xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/intro.4 (revision 76dfffe33547c37f8bdd446e3e4ab0f3c16cea4b)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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30.\"	$Id: intro.4,v 1.2 1995/07/11 01:50:15 jtc Exp $
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32.Dd
33.Dt INTRO 4 i386
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm intro
37.Nd introduction to special files and hardware support
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39This section describes the special files, related driver functions,
40and networking support
41available in the system.
42In this part of the manual, the
43.Tn SYNOPSIS
44section of
45each configurable device gives a sample specification
46for use in constructing a system description for the
47.Xr config 8
48program.
49The
50.Tn DIAGNOSTICS
51section lists messages which may appear on the console
52and/or in the system error log
53.Pa /var/log/messages
54due to errors in device operation;
55see
56.Xr syslogd 8
57for more information.
58.Pp
59This section contains both devices
60which may be configured into the system
61and network related information.
62The networking support is introduced in
63.Xr netintro 4 .
64.Sh DEVICE SUPPORT
65This section describes the hardware supported on the i386
66(PC-clone) platform.
67Software support for these devices comes in two forms.  A hardware
68device may be supported with a character or block
69.Em device driver ,
70or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a
71.Em network interface driver .
72Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file
73system of a special type; see
74.Xr mknod 8 .
75Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess
76communication facilities provided by the system; see
77.Xr socket 2 .
78.Pp
79A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time
80and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled
81into the system.  When the resultant system is booted, the
82autoconfiguration facilities in the system probe for the device
83and, if found, enable the software support for it.
84If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration
85time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.
86To enable a device which did not autoconfigure,
87the system must be rebooted.
88.Pp
89The autoconfiguration system is described in
90.Xr autoconf 4 .
91A list of the supported devices is given below.
92.Sh SEE ALSO
93.Xr intro 4 ,
94.Xr autoconf 4 ,
95.Xr config 8 .
96.Sh LIST OF DEVICES
97The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of
98the system.  Devices are indicated by their functional interface.
99Not all supported devices are listed.
100.Pp
101.Bl -tag -width speaker -offset indent -compact
102.It aha
103Adaptec 154x ISA SCSI adapter boards.
104.It ahb
105Adaptec 1742 EISA SCSI adapter boards.
106.It aic
107Adaptec AIC-6260, Adaptec AIC-6360, Adaptec 152x, and SoundBlaster SCSI boards.
108.It ast
109multiplexing serial communications card first made by AST.
110.It bt
111Buslogic BT-445, BT-74x, and BT-9xx SCSI boards.
112.It com
113NS8250-, NS16450-, and NS16550-based asynchronous serial
114communications device interface
115.It cy
116Cyclades Cyclom-4Y, -8Y, and -16Y asynchronous serial communications
117device interface
118.It ed
119Western Digital/SMC 80x3 and Ultra, 3Com 3c503, and Novell NE1000 and 2000
120Ethernet interface
121.It eg
1223Com 3c505 Ethernet board.
123.It el
1243Com 3c501 Ethernet board.
125.It ep
1263Com Etherlink III (3c5x9) Ethernet interface
127.It ie
128Ethernet driver for the AT&T StarLAN 10, EN100, StarLan Fiber, and 3Com 3c507.
129.It le
130Ethernet driver for BICC Isolan, Novell NE2100, and Digital DEPCA cards.
131.It lms
132Logitech-style bus mouse device interface
133.It lpt
134Parallel port device interface
135.It mcd
136Mitsumi CD-ROM drives.
137.It mem
138Main memory interface
139.It mms
140Microsoft-style bus mouse device interface
141.It ncr
142NCR PCI SCSI adapter boards.
143.It npx
144Numeric Processing Extension coprocessor and emulator
145.It pms
146PS/2 auxiliary port mouse device interface
147.It rtfps
148another multiplexing serial communications card
149.It sb
150Sound Blaster card.
151.It sea
152Seagate/Future Domain SCSI cards.  ST01/02, Future Domain TMC-885, and
153Future Domain TMC-950.
154.It speaker
155console speaker device interface
156.It uha
157Ultrastor ISA and EISA SCSI adapter cards.  Ultrastore 14f, Ultrastore 34f,
158and Ultrastore 24f.
159.It wd
160Standard ISA Western Digital type hard drives.  MFM, RLL, ESDI, and IDE.
161.It wt
162Wangtek and compatible tape drives.  QIC-02 and QIC-36.
163.El
164.Sh HISTORY
165The
166.Tn i386
167.Nm intro
168appeared in
169.Nx 0.9a .
170