The universal synchronous/asynchronous receive/transmit (USART) peripheral interface supports asynchronous RS232 and synchronous SPI communication with one hardware module. The MSP430F15x and MSP430F16x USART module also supports I2C. This module features programmable baud rate and independent interrupt capability for receive and transmit. The universal serial interface (USI) module is a synchronous serial communication interface with a data length of up to 16-bit and can support SPI and I2C communication with minimal software.

