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 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 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 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 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 & SPARCstation 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 Ethernet 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) commands can use it to power down the system.

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

sw  NCR5380 obio (Sun 4/100) "SCSI Weird" 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.