22.4 Serial I/O Protocol Implementations

The implementation of the Serial I/O Protocol is typically found in the file SerialIo.c. Appendix A contains a template for a SerialIo.c file for a UEFI Driver. The list of tasks to implement the Serial I/O Protocol is as follows:

• Add global variable for the EFI_SERIAL_IO_PROTOCOL instance to SerialIo.c.
• Add global variable for the EFI_SERIAL_IO_MODE structure to SerialIo.c.
• Implement the Serial I/O Protocol services in SerialIo.c.
• Create a child handle with the Serial I/O Protocol and a Device Path Protocol.

The Device Path Protocol chapter of the UEFI Specification defines a UART Device Path Node that must be used in the Device Path Protocol for any device that supports the Serial I/O Protocol.

This example shows the protocol interface structure for the Serial I/O Protocol for reference. This protocol is composed of six services, a Revision value, and pointer to a Mode structure.

Example 230-Simple Text Output Protocol

typedef struct _EFI_SERIAL_IO_PROTOCOL EFI_SERIAL_IO_PROTOCOL;

///
/// The Serial I/O protocol is used to communicate with UART-style serial devices.
/// These can be standard UART serial ports in PC-AT systems, serial ports attached
/// to a USB interface, or potentially any character-based I/O device.
///
struct _EFI_SERIAL_IO_PROTOCOL {
  ///
  /// The revision to which the EFI_SERIAL_IO_PROTOCOL adheres. All future
  /// revisions must be backwards compatible. If a future version is not backwards
  /// compatible, it is not the same GUID.
  ///
  UINT32 Revision;
  EFI_SERIAL_RESET             Reset;
  EFI_SERIAL_SET_ATTRIBUTES    SetAttributes;
  EFI_SERIAL_SET_CONTROL_BITS  SetControl;
  EFI_SERIAL_GET_CONTROL_BITS  GetControl;
  EFI_SERIAL_WRITE             Write;
  EFI_SERIAL_READ              Read;
  ///
  /// Pointer to SERIAL_IO_MODE data.
  ///
  EFI_SERIAL_IO_MODE           *Mode;
};

Note: Mode must be updated each time that `SetControl()' or 'SetAttributes()' is called. This allows the consumers of the Serial I/O Protocol to retrieve the current state of the Serial I/O device.