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INTRO(4)                NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual               INTRO(4)


NAME

     intro -- introduction to emips special files and hardware support


DESCRIPTION

     This section describes the special files, related driver functions, and
     networking support available in the system.  In this part of the manual,
     the SYNOPSIS section of each configurable device gives a sample specifi-
     cation for use in constructing a system description for the config(1)
     program.  The DIAGNOSTICS section lists messages which may appear on the
     console and/or in the system error log /var/log/messages due to errors in
     device operation; see syslogd(8) for more information.

     This section contains both devices which may be configured into the sys-
     tem and network related information.  The networking support is intro-
     duced in netintro(4).


DEVICE SUPPORT

     This section describes the hardware supported on eMIPS (Microsoft Exten-
     sible MIPS processor)-based platforms.  Software support for these
     devices comes in two forms.  A hardware device may be supported with a
     character or block device driver, or it may be used within the networking
     subsystem and have a network interface driver.  Block and character
     devices are accessed through files in the file system of a special type;
     see mknod(8).  Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the
     interprocess communication facilities provided by the system; see
     socket(2).

     A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time and
     the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled into
     the system.  When the resultant system is booted, the autoconfiguration
     facilities in the system probe for the device and, if found, enable the
     software support for it.  If a device does not respond at autoconfigura-
     tion time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.  To enable a
     device which did not autoconfigure, the system must be rebooted.

     The autoconfiguration system is described in autoconf(4).  A list of the
     supported devices is given below.


SEE ALSO

     config(1), autoconf(4)


SUPPORTED SYSTEMS

     The following systems are supported:

           BeSquare BErkeley Emulation System-3 FPGA development board
                    known as the "BEE3". This is a quad-chip FPGA system where
                    eMIPS can run on each FPGA separately, on multiple FPGAs
                    in concert, and in multi-processor configurations.
           Xilinx University Program board
                    known as "XUP". This is the Xilinx reference board for the
                    Virtex-5 series chips.  It can use the same XL110T FPGA
                    chip present on the BEE3.
           Xilinx ML402
                    Xilinx reference board for the Virtex-4 series chip,
                    including the SX35.
           Xilinx ML401
                    Same as the above, but with the smaller LX25 chip.


LIST OF DEVICES

     The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of the system.
     Devices are indicated by their functional interface.  Not all supported
     devices are listed.

           ace      Xilinx SystemACE interface for Compact-FLASH cards, bears
                    similarities to the IDE interface.  Present on XUP and
                    ML40x boards. Not present on BEE3.
           dz       serial driver for the eMIPS console serial device. Present
                    on all systems.
           enic     Ethernet driver for the eNIC device. Present on XUP and
                    BEE3 systems. Not present on ML40x systems.
           eclock   System clock, must be configured on all systems.
           ebus     Extensible BUS, present on all systems.


HISTORY

     This eMIPS intro appeared in NetBSD 6.0.

NetBSD 6.0                       July 17, 2010                      NetBSD 6.0