intro(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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


NAME

     intro -- introduction to sparc 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 the SPARC platform.
     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 sparc/autoconf(4).  A list
     of the supported devices is given below.


SEE ALSO

     config(1), cd(4), ch(4), le(4), scsi(4), sd(4), sparc/autoconf(4),
     sparc/bwtwo(4), sparc/cgeight(4), sparc/cgfour(4), sparc/cgfourteen(4),
     sparc/cgsix(4), sparc/cgthree(4), sparc/cgtwo(4), sparc/fd(4),
     sparc/kbd(4), sparc/magma(4), sparc/mem(4), sparc/ms(4),
     sparc/openprom(4), sparc/tcx(4), ss(4), st(4), uk(4)


SUPPORTED SYSTEMS

     The following Sun SPARC system architectures and models are supported:

     sun4     first generation SPARC systems on VMEbus:
              Sun 4/100 series (14.28 MHz)
              Sun 4/200 series (16.67 MHz)
              Sun 4/300 series (25 MHz)

     sun4c    desktop SPARC systems with Sbus:
              SPARCstation 1 (20 MHz)
              SPARCstation 1+ (25 MHz)
              SPARCstation 2 (40 MHz)
              SPARCstation SLC (20 MHz)
              SPARCstation ELC (33 MHz)
              SPARCstation IPC (25 MHz)
              SPARCstation IPX (40 MHz).

     sun4m    desktop SPARC systems with Mbus for CPUs, and Sbus:
              SPARCclassic (50 MHz microSPARC I)
              SPARCstation LX (50 MHz microSPARC I)
              SPARCstation 4 (70 MHz microSPARC II)
              SPARCstation 5 (70, 85, 110 MHz microSPARC II)
              SPARCstation 5 (170 MHz TurboSPARC)
              SPARCstation 10M (36 MHz SuperSPARC I)
              SPARCstation 20M (50 MHz SuperSPARC I)
              SPARCstation 10 (Mbus modules)
              SPARCstation 20 (Mbus modules)

     The SPARCstation 2 and IPX can be upgraded with a Weitek PowerUP CPU that
     is clock-doubled (i.e. internally it runs at 80 MHz).  NetBSD supports
     this configuration.

     Hardware level clones of these systems from other manufacturers will
     likely work (e.g. Xerox, Tatung, Axil, Cycle); other systems which have a
     SPARC CPU but do not use Sun's hardware architecture (e.g. Solbourne)
     will likely not work.

     The sun4m architecture with Mbus modules for the CPUs is supported with
     the following modules with only one CPU:

     SM41     40 MHz SuperSPARC I with 1MB SuperCACHE

     SM51     50 MHz SuperSPARC I with 1MB SuperCACHE

     SM61     60 MHz SuperSPARC I with 1MB SuperCACHE

     SM71     75 MHz SuperSPARC II with 1MB SuperCACHE

     SM81     85 MHz SuperSPARC II with 1MB SuperCACHE

     HS11     100 MHz Ross Technology hyperSPARC

     HS21     125 MHz Ross Technology hyperSPARC

     M151     150 MHz Ross Technology hyperSPARC

     This list is not exhaustive; NetBSD is continuously being improved, and
     may well run on Mbus CPU modules not listed here.

     There is also some support for Sun JavaStation computers based on the
     microSPARC CPU.

     NetBSD does not yet properly support multiprocessor systems, but will run
     on one processor of a multiprocessor system.

     The Sun 4/400 series, and sun4d (SPARCcenter 1000, 1000E, and 2000) are
     not supported.

     The sun4u (UltraSPARC 64-bit) architectures are supported by
     NetBSD/sparc64.


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.

     audio          AMD 79C30 obio (sun4c) and dbri (sun4m) audio controller

     bpp            Bi-directional Parallel port

     bwtwo          black and white obio frame buffer

     cgeight        24 bit VMEbus color frame buffer

     cgfour         8 bit obio (sun4 P4 bus) color graphics frame buffer

     cgfourteen     24 bit Sbus color frame buffer

     cgsix          8 bit obio (sun4c & sun4m), Sbus color graphics frame
                    buffer

     cgthree        8 bit VMEbus, Sbus, and obio (sun4m) color graphics frame
                    buffer

     cgtwo          8 bit VMEbus color frame buffer

     dbri           Dual Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN (SPARC LX & SPARCsta-
                    tion 10) (only the audio component is supported)

     eeprom         Sun non-volatile configuration RAM driver

     esp            NCR53C90 ESP100 (Sun 4/300), ESP100A (sun4c), ESP200
                    (sun4m) SCSI controller
                    FSBE/S (X1053A, part # 501-2015) Fast SCSI-2/Buffered Eth-
                    ernet Sbus controller

     fd             Intel 82072 obio (sun4c) or Intel 82077 obio (sun4m)
                    floppy disk drive controller

     ie             Intel 82586 Ethernet controller (Sun 4/100)

     isp            Qlogic ISP Sbus SCSI controller

     kbd            Sun type 2, type 3, type 4, and type 5 keyboards (on zs)

     le/lebuffer    AMD 7990 LANCE Ethernet controller (Sun 4/200, 4/300,
                    sun4c, sun4m, Sbus)

     magma          Magma Sp Serial/Parallel board device driver

     ms             Sun mouse (on zs)

     openprom       Sun Open boot PROM (what became IEEE 1275) configuration
                    driver

     power          sun4m power management; the halt(8) and shutdown(8) com-
                    mands can use it to power down the system.

     si             NCR5380 "SCSI-2" VMEbus (Sun 4/200, Sun 4/400) SCSI con-
                    troller

     sw             NCR5380 obio (Sun 4/100) "SCSI Wierd" SCSI controller

     tcx            8 or 24 bit Sbus color graphics frame buffer

     xd             Xylogics 753/7053 VMEbus SMD disk controller

     xy             Xylogics 450/451 VMEbus SMD disk controller

     zs             Zilog 8530 serial controller


UNSUPPORTED DEVICES

     The following devices are not supported, due to unavailability of either
     documentation or sample hardware:

     dbri     Dual Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN (SPARC LX & SPARCstation
              10)


HISTORY

     This sparc intro appeared in NetBSD 1.3.  Large chunks of text carefully
     recycled (shamelessly appropriated) from NetBSD/pmax intro.

NetBSD 9.1                     February 17, 2017                    NetBSD 9.1