[comp.sys.apple] using the ACIA directly

reeder@reed.UUCP (Doug Reeder) (02/18/90)

I am writing interrupt-driven software that uses the IIc serial port, which
is very similar to the Apple SSC (84 km in circumfrence, built in Texas),
thus I am not using the serial firmware.  The software waits for an
interrupt, and if it is from the transmit register being empty, it writes a
character to the transmit/recieve register. I've set the ACIA command
register to %00001110 and the Command register to %00000101 to set the port
to 8N1, 9600 baud, transmit interrputs enabled, recieve interrupts disabled.

1) if on an interrupt, I don't write to the data register, will the ACIA
ever give me another transmit interrupt?

2) Does the ACIA signal an interrupt whenever its DCD or DSR inputs change 
state?

3) What happens when the ACIA signals an interrupt while interrupts are
disabled?  Does IRQ* stay low until interrupts are enabled, so it interrupts
then?  Does IRQ* stay low until the ACIA status register is read?

4) When I configure the ACIA to generate transmit interrupts by setting the
appropiate bits in the command register, how soon does the first "transmit
date register empty" interrupt arrive?  Do I need to have interrputs
disabled while I set up?

-- 
Doug Reeder                                   USENET: ...!tektronix!reed!reeder
from ARPA: tektronix!reed!reeder@berkeley.EDU BITNET: reeder@reed.BITNET
the Little Mermaid on materialism:
I just don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things ... could be bad!