Usage of Xilinx built-in UART function #define XUartPs_IsReceiveData (BaseAddress ) - c

Question

So I am trying to use this built-in UART function (from the Vitis SDK from Xilinix) to determine if there is a valid byte to read over UART. I created this function to return 1 if there was a byte to read or 0 if there wasn't
u32 UartHasMessage(void){
if(XUartPs_IsReceiveData(&XUartPs_Main)){
return 1;
}
else{
return 0;
}
}
However, even when there is a byte to read over UART, this function always returns false.
The weird behavior I am experiencing is when I step through the code using the debugger, I call UartHasMessage() to check if there is a byte to read, and it returns false, but in the next line I call a function to read a byte over UART and that contains the correct byte I sent over the host.
u32 test - UartHasMessage();
UartGetByte(&HostReply);
How come this UartHasMessage always returns false, but then in the next line I am able to read the byte correctly?

Answer 1

Caveat: Without some more information, this is a bit speculative and might be a comment, but it is too large for that.
The information below comes from the Xilinx documentation on various pages ...
XUartPs_RecvByte will block until a byte is ready. So, no need to call XUartPs_IsReceiveData directly (I think that XUartPS_RecvByte calls it internally).
A web search on XUartPs_Main came up with nothing, so we'd need to see the definition you have.
Most Xilinx documentation uses UART_BASEADDRESS:
#define UART_BASEADDR XPAR_XUARTPS_0_BASEADDR
I found a definition:
#define XPAR_XUARTPS_0_BASEADDR 0xE0001000
You might be better off using a more standard method, such as calling the XUartPs_LookupConfig function to get the configuration table entry which has all relevant values.
I'm guessing that you created the XUartPS_Main definition.
But, based on what you posted, (needing &XUartPS_Main instead of XUartPS_Main), it is linked/loaded at the exact address of the UART register bank. Let's assume that address is (e.g.) 0x10000. So, we might have:
u32 XUartPS_Main __attribute__(at(0x10000));
The at is an extension that some build systems support (e.g. arm) that forces the variable to be loaded at a given address. So, let's assume we have that (even if the mechanism is slightly different (e.g.):
__attribute__((section(".ARM.__at_0x10000")))
The definition of XUARTPS_SR_OFFSET is:
#define XUARTPS_SR_OFFSET 0x002CU
Offsets are [typically] byte offsets.
Given:
#define XUartPs_IsReceiveData(BaseAddress) \
!((Xil_In32((BaseAddress) + XUARTPS_SR_OFFSET) & \
(u32)XUARTPS_SR_RXEMPTY) == (u32)XUARTPS_SR_RXEMPTY)
Now if the definition of XUartPS_Main uses u32 [as above], we may have a problem because XUARTPS_SR_OFFSET will be treated as a u32 index and not a byte offset. So, it will access the wrong address.
So, try:
XUartPs_IsReceiveData((unsigned char *) &XUartPs_Main)
But, if it were me, I'd rework things to use Xilinx's standard definitions.
UPDATE:
Hi so XUartPs_main is defined as static XUartPs XUartPs_Main; I use it in a variety of functions such as a function to send bytes over uart and I call it by its address like I did with this function, all my other functions work as expected except this one. Is it possible it is something to do with the way the fifo works? –
29belgrade29
No, not all the API functions are the same.
The struct definition is [I synthesized this from the API doc]:
typedef struct {
u16 DeviceId; // Unique ID of device.
u32 BaseAddress; // Base address of device (IPIF)
u32 InputClockHz;
} XUartPs;
Somewhere in your code you had to initialize this with:
XUartPs_Main = XUartPs_ConfigTable[my_device_id];
Or, with:
XUartPs_Main = *XUartPs_LookupConfig(my_device_id);
If an API function is defined as (e.g.):
void api_dosomething(XUartPs_Config *cfg,...)
Then, you call it with:
api_dosomething(&XUartPs_Main,...);
So, most functions probably take such a pointer.
But, XUartPs_IsReceiveData does not want a pointer to a XUartPs_Config struct. It wants a base address. This is:
XUartPs_Main.BaseAddress
So, you want:
XUartPs_IsReceiveData(XUartPs_Main.BaseAddress)