Bits-per-character

The number of bits-per-character (bpc) indicates the number of bits used to represent a single data character during serial communication.

This number does not reflect the total amount of parity, stop, or start bits included with the character. Two possible settings for bpc are 7 and 8.

When using the seven bits-per-character setting, it is possible to only send the first 128 characters (0-127) of the Standard ASCII character set. Each of these characters is represented by seven data bits. The eight bits-per-character setting must be used to send the ASCII Extended character set (128-255). Each of these characters may only be represented using eight data bits.