INTRO(4) | Device Drivers Manual (sparc) | INTRO(4)

# 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 sparc/autoconf(4). A list of the supported devices is given below.

# SEE ALSO

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)

# 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 Weird" 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 NetBSD 1.3. Large chunks of text carefully recycled (shamelessly appropriated) from NetBSD/pmax `intro`.

September 22, 2020 | NetBSD 10.1