MaxLinear’s 8-bit UARTs are the industry’s largest UART product family offering devices from 1 to 8 channels and FIFO sizes up to 128 Bytes. Each UART has a parallel 8-bit bus interface. The UART offloads the serialization and de-serialization of the data from the MCU or processor. The enhanced features simplify hardware design and software development. The “Intel” interface has separate address, data, read and write lines. The “Motorola” interface has separate address and data lines, but the read/write lines are shared. The “VLIO” interface has separate read and write lines, but the address and data lines are multiplexed. Almost all of the 8-bit UARTs are compatible with the industry-standard 16550 UARTs, hence, they can use the standard serial port drivers in almost all operating systems.

The 2-channel 8-bit UART family integrates 2 UARTs into a single package and further simplifies the hardware design by eliminating redundant external components. In the “Intel” mode, there is a chip select and interrupt pin per channel. In the “Motorola” mode, there is only 1 chip select and 1 interrupt pin. Most UARTs in this family are software compatible with the industry standard 16550 UART, so they can be used with the standard serial port drivers in most operating systems. Some products in this family also have a parallel port (ST16C452/452PS/552/552A). The parallel ports will work with standard parallel port drivers.

The 4-channel and 8-channel product families integrate 4 and 8 UARTs into a single package. In addition, the XR16L784 and XR16xx98 families also support a single chip select and single interrupt pin in both the “Intel” and “Motorola” mode to simplify the hardware design. These devices also have a global interrupt status register so the software can quickly determine which UART generated the interrupt without having to check the status of all of the individual UART channels. Almost all of these UARTs are based on the industry-standard 16550 UART, and are therefore compatible with standard serial port drivers. However, some driver customization may be required. Assistance for customizing software drivers is available from MaxLinear’s UART technical support team.

MaxLinear’s Combo UARTs combine a single channel Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter (UART) with a serial transceiver. They are designed to operate from a single 3.3V or 5V supply.

I2C/SPI Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UARTs) that include a simple 2-wire (I2C) or 4-wire (SPI) interface

MaxLinear offers 2-channel and 4-channel Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitters (UARTs) for the Intel Low Pin Count (LPC) bus interface. They are software compatible with the industry-standard 16550 and can use the standard serial port drivers found in almost all operating systems.

MaxLinear’s LPC UARTs are I/O mapped to traditional COM port addresses of 0x3F8, 0x2F8, 0x3E8 and 0x2E8 by default. If those addresses are not available, the BIOS can program other I/O addresses in the base address registers at boot-up

PCI Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitters (UARTs) are designed for use in system boards or add-in cards. MaxLinear offers pin compatible 2-, 4-, and 8-channel versions so a single design can support 4 or 8 ports.

These UARTs are software compatible with the industry-standard 16550 UARTs. Native support for MaxLinear’s PCI UARTs is built-in to the latest Linux kernels. Custom software drivers for Windows, Windows Server, Windows Embedded Compact, Linux, VxWorks and QNX are also available.

PCI Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitters (UARTs) are designed for use in system boards or add-in cards. MaxLinear offers pin compatible 2-, 4-, and 8-channel versions so a single design can support 4 or 8 ports.

The 4-channel and 8-channel PCIe UARTs have a proprietary master/slave expansion bus interface that enables up to 16 ports on a single x1 PCIe lane. These UARTs are software compatible with the industry-standard 16550 UARTs. Native support for MaxLinear’s PCIe UARTs is built-in to the latest Linux kernels. Custom software drivers for Windows, Windows Server, Windows Embedded Compact, Linux, VxWorks and QNX are also available.

MaxLinear’s Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter (UART) devices with a USB 2.0 data bus interface are designed for peripheral or inter-system communication and offer up to four UART ports in an ultra-compact package.

All of MaxLinear’s USB UART products are designed for reliability in consumer and industrial environments. Error checking is built in with MaxLinear’s “Wide Mode” feature. This enables software to check error and status bits concurrently with data. For applications where the USB interface may be disconnected and reconnected while a COM port is still open, MaxLinear provides the XRUSB1 Windows driver that eliminates the need to close the COM port in the host application. 

Development is simple with MaxLinear’s USB UART bridging products. The devices work with the standard software drivers in Windows, Linux, Android and Mac OS X. Custom software drivers and applications are also available or for those instances where a standard driver is not available or where unique functionality is required. For example, MaxLinear USB UARTs are easily configured for any non-standard baud rate over 300bps and the GPIOs are readily tailored for enhanced functionality. All the custom Windows drivers are certified to the Microsoft WHQL/HCK standard to ensure compatibility and reliable performance.

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