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Day 11 Lab: UART Transmitter

Starter Code

Download All Starter Code (.zip)

Individual exercise downloads and file links are below each exercise.

Overview

Build and verify a complete UART TX module, then send "HELLO" from the Go Board to your PC terminal.

Prerequisites

  • Pre-class video on UART protocol and TX architecture
  • Working debounce module from Day 5
  • Working hex_to_7seg from Day 2

Exercises

Checking your work. Run make test from inside an exercise's starter/ directory to compare your DUT against the reference and get a PASS/FAIL — no flags or unlocking. If you want to see the worked answer, it is in that exercise's ../solution/ref/.

# Exercise Time Key SLOs
1 Baud Rate Generator 15 min 11.2
2 UART TX Module + Testbench 40 min 11.3, 11.4
3 Hardware Verification 25 min 11.5
4 Multi-Character Sender 20 min 11.3, 11.5
5 Parity Support (Stretch) 15 min 11.3

Ex 1 — Baud Rate Generator

  • Self-check: cd ex1_baud_gen/starter && make test — passes when your output matches the reference
  • (Optional) Reference: the worked answer is in ../solution/ref/.

Ex 2 — UART TX Module

  • Self-check: cd ex2_uart_tx/starter && make test — passes when your output matches the reference
  • (Optional) Reference: the worked answer is in ../solution/ref/.

Ex 3 — Hardware Verification

  • Self-check: cd ex3_hardware_verify/starter && make test — passes when your output matches the reference
  • (Optional) Reference: the worked answer is in ../solution/ref/.

Deliverables

  1. Baud generator verified in simulation
  2. UART TX with self-checking protocol-aware testbench (all tests pass)
  3. "HELLO" received on PC terminal emulator

Terminal Setup

Platform Command
Linux screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
macOS screen /dev/cu.usbserial-* 115200
Windows PuTTY → COMx, 115200, 8N1

Build Commands Quick Reference

# ── from labs/week3_day11/exN_*/starter/ ──
make test                            # run published self-checking testbench (PASS/FAIL)

Exercise Code

Ex 1 — Baud Gen

Starter .zip Solution .zip

Ex 2 — Uart Tx

Starter .zip Solution .zip

Ex 3 — Hardware Verify

Starter .zip Solution .zip

Discussion

Discussion