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About This Tool
This embedded hardware calculator computes serial UART transmission timing, bit durations, effective data throughput in KB/s, and hardware FIFO buffer fill times. When configuring serial communication between microcontrollers (such as Arduino, ESP32, and STM32) and host computers or peripheral sensors, baud rate and framing bits determine real-world transmission throughput and latency.
### UART Frame Timing Formulas The calculator computes timing based on serial frame parameters in client memory:
- **Total Frame Bits ($B_{\text{frame}}$):** Evaluated as $B_{\text{frame}} = 1\text{ (start bit)} + \text{dataBits} + \text{stopBits}$. For standard 8-N-1 serial, $1 + 8 + 1 = 10\text{ bits per character}$. - **Single Bit Duration ($t_{\text{bit}}$):** $t_{\text{bit}} = (1 / \text{baudRate}) \times 10^6\ \mu\text{s}$. - **Character Transmission Time ($t_{\text{char}}$):** $t_{\text{char}} = t_{\text{bit}} \times B_{\text{frame}}\ \mu\text{s}$. - **Maximum Throughput ($T_{\text{KB/s}}$):** $T_{\text{KB/s}} = (\text{baudRate} / B_{\text{frame}}) / 1,024$. - **FIFO Buffer Fill Time ($t_{\text{FIFO}}$):** $t_{\text{FIFO}} = [\text{bufferSize} / (\text{baudRate} / B_{\text{frame}})] \times 1,000\text{ ms}$.
### Worked Numeric Example Suppose an ESP32 microcontroller transmits debug logs at 115,200 baud with standard 8-N-1 framing (8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity) into a 64-byte hardware FIFO buffer:
- **Baud Rate:** 115,200 bps - **Bits per Character:** $1 + 8 + 1 = 10\text{ bits}$ - **Hardware FIFO:** 64 bytes
**Step-by-Step Calculation:** 1. **Bit Duration:** $(1 / 115,200) \times 10^6 \approx 8.68\ \mu\text{s}$. 2. **Byte Duration:** $8.68\ \mu\text{s} \times 10 = 86.81\ \mu\text{s}$. 3. **Max Character Throughput:** $115,200 / 10 = 11,520\text{ bytes/sec}$. 4. **Effective Throughput:** $11,520 / 1,024 \approx 11.25\text{ KB/s}$. 5. **FIFO Buffer Fill Time:** $(64 / 11,520) \times 1,000 \approx 5.56\text{ milliseconds}$.
### Client-Side Processing Note All serial UART timing evaluations run locally in your client web browser via JavaScript arithmetic. Zero microcontroller parameters or port logs are transmitted across any network.
How to Use
- 1
Select your serial communication baud rate (e.g., 9600, 115200, or 921600 bps).
- 2
Specify the data bits per frame (typically 8) and stop bits (1 or 2).
- 3
Enter the hardware FIFO receive/transmit buffer size in bytes.
- 4
Review effective data throughput in KB/s, character transmission time, and buffer fill duration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does 115,200 baud transfer at 11.25 KB/s instead of 14.4 KB/s?
UART asynchronous transmission wraps every 8-bit data byte in start and stop framing bits (10 total bits in 8-N-1), consuming 20% of transmitted bandwidth for frame synchronization.
What is a hardware FIFO buffer fill time?
FIFO fill time indicates how quickly incoming serial data will overflow the microcontroller receive buffer if the CPU interrupt or DMA handler does not service the UART peripheral.
Are any serial communication settings sent to external servers?
No. All timing calculations evaluate strictly in your client browser runtime.