INTRO(4) | Device Drivers Manual (sparc) | INTRO(4) |
intro
—
introduction to sparc special files and hardware
support
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).
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 sparc/autoconf(4). A list of the supported devices is given below.
config(1), cd(4), ch(4), le(4), scsi(4), sd(4), sparc/autoconf(4), sparc/bwtwo(4), sparc/cgeight(4), sparc/cgfour(4), sparc/cgfourteen(4), sparc/cgsix(4), sparc/cgthree(4), sparc/cgtwo(4), sparc/fd(4), sparc/kbd(4), sparc/magma(4), sparc/mem(4), sparc/ms(4), sparc/openprom(4), sparc/tcx(4), ss(4), st(4), uk(4)
The following Sun SPARC system architectures and models are supported:
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:
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.
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.
The following devices are not supported, due to unavailability of either documentation or sample hardware:
This sparc intro
appeared in
NetBSD 1.3. Large chunks of text carefully recycled
(shamelessly appropriated) from NetBSD/pmax
intro
.
September 22, 2020 | NetBSD 10.99 |