INTRO(4)

NAME
intro - introduction to 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 by NetBSD/arc. 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)

HARDWARE
NetBSD/arc supports a variety of systems conforming to the ARC machine specification. The following systems are supported:

Acer PICA
DESKstation rPC44
DESKstation Tyne
MIPS Magnum 4000
NEC Express 5800/230 PCI R4K
NEC Express 5800/240 EISA R4K
NEC Express RISCserver
NEC ImageRISCstation
NEC RISCserver 2200
NEC RISCstation 2200 EISA
NEC RISCstation 2200 PCI
NEC RISCstation 2250

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.

arcsisabr
    DESKstation rPC44 ISA host bridge
jazzio
    Jazz internal bus host bridge
jazzisabr
    Jazz ISA/EISA bus bridge
necpb
    NEC RISCstation PCI host bridge
tyneisabr
    DESKstation Tyne ISA host bridge

The following devices on the Jazz internal bus are supported.

asc NCR 53c9x-based SCSI interface
com NS16550-based serial communications interface
fdc Floppy disk controller
lpt Parallel port
mcclock
    DS1287 real-time clock
oosiop
    Symbios/NCR 53c700-based SCSI interface
osiop
    Symbios/NCR 53c710-based SCSI interface
pckbc
    PC keyboard controller
sn  SONIC Ethernet
timer
    Interval timer
vga VGA graphics

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

ISA devices are supported through the isa(4) bus and associated device drivers.

Console devices using ISA, Jazzio, or PCI video adaptors and standard AT or PS/2 keyboards are supported by the machine independent wscons(4) console driver.

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

AD1848 audio on Jazzio
EISA devices
VXL framebuffer on MIPS Magnum and RISCstation 2200 EISA

HISTORY
This arc intro appeared in NetBSD 2.0.

BUGS
DESKstation rPC44 and Tyne support is currently broken.