HyperTerminal is a communications program bundled with multiple versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is a tool used when connecting to other computers, bulletin board systems (BBSs), and a host of other Internet-related services.

HyperTerminal is designed to emulate various types of text terminal. It can be configured to make a connection through a modem or directly over a serial port. Various serial parameters are configurable such as:

• Baud rate
• Parity (odd, even, none)
• Stop bits
• Flow control

HyperTerminal supports various terminal protocols such as VT100 (ANSI X3.64), as well as various forms of file transfer protocols such as ASCII, XMODEM and YMODEM.

The screen program

A good replacement for HyperTerminal in Mac OS X is the unix program /usr/bin/screen.

NAME
       screen - screen manager with VT100/ANSI terminal emulation

SYNOPSIS
       screen [ -options ] [ cmd [ args ] ]
       screen -r [[pid.]tty[.host]]
       screen -r sessionowner/[[pid.]tty[.host]]

DESCRIPTION
       Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical ter-
       minal between several processes (typically interactive  shells).   Each
       virtual terminal provides the functions of a DEC VT100 terminal and, in
       addition, several control functions from the ISO 6429  (ECMA  48,  ANSI
       X3.64)  and ISO 2022 standards (e.g. insert/delete line and support for
       multiple character sets).  There is a  scrollback  history  buffer  for
       each virtual terminal and a copy-and-paste mechanism that allows moving
       text regions between windows.

We will use the screen program to communicate with the Xilinx evaluation board ML403. Here is the setup.

Connecting the MacBook to the ML403 evaluation board

We will us the Keyspan usb to serial converter USA-19HS.

1. Download the driver software from Keyspan.
2. Install the driver and restart the computer.
3. Open a terminal
4. Start the screen program in the terminal using the command: screen /dev/tty.USA19H1b1P1.1
   
5. If you type screen /dev/tty.U and use the file completion (tab) you will find the right name.
6. Connect the usb contact to the usb port on your Mac and connect the serial connector to the evaluation board where is says Uart Host.
7. Turn on the power to the ML403 board and press the System ACE reset button.
   
8. This is what the screen window looks like.

We are ready to run the demo programs that come with the ML403 board.

More information

Use screen as serial terminal emulator (MacOSXHints)