An Adaptable UART Based Configuration and Read-out Interface for IC Prototypes

This paper presents an easy-to-use UART (universal asynchronous receiver transmitter) based communication pro- tocol named SERIAS which can configure a test or prototype IC (integrated circuit) directly with a PC using the serial interface (EIA-232, former RS-232/V.10). For PCs without a serial interface, USB can be used, combined with an appropiate bridge IC. It is also possible to read data from the IC. The universal protocol is implemented in a hardware description language (HDL) on the IC side and in MATLAB on the PC side and can be easily adapted to the requirements and the structure of the specific IC. The implementation can also be used to communicate with a prototype design on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).