INTRO(4)

NAME
intro - introduction to sgimips 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 specification 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 system and network related information. The networking support is introduced in netintro(4).

DEVICE SUPPORT
This section describes the hardware supported by NetBSD/sgimips. 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 autoconfiguration 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.

HARDWARE
The following systems are supported:

O2  IP32 (“Moosehead”)
Indy/Challenge S
    IP24 (“Guinness”)
Indigo 2/Challenge M
    IP22 (“Fullhouse”)
Indigo R4k
    IP20 (“Blackjack”)
Indigo R3k
    IP12 (“Hollywood”)
Personal Iris 4D/3x
    IP12 (“Magnum”)

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.

crime
    found on the O2
dpclock
    real-time clock
dsclock
    real-time clock
gio PCI-like bus
hpc High performance Peripheral Controller
imc Indigo R4k/Indy/Challenge S/Indigo2 bus arbiter
mace
    found on the O2
mec O2 MAC110 ethernet
newport
    entry framebuffer on Indy and Indigo2
pic Personal Iris 4D/3x and Indigo R3k bus arbiter
sq  SEEQ 8003/80C03 ethernet
tl  Set Engineering GIO 100baseTX Fast Ethernet
tlp Phobos G130/G160 10/100 GIO Fast Ethernet
wdsc
    WD33C93 SCSI interface

PCI devices are supported through the pci(4) bus and associated device drivers.

SEE ALSO
config(1), autoconf(4), crime(4), dpclock(4), dsclock(4), gio(4), hpc(4), imc(4), mace(4), mec(4), newport(4), pic(4), sq(4), tlp(4), wdsc(4)

HISTORY
This sgimips intro appeared in NetBSD 2.0.