INTRO(4)             NetBSD/i386 Kernel Interfaces Manual             INTRO(4)

NAME
     intro -- introduction to i386 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(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 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
     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.

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.

     Standard builtin devices:
           com      NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous serial
                    communications device interface
           lpt      Parallel port device interface
           fdc      Standard NEC 765 floppy disk controller.
           mca      MCA I/O bus.
           mem      Main memory interface
           npx      Numeric Processing Extension coprocessor and emulator
           pci      PCI I/O bus.
           eisa     EISA I/O bus, either as main bus or via PCI-EISA bridge.
           isa      ISA bus and ISA devices, either as main bus or via PCI-ISA
                    bridge.
           isa      isa I/O bus.
           isapnp   ``bus'' for ISA devices with PnP support.
           speaker  console speaker device interface

     PCMCIA devices are supported through the pcmcia(4) bus and associated
     device drivers.

     Cardbus devices are supported through the cardbus(4) bus and associated
     device drivers.

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

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

     Disk, tape and SCSI devices:
           aha      Adaptec 154x ISA SCSI adapter boards.
           ahb      Adaptec 1742 EISA SCSI adapter boards.
           ahc      Adaptec 274x, 284x, 2940 and 3940 VL/EISA/PCI SCSI adapter
                    boards.
           aic      Adaptec AIC-6260, Adaptec AIC-6360, Adaptec 152x, and
                    SoundBlaster SCSI boards.
           bha      Buslogic  BT-445 (ISA), BT-74x (EISA), and BT-9[45][68]
                    (PCI) SCSI boards.
           mcd      Mitsumi CD-ROM drives.
           ncr      Symbios (formerly NCR) PCI SCSI adapter boards.
           pciide   PCI IDE controllers.
           sea      Seagate/Future Domain SCSI cards.  ST01/02, Future Domain
                    TMC-885, and Future Domain TMC-950.
           uha      Ultrastor ISA and EISA SCSI adapter cards.  Ultrastore
                    14f, Ultrastore 34f, and Ultrastore 24f.
           wdc      Standard ISA Western Digital type hard drives controllers.
                    MFM, RLL, ESDI, and IDE.
           wt       Wangtek and compatible ISA controllers for QIC-02 and
                    QIC-36 tapes.

     Network interfaces:
           de       Ethernet driver for dc21040, dc21042, and dc21140-based
                    10Mbit and 100Mbit PCI Ethernet adaptors, including
                    DE-430, DE-450 DE-500, SMC EtherPower, and Znyx.
           fea, fpa
                    FDDI driver for Digital DEFEA (EISA) and DEFPA FDDI adap-
                    tors.
           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.
           iy       Ethernet driver for the ISA Intel EtherExpress PR0/10
                    adaptor.
           le       Ethernet driver for BICC Isolan, Novell NE2100,  Digital
                    DEPCA cards, and PCnet-PCI cards.
           tl       Ethernet driver for ThunderLAN-based Ethernet adaptor.

     Serial communication cards:
           ast      multiplexing serial communications card first made by AST.
           boca     Boca BB100[48] and BB2016 multiplexing serial communica-
                    tions cards.  NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asyn-
                    chronous serial communications device interface, or
                    internal modems that provide a serial-chip compatible
                    interface.
           cy       Cyclades Cyclom-4Y, -8Y, and -16Y asynchronous serial com-
                    munications device interface
           rtfps    a multiplexing serial communications card derived from IBM
                    PC/RT hardware.
     Sound cards:
           gus      Gravis Ultrasound non-PnP soundcards.
           guspnp   Gravis Ultrasound PnP soundcards.
           pas      ProAudio Spectrum soundcards.
           pss      Personal Sound System-compatible soundcards, including
                    Cardinal Digital SoundPro 16 and Orchid Soundwave 32.
           sb       Soundblaster, Soundblaster 16, and Soundblaster Pro sound-
                    cards.
           wss      Windows Sound System-compatible sound cards based on the
                    ad1848 chip.

     Mouse and pointer devices:
           joy      joystick game adaptor
           lms      Logitech-style bus mouse device interface
           mms      Microsoft-style bus mouse device interface
           pms      PS/2 auxiliary port mouse device interface

     Serial mice can be configured on any supported serial port.

SEE ALSO
     config(1), autoconf(4), netintro(4)

HISTORY
     The i386 intro appeared in NetBSD 1.0.

NetBSD 5.0_STABLE                April 3, 2001               NetBSD 5.0_STABLE
