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USART Vs UART Know The Difference

A USART can operate synchronously by generating or receiving a clock signal, allowing higher data rates than a UART. A USART also supports more communication protocols than a UART. While they have differences, a USART can function as a standard UART in many applications.

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Sandra Daniela Rotaru
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156 views

USART Vs UART Know The Difference

A USART can operate synchronously by generating or receiving a clock signal, allowing higher data rates than a UART. A USART also supports more communication protocols than a UART. While they have differences, a USART can function as a standard UART in many applications.

Uploaded by

Sandra Daniela Rotaru
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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USART vs UART: Know the difference

Jacob Beningo - September 21, 2015

Have you ever used the term UART only to be corrected by another engineer that it isn’t a UART but
USART? In certain circumstances the interchangeability of these terms may be appropriate but in
many cases it is in error. Let’s examine what a USART and a UART are, and discuss the major
differences.

Most embedded engineers are familiar with a UART: a Universal Asynchronous


Receiver/Transmitter. It is a microcontroller peripheral that converts incoming and outgoing bytes of
data into a serial bit stream. A start bit initiates the serial bit stream and a stop bit (or two)
completes the data word. A UART also has the option of adding a parity bit to the stream to assist in
detecting if a bit error occurs during transmission. Figure 1 shows a standard example of what an
engineer would expect to see from data transmitted through a UART.

Figure 1 – UART Serial Data

A USART -- a Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter -- is a microcontroller


peripheral that converts incoming and outgoing bytes of data into a serial bit stream. Hmm. The
definition of a USART is identical to that of a UART, but with "synchronous" added to the term.
Surely there are some more meaningful differences? Otherwise, a USART would just be known as a
UART.

Well, there are differences – important ones. The first difference between a USART and a UART is
the way in which the serial data may be clocked. A UART generates its data clock internally to the
microcontroller and synchronizes that clock with the data stream by using the start bit transition.
There is no incoming clock signal that is associated with the data, so in order to properly receive the
data stream the receiver needs to know ahead of time what the baud rate should be.

A USART, on the other hand, can be set up to run in synchronous mode. In this mode the sending
peripheral will generate a clock that the receiving peripheral can recover from the data stream
without knowing the baud rate ahead of time. Alternatively, the link will use a completely separate
line to carry the clock signal. The use of the external clock allows the data rate of the USART to be
much higher than that of a standard UART, reaching up to rates of 4 Mbps.

The second major difference between a USART and a UART is the number of protocols the
peripheral can support. A UART is simple and only offers a few options from its base format, such as
number of stop bits and even or odd parity. A USART is more complex and can generate data in a
form corresponding to many different standard protocols such as IrDA, LIN, Smart Card, Driver
Enable for RS-485 interfaces, and Modbus, to name a few. A USART also has the same asynchronous
capabilities as a UART, that is, a USART can generate the same type of serial data as seen in Figure
1.

USART and UART peripherals have definitely different capabilities and can be useful in different
situations, so a developer may find both peripherals onboard a standard microcontroller. For
example, take a microcontroller that is targeting low-power design such as the STM32 family. The
STM32 parts have both a USART and a UART peripheral on-chip. The USART is meant to do all of
the "heavy lifting" serial communication during periods of “high” energy consumption. When the
microcontroller is asleep and in a low power mode, though, the UART peripheral can handle low
speed communications while offering a reduced energy footprint.

Are USARTs and UARTs the same? Technically the answer is no. A USART generally has more
capabilities that a standard UART and the ability to generate clocked data allows the USART to
operate at baud rates well beyond a UART's capabilities. A USART does encompass the capabilities
of a UART, though, and in many applications, despite having the power of a USART, developers use
them as simple UARTs, ignoring or avoiding the synchronous clock generation capability of these
powerful peripherals. No wonder so many people use the terms as though they were synonyms.

Also see:

● Isolated USB-to-UART converter builds in 20 minutes for $20


● 5 Tips for driver design
● Introduction to direct memory access

Jacob Beningo is a Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) whose expertise is in


embedded software. He works with companies to decrease costs and time to market while
maintaining a quality and robust product. Feel free to contact him at jacob@beningo.com, at his
website www.beningo.com, and sign-up for his monthly Embedded Bytes Newsletter here.

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