INTRO(4)

NAME
intro - introduction to acorn32 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 acorn32 (RiscPC) 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 acorn32/autoconf(4). A list of the supported devices is given below.

SEE ALSO
config(1), acorn32/autoconf(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.

vidcvideo
    VIDC20 device interface
com NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous serial communications device interface
ea  Ether3/Ether5 podule device interface.
eb  EtherB network slot device interface.
eh  EtherH network slot device interface.
ie  Ether1 podule device interface.
lpt Parallel port device interface
mem Main memory interface
wd  Standard Internal RiscPC IDE device interface
fd  Standard Internal RiscPC floppy device interface
asc Acorn SCSI I card device interface
csc Cumana SCSI II card device interface
ptsc
    Powertec SCSI II card device interface
oak Oak SCSI I card device interface

HISTORY
The acorn32 intro appeared in NetBSD 1.2.