intro(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

INTRO(4)            NetBSD/sparc64 Kernel Interfaces Manual           INTRO(4)


NAME

     intro -- introduction to sparc64 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 SPARC64 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 autoconf(4).  A list of the
     supported devices is given below.


SEE ALSO

     config(1), autoconf(4), cd(4), cgsix(4), ch(4), kbd(4), le(4), magma(4),
     mem(4), ms(4), openprom(4), scsi(4), sd(4), ss(4), st(4), tcx(4), uk(4)


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.

     auxio          Auxiliary I/O & LED

     bpp            Bi-directional Parallel port

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

     com            PC-style serial port

     eeprom         Sun non-volatile configuration RAM driver

     esp            ESP200 SCSI controller
                    FSBE/S (X1053A, part # 501-2015) Fast SCSI-2/Buffered Eth-
                    ernet Sbus controller

     fdc            Floppy Disk Controller

     ffb            Creator & Creaor3D graphics frame buffer

     isp            Qlogic ISP Sbus and PCI SCSI controller

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

     le/lebuffer    AMD 7990 LANCE Ethernet controller

     lpt            PC-style parallel port

     magma          Magma Sp Serial/Parallel board device driver

     ms             Sun mouse (on zs or com)

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

     power          power management halt(8) and shutdown(8) commands can use
                    it to power down the system.

     sab            Siemens 82532 & 83538 serial controller

     zs             Zilog 8530 serial controller

     PCI devices are supported through the pci(4) bus and associated devices.

     PCMCIA devices are supported through the pcmcia(4) bus and associated
     devices.

     Cardbus devices are supported through the cardbus(4) bus and associated
     devices.

     USB devices are supported through the usb(4) bus and associated devices.


UNSUPPORTED DEVICES

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

     atifb         ATI 3D Rage Pro VGA graphics adapter (Ultra5, Ultra10)

     fdc           sun4u floppy drive controllers (EBus based machines only)

     cgfourteen    24 bit Sbus color frame buffer

     cgthree       8 bit Sbus color frame buffer


HISTORY

     This sparc64 intro appeared in NetBSD 1.6.  Large chunks of text care-
     fully recycled (shamelessly appropriated) from NetBSD/sparc intro.

NetBSD 10.99                     May 10, 2007                     NetBSD 10.99