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(8) 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 Sun3 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
cd(4), sd(4), ss(4), st(4), autoconf(4), config(8).

SUPPORTED SYSTEMS
The following Sun3 system architectures and models are supported:

sun3
    Sun3 systems: (MC68020)
    Sun 3/50 (16 MHz)
    Sun 3/60 (20 MHz)
    Sun 3/100 series (16.67 MHz)
    Sun 3/200 series (25 MHz)

sun3x
    Sun3X systems: (MC68030)
    Sun 3/80 (20 MHz)
    Sun 3/470 (33 MHz)

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.

bwtwo
    black and white obio frame buffer

cgtwo
    8 bit VMEbus color frame buffer

cgfour
    8 bit obio color graphics frame buffer

eeprom
    Sun non-volatile configuration RAM driver

esp NCR53C90 ESP100 (Sun 3/80) SCSI controller

fd  Intel 82072 obio (Sun 3/80) floppy disk drive controller

ie  Intel 82586 Ethernet controller (Sun 3/100, 3/200, 3/470)

kbd Sun type 2, type 3, type 4, and type 5 keyboards (on zs)

le/lebuffer
    AMD 7990 LANCE ethernet controller (Sun 3/50, 3/60, 3/80)

ms  Sun mouse (on zs)

si  NCR5380 "SCSI-3" VMEbus SCSI controller

vme VMEbus support (Sun 3/100, 3/200, 3/470)

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:

sc  Sun "SCSI-2" VMEbus SCSI controller

HISTORY
This sun3 intro appeared with NetBSD 1.3. Large chunks of text carefully recycled (shamelessly appropriated) from NetBSD/pmax intro(4).