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 specification 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 system and network related information. The networking support is introduced 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 autoconfiguration 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 Ethernet 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 carefully recycled (shamelessly appropriated) from NetBSD/sparc intro.