Implementing UART Architecture on FPGA
Keywords:
Asynchronous transmission, Baud rate generator, FIFO buffer, FPGA, Serial communication, Spartan-3, UART, Verilog HDLAbstract
The universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) is a widely adopted serial communication protocol in embedded systems due to its simplicity, reliability, and minimal hardware requirements. This work presents the design, implementation, and verification of a complete UART architecture using Verilog hardware description language (HDL) on a Spartan-3 FPGA platform. The proposed system comprises four essential modules: a baud rate generator, transmitter, receiver, and FIFO buffer, which collectively enable reliable asynchronous serial communication at a standard baud rate of 9600 bits per second (bps). The baud rate generator provides accurate timing control, while the transmitter and receiver modules handle serial data formatting, transmission, and recovery in compliance with UART protocol specifications. The inclusion of a FIFO buffer enhances data integrity by managing data flow and preventing loss during transmission. The entire architecture is synthesized using Xilinx ISE 14.7 and verified through detailed simulation and real-time hardware testing. Successful communication between a personal computer and the FPGA is demonstrated, with received data displayed using onboard LEDs for visual verification. The synthesis results show efficient FPGA resource utilization of less than 10%, highlighting the suitability of the design for cost-effective and low-power embedded applications. This implementation offers practical insight into hardware-level serial communication and provides a robust foundation for future UART-based IoT, automation, and embedded system designs.
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