HeapCrash / Challenges / Runtime baud-rate change

Runtime baud-rate change

A UART driver sets its own baud rate. At 9600 it works on the dev board. At 921600, from a 16 MHz peripheral clock, a USB-serial adapter sees garbage. On the production clock tree (APB1 at half the core clock) nothing works at any baud rate, and changing baud at runtime sometimes leaves the port dead.

The code

Embedded C for Cortex-M. It compiles. There are 3 real bugs in it: the kind that pass a bench test and fail in the field.

void uart_set_baud(uint32_t baud)
{
    uint32_t pclk = SystemCoreClock;
    USART2->BRR = pclk / baud;
}

What an interviewer expects

The bugs, reference fixes and the follow-up question are in the practice app, after you've tried it.

Companies that test this

Matched on the skills each company's embedded roles emphasise.

Related challenges

Flag the lines, say what breaks, then fix it and build it with clang in your browser.

Find the bugs