User’s Manual
32
4.2 Serial Communication
The RCM4510W module does not have any serial driver or receiver chips directly on the board.
However, a serial interface may be incorporated on the board the RCM4510W is mounted on. For
example, the Prototyping Board has an RS-232 transceiver chip.
4.2.1 Serial Ports
There are six serial ports designated as Serial Ports A, B, C, D, E, and F. All six serial ports can
operate in an asynchronous mode up to the baud rate of the system clock divided by 8. An asyn-
chronous port can handle 7 or 8 data bits. A 9th bit address scheme, where an additional bit is sent
to mark the first byte of a message, is also supported.
Serial Port A is normally used as a programming port, but may be used either as an asynchronous
or as a clocked serial port once application development has been completed and the RCM4510W
is operating in the Run Mode.
Serial Port B is shared with the RCM4510W module’s asynchronous XBee RF module. Flow
control for the XBee RF module is provided from the Rabbit 4000 RxD+ and TxD– Ethernet pins.
Serial Ports C and D can also be operated in the clocked serial mode. In this mode, a clock line
synchronously clocks the data in or out. Either of the two communicating devices can supply the
clock. Note that PD2 and PD0 provide the SCLKC and SCLKD outputs automatically when
Serial Ports C and D are set up as clocked serial ports.
Serial Ports E and F can also be configured as SDLC/HDLC serial ports. The IrDA protocol is
also supported in SDLC format by these two ports. Serial Ports E and F must be configured
before they can be used. The sample program
IOCONFIG_SWITCHECHO.C
in the Dynamic C
SAMPLES\RCM4500W\SERIAL
folder shows how to configure Serial Ports E and F.
