INTRO(4)

NAME
intro - introduction to prep 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).

PMPPC DEVICE SUPPORT
This section describes the hardware supported on the PowerPC Reference Platform machines. 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 will have to 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), pnpbus(4), prep/nvram(4)

HISTORY
The prep intro man page first appeared in NetBSD 4.0.

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.

The pnpbus is a pseudo-bus which is a configuration interface for certain devices on PReP machines. These devices are defined in the PReP residual data with configuration information, similar to isapnp(4). The underlying bus is generally ISA.

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

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

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

Additionally, the following specific devices are supported:
com serial ports
nvram
    NVRAM chip
wdc ISA IDE controller
we  Western Digital/SMC WD80x3 ethernet driver
mcclock
    mc146818 compatible time-of-day clock
mkclock
    Mostek MK48T18 time-of-day chip