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ATmega165A/PA/325A/PA/3250A/PA/645A/P/6450A/P [DATASHEET]
8285E–AVR–02/2013
20.6.3
Transmitter Flags and Interrupts
The USART Transmitter has two flags that indicate its state: USART Data Register Empty (UDREn) and Transmit
Complete (TXCn). Both flags can be used for generating interrupts.
The Data Register Empty (UDREn) Flag indicates whether the transmit buffer is ready to receive new data. This bit
is set when the transmit buffer is empty, and cleared when the transmit buffer contains data to be transmitted that
has not yet been moved into the Shift Register. For compatibility with future devices, always write this bit to zero
when writing the UCSRnA Register.
When the Data Register Empty Interrupt Enable (UDRIEn) bit in UCSRnB is written to one, the USART Data Reg-
ister Empty Interrupt will be executed as long as UDREn is set (provided that global interrupts are enabled).
UDREn is cleared by writing UDRn. When interrupt-driven data transmission is used, the Data Register Empty
interrupt routine must either write new data to UDRn in order to clear UDREn or disable the Data Register Empty
interrupt, otherwise a new interrupt will occur once the interrupt routine terminates.
The Transmit Complete (TXCn) Flag bit is set one when the entire frame in the Transmit Shift Register has been
shifted out and there are no new data currently present in the transmit buffer. The TXCn Flag bit is automatically
cleared when a transmit complete interrupt is executed, or it can be cleared by writing a one to its bit location. The
TXCn Flag is useful in half-duplex communication interfaces (like the RS-485 standard), where a transmitting appli-
cation must enter receive mode and free the communication bus immediately after completing the transmission.
When the Transmit Compete Interrupt Enable (TXCIEn) bit in UCSRnB is set, the USART Transmit Complete
Interrupt will be executed when the TXCn Flag becomes set (provided that global interrupts are enabled). When
the transmit complete interrupt is used, the interrupt handling routine does not have to clear the TXCn Flag, this is
done automatically when the interrupt is executed.
20.6.4
Parity Generator
The Parity Generator calculates the parity bit for the serial frame data. When parity bit is enabled (UPM1n = 1), the
transmitter control logic inserts the parity bit between the last data bit and the first stop bit of the frame that is sent.
20.6.5
Disabling the Transmitter
The disabling of the Transmitter (setting the TXENn to zero) will not become effective until ongoing and pending
transmissions are completed, i.e., when the Transmit Shift Register and Transmit Buffer Register do not contain
data to be transmitted. When disabled, the Transmitter will no longer override the TxD pin.