INTRO(4)              NetBSD/arc Kernel Interfaces Manual             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(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 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 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.

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) con-
     sole 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.

NetBSD 5.0_STABLE               April 29, 2003               NetBSD 5.0_STABLE
