NAME
intro
- introduction to sparc 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 on the SPARC
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 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.
SEE ALSO
config(1),
autoconf(4),
bwtwo(4),
cd(4),
cgeight(4),
cgfour(4),
cgfourteen(4),
cgsix(4),
cgthree(4),
cgtwo(4),
ch(4),
fd(4),
kbd(4),
le(4),
magma(4),
mem(4),
ms(4),
openprom(4),
scsi(4),
sd(4),
ss(4),
st(4),
tcx(4),
uk(4)
SUPPORTED SYSTEMS
The following Sun SPARC system architectures and models are supported:
- sun4
-
first generation SPARC systems on VMEbus:
Sun 4/100 series (14.28 MHz)
Sun 4/200 series (16.67 MHz)
Sun 4/300 series (25 MHz)
- sun4c
-
desktop SPARC systems with Sbus:
SPARCstation 1 (20 MHz)
SPARCstation 1+ (25 MHz)
SPARCstation 2 (40 MHz)
SPARCstation SLC (20 MHz)
SPARCstation ELC (33 MHz)
SPARCstation IPC (25 MHz)
SPARCstation IPX (40 MHz).
- sun4m
-
desktop SPARC systems with Mbus for CPUs, and Sbus:
SPARCclassic (50 MHz microSPARC I)
SPARCstation LX (50 MHz microSPARC I)
SPARCstation 4 (70 MHz microSPARC II)
SPARCstation 5 (70, 85, 110 MHz microSPARC II)
SPARCstation 5 (170 MHz TurboSPARC)
SPARCstation 10M (36 MHz SuperSPARC I)
SPARCstation 20M (50 MHz SuperSPARC I)
SPARCstation 10 (Mbus modules)
SPARCstation 20 (Mbus modules)
The SPARCstation 2 and IPX can be upgraded with a Weitek PowerUP CPU
that is clock-doubled (i.e. internally it runs at 80 MHz).
NetBSD
supports this configuration.
Hardware level clones of these systems from other manufacturers
will likely work (e.g. Xerox, Tatung, Axil, Cycle);
other systems which have a SPARC CPU but do not
use Sun's hardware architecture (e.g. Solbourne) will likely not work.
The sun4m architecture with Mbus modules for the CPUs is supported
with the following modules with only one CPU:
- SM41
-
40 MHz SuperSPARC I with 1MB SuperCACHE
- SM51
-
50 MHz SuperSPARC I with 1MB SuperCACHE
- SM61
-
60 MHz SuperSPARC I with 1MB SuperCACHE
- SM71
-
75 MHz SuperSPARC II with 1MB SuperCACHE
- SM81
-
85 MHz SuperSPARC II with 1MB SuperCACHE
- HS11
-
100 MHz Ross Technology hyperSPARC
- HS21
-
125 MHz Ross Technology hyperSPARC
- M151
-
150 MHz Ross Technology hyperSPARC
This list is not exhaustive;
NetBSD
is continuously being improved, and may well run on Mbus CPU modules
not listed here.
There is also some support for Sun
JavaStation
computers based on the microSPARC CPU.
NetBSD
does not yet properly support multiprocessor systems,
but will run on one processor of a multiprocessor system.
The Sun 4/400 series, and sun4d (SPARCcenter 1000, 1000E, and
2000) are not supported.
The sun4u (UltraSPARC 64-bit) architectures are supported by
NetBSD/sparc64.
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.
- audio
-
AMD 79C30 obio (sun4c) and dbri (sun4m) audio controller
- bpp
-
Bi-directional Parallel port
- bwtwo
-
black and white obio frame buffer
- cgeight
-
24 bit VMEbus color frame buffer
- cgfour
-
8 bit obio (sun4 P4 bus) color graphics frame buffer
- cgfourteen
-
24 bit Sbus color frame buffer
- cgsix
-
8 bit obio (sun4c & sun4m), Sbus color graphics frame buffer
- cgthree
-
8 bit VMEbus, Sbus, and obio (sun4m) color graphics frame buffer
- cgtwo
-
8 bit VMEbus color frame buffer
- dbri
-
Dual Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN (SPARC LX & SPARCstation 10) (only the audio component is supported)
- eeprom
-
Sun non-volatile configuration RAM driver
- esp
-
NCR53C90 ESP100 (Sun 4/300), ESP100A (sun4c),
ESP200 (sun4m) SCSI controller
FSBE/S (X1053A, part # 501-2015) Fast SCSI-2/Buffered Ethernet Sbus controller
- fd
-
Intel 82072 obio (sun4c) or Intel 82077 obio (sun4m)
floppy disk drive controller
- ie
-
Intel 82586 Ethernet controller (Sun 4/100)
- isp
-
Qlogic ISP Sbus SCSI controller
- kbd
-
Sun type 2, type 3, type 4, and type 5 keyboards (on zs)
- le/lebuffer
-
AMD 7990 LANCE Ethernet controller (Sun 4/200, 4/300, sun4c, sun4m, Sbus)
- magma
-
Magma Sp Serial/Parallel board device driver
- ms
-
Sun mouse (on zs)
- openprom
-
Sun Open boot PROM (what became IEEE 1275) configuration driver
- power
-
sun4m power management; the
halt(8)
and
shutdown(8)
commands can use it to power down the system.
- si
-
NCR5380 "SCSI-2" VMEbus (Sun 4/200, Sun 4/400) SCSI controller
- sw
-
NCR5380 obio (Sun 4/100) "SCSI Wierd" SCSI controller
- tcx
-
8 or 24 bit Sbus color graphics frame buffer
- xd
-
Xylogics 753/7053 VMEbus SMD disk controller
- xy
-
Xylogics 450/451 VMEbus SMD disk controller
- zs
-
Zilog 8530 serial controller
UNSUPPORTED DEVICES
The following devices are not supported, due to unavailability of
either documentation or sample hardware:
- dbri
-
Dual Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN (SPARC LX & SPARCstation 10)
HISTORY
This
sparc
intro
appeared in
NetBSD1.3.
Large chunks of text carefully recycled (shamelessly appropriated) from
NetBSD/pmax
.