International Journal of Computer Applications |
Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA |
Volume 40 - Number 7 |
Year of Publication: 2012 |
Authors: Manoj Kumar Meena, Neelam Rup Prakash |
10.5120/4977-7234 |
Manoj Kumar Meena, Neelam Rup Prakash . ARM7TDMI based Low Cost Portable Serial Asynchronous Protocol Analyzer. International Journal of Computer Applications. 40, 7 ( February 2012), 27-32. DOI=10.5120/4977-7234
This brief proposes a novel low–cost serial asynchronous communication protocol analyzer based on ARM7TDMI micro controller. The paper also suggests the hardware configuration & software algorithms to implement such an embedded system. The ARM-7 microcontroller, a 32-bit architecture along with a full fledge 16C550 UART, high speed configurable timers, number of power saving modes & efficient algorithms explained in the paper, becomes very good choice for implementing a portable serial link debugging tool. The system compared to basic analysis tool like oscilloscope & logic analyzer, will not be able to detect voltage levels but will certainly be able to extract timing parameters. The system will be able to detect serial parameters like baud rate, data bits & parity at data layer & refresh rate, ideal time, transmission time, message format at application layer. This system unlike the traditional protocol analyzers can be made very light, compact, low power, low cost & rugged, making it suitable for field operations. The protocol analyzer proposed here has been thought off keeping in view the resource lacking & not so friendly debugging environment of most of the military systems operating in the field.