms.

Data bits are transmitted upside down and backwards. That is,
inverted logic is used, and the order of transmission is from
least significant bit (LSB) to most significant bit (MSB). To
interpret the data bits in a character frame, you must read from
right to left and read 1 for negative voltage and 0 for positive
voltage. This yields 1101101 (binary) or 6D (hex). An ASCII
conversion table shows that this is the letter m.

An optional parity bit follows the data bits in the character

frame. The parity bit, if present, also follows inverted logic,
1 for negative voltage and 0 for positive voltage. This bit is
included as a simple means of error handling. You specify ahead
of time whether the parity of the transmission is to be even or
odd. If the parity is chosen to be odd, the transmitter then
sets the parity bit in such a way as to make an odd number of
ones among the data bits and the parity bit. This transmission
uses odd parity. There are five ones among the data bits,
already an odd number, so the parity bit is set to 0.

The last part of a character frame consists of 1, 1.5, or 2 stop

bits. These bits are always represented by a negative
voltage. If no further characters are transmitted, the line
stays in the negative (MARK) condition. The transmission of the
next character frame, if any, is heralded by a start bit of
 positive (SPACE) voltage.

How Fast Can I Transmit?

Knowing the structure of a character frame and the meaning of

baud rate as it applies to serial communication, you can
calculate the maximum transmission rate, in characters per
second, for a given communication setting. This rate is just
the baud rate divided by the bits per frame. In the previous
example, there are a total of eleven bits per character
frame. If the transmission rate is set at 9,600 baud, you get

9,60011=872

9,600
11

872
characters per second. Notice that this is the
maximum character transmission rate. The hardware on one end
or the other of the serial link might not be able to reach
these rates, for various reasons.

Hardware Overview

There are many different recommended standards of serial port

communication, including the following most common types.

RS-232

The RS-232 is a standard developed by the

Electronic Industries Association
(EIA) and other interested parties, specifying
the serial interface between Data Terminal
Equipment (DTE) and Data
Communications Equipment (DCE). The
 RS-232 standard includes electrical signal characteristics
(voltage levels), interface mechanical characteristics
(connectors), functional description of interchange circuits
(the function of each electrical signal), and some recipes
for common kinds of terminal-to-modem connections. The most
frequently encountered revision of this standard is called
RS-232C. Parts of this standard have been adopted (with
various degrees of fidelity) for use in serial
communications between computers and printers, modems, and
other equipment. The serial ports on standard IBM-compatible
personal computers follow RS-232.

RS-449, RS-422, RS-423

The RS-449, RS-422, and RS-423 are additional EIA serial

communication standards related to RS-232. RS-449 was issued
in 1975 and was supposed to supersede RS-232, but few
manufacturers have embraced the newer standard. RS-449
contains two subspecifications called RS-422 and
RS-423. While RS-232 modulates a signal with respect to a
common ground, or single-ended transmission, RS-422
modulates two signals against each other, or differential
transmission. The RS-232C receiver senses whether the
received signal is sufficiently negative with respect to
ground to be a logical 1, whereas the RS-422 receiver senses
which line is more negative than the other. This makes
RS-422 more immune to noise and interference and more
versatile over longer distances. The Macintosh serial ports
follow RS-422, which can be converted to RS-423 by proper
wiring of an external cable. RS-423 can then communicate
with most RS-232 devices over distances of 15 m or so.

RS-232 Cabling

Devices that use serial cables for their communication are

split into two categories. These are DCE and DTE. DCE are
devices such as a modem, TA adapter, plotter, and so on,
while DTE is a computer or terminal. RS-232 serial ports
come in two sizes, the D-Type 25-pin connector and the
D-Type 9-pin connector. Both of these connectors are male on
the back of the PC. Thus, you require a female connector on the device. Table 1
shows the pin connections for the 9-pin and
25-pin D-Type connectors.
Figure 3Figure 3 (dtypepin.png)
Table 1

Function
Signal
PIN
DTE
DCE

Data
TxD
3
Output
Input

RxD
2
Input
Output

Handshake
RTS
7
Output
Input

CTS
8
Input
Output

DSR
6
Input
Output
 DCD
1
Input
Output

STR
4
Output
Input

Common
Com
5
--
--

Other
RI
9
Output
Input

The DB-9 connector is occasionally found on smaller RS-232

lab equipment. It is compact, yet has enough pins for the
core set of serial pins (with one pin extra).

Note:

The DB-9 pin numbers for transmit and receive (3 and 2) are
opposite of those on the DB-25 connector (2 and 3). Be
careful of this difference when you are determining if a
device is DTE or DCE.
 The DB-25 connector is the
standard RS-232 connector, with enough pins to cover all the
signals specified in the standard. Table 2
shows only the core set of pins that are used for most
RS-232 interfaces.

Figure 4Figure 4 (db25pin.png)

Table 2

Function
Signal
PIN
DTE
DCE

Data
TxD
2
Output
Input

RxD
3
Input
Output

Handshake
RTS
4
Output
Input

CTS
5
Input
 Output

DSR
6
Input
Output

DCD
8
Input
Output

STR
20
Output
Input

Common
Com
7
--
--

Software Overview

Use the VIs and functions located on the Functions>>All

Functions>>Instrument I/O>>Serial palette for serial
port communication.

You used some of the VISA functions on this palette for GPIB
communication. The VISA Write and VISA
 Read functions work with any type of instrument
communication and are the same whether you are doing GPIB or
serial communication. However, because serial communication
requires you to configure extra parameters, you must start the
serial port communication with the VISA Configure Serial
Port VI.

The VISA Configure Serial Port VI initializes the

port identified by VISA resource name to the
specified settings. timeout sets the timeout
value for the serial communication. baud rate,
data bits, parity, and flow
control specify those specific serial port
parameters. The error in and error
out clusters maintain the error conditions for this VI.

Example 1

Figure 5 shows how to send the

identification query command *IDN? to the
instrument connected to the COM2 serial port. The VISA
Configure Serial Port VI opens communication with
COM2 and sets it to 9,600 baud, eight data bits, odd parity,
one stop bit, and XON/XOFF software handshaking. Then the
VISA Write function sends the command. The
VISA Read function reads back up to 200 bytes
into the read buffer, and the Simple Error
Handler VI checks the error condition.

Figure 5Figure 5 (serialVISAcnfg.png)

Note:

The VIs and functions located on the Functions>>All

Functions>>Instrument I/O>>Serial palette are also used
for parallel port communication. You specify the VISA resource
name as being one of the LPT ports. For example, you can use
MAX to determine that LPT1 has a VISA resource name of
ASRL10::INSTR.