1.\" $OpenBSD: intro.4,v 1.4 1999/07/09 13:35:44 aaron Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1998 The OpenBSD Project 4.\" All Rights Reserved. 5.\" 6.Dd March 7, 1998 7.Dt INTRO 4 alpha 8.Os 9.Sh NAME 10.Nm intro 11.Nd introduction to special files and hardware support 12.Sh DESCRIPTION 13This section describes the special files, related driver functions, 14and networking support 15available in the system. 16In this part of the manual, the 17.Tn SYNOPSIS 18section of 19each configurable device gives a sample specification 20for use in constructing a system description for the 21.Xr config 8 22program. 23The 24.Tn DIAGNOSTICS 25section lists messages which may appear on the console 26and/or in the system error log 27.Pa /var/log/messages 28due to errors in device operation; 29see 30.Xr syslogd 8 31for more information. 32.Pp 33This section contains both devices 34which may be configured into the system 35and network related information. 36The networking support is introduced in 37.Xr netintro 4 . 38.Sh DEVICE SUPPORT 39This section describes the hardware supported on the Alpha 40platform. 41Software support for these devices comes in two forms. A hardware 42device may be supported with a character or block 43.Em device driver , 44or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a 45.Em network interface driver . 46Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file 47system of a special type; see 48.Xr mknod 8 . 49Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess 50communication facilities provided by the system; see 51.Xr socket 2 . 52.Pp 53A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time 54and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled 55into the system. When the resultant system is booted, the 56autoconfiguration facilities in the system probe for the device 57and, if found, enable the software support for it. 58If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration 59time it is not accessible at any time afterwards. 60To enable a device which did not autoconfigure, 61the system must be rebooted. 62.Pp 63The autoconfiguration system is described in 64.Xr autoconf 4 . 65A list of the supported devices is given below. 66.Sh SEE ALSO 67.Xr autoconf 4 , 68.Xr cd 4 , 69.Xr sd 4 , 70.Xr ss 4 , 71.Xr st 4 , 72.Xr config 8 73.Sh SUPPORTED SYSTEMS 74The following Alpha system architectures and models are supported: 75.Bl -tag -width speaker 76.It DEC 3000/[3456789]00 series Alpha systems. 77.It AlphaStation 200/250/255/400/500 and AXPpci systems. 78.El 79.Pp 80The DECpc AXP 150 systems (EISA-bus PC-like systems), 81Alpha "server" systems (other than perhaps the AlphaServer 400, which 82might actually be an AlphaStation 400 in disguise), and multiprocessor 83Alpha systems are not supported. 84.Sh HISTORY 85The 86Alpha 87.Nm 88first appeared with 89.Ox 2.3 . 90