INTRO(4)        NetBSD Programmer's Manual (I386 Architecture)        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 specifi-
     cation 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 sys-
     tem and network related information.  The networking support is intro-
     duced in netintro(4).

DEVICE SUPPORT
     This section describes the hardware supported on the i386 (PC-clone)
     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 autoconfigura-
     tion time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.  To enable a de-
     vice 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
     intro(4),  autoconf(4),  config(8).

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.

           aha      Adaptec 154x ISA SCSI adapter boards.
           ahb      Adaptec 1742 EISA SCSI adapter boards.
           aic      Adaptec AIC-6260, Adaptec AIC-6360, Adaptec 152x, and
                    SoundBlaster SCSI boards.
           ast      multiplexing serial communications card first made by AST.
           bt       Buslogic BT-445, BT-74x, and BT-9xx SCSI boards.
           com      NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous serial
                    communications device interface
           cy       Cyclades Cyclom-4Y, -8Y, and -16Y asynchronous serial com-
                    munications device interface
           ed       Western Digital/SMC 80x3 and Ultra, 3Com 3c503, and Novell
                    NE1000 and 2000 Ethernet interface
           eg       3Com 3c505 Ethernet board.
           el       3Com 3c501 Ethernet board.
           ep       3Com Etherlink III (3c5x9) Ethernet interface
           ie       Ethernet driver for the AT&T StarLAN 10, EN100, StarLan


                    Fiber, and 3Com 3c507.
           le       Ethernet driver for BICC Isolan, Novell NE2100, and Digi-
                    tal DEPCA cards.
           lms      Logitech-style bus mouse device interface
           lpt      Parallel port device interface
           mcd      Mitsumi CD-ROM drives.
           mem      Main memory interface
           mms      Microsoft-style bus mouse device interface
           ncr      NCR PCI SCSI adapter boards.
           npx      Numeric Processing Extension coprocessor and emulator
           pms      PS/2 auxiliary port mouse device interface
           rtfps    another multiplexing serial communications card
           sb       Sound Blaster card.
           sea      Seagate/Future Domain SCSI cards.  ST01/02, Future Domain
                    TMC-885, and Future Domain TMC-950.
           speaker  console speaker device interface
           uha      Ultrastor ISA and EISA SCSI adapter cards.  Ultrastore
                    14f, Ultrastore 34f, and Ultrastore 24f.
           wd       Standard ISA Western Digital type hard drives.  MFM, RLL,
                    ESDI, and IDE.
           wt       Wangtek and compatible tape drives.  QIC-02 and QIC-36.

HISTORY
     The i386 intro appeared in NetBSD 0.9a.

BSD Experimental                 June 6, 1996                                2
