intro
—
introduction to dreamcast 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 Dreamcast platform.
Software support for these devices come 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.
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.
Standard builtin devices:
- g2bus
- “G2” internal I/O bus
- gapspci
- PCI bridge used in expansion port peripherals
- gdrom
- Builtin GD-ROM optical disc drive
- pvr
- Framebuffer device using the builtin NEC PVR graphics subsystem
- aica
- Builtin AICA sound system
Controller port peripherals are supported though the
dreamcast/maple(4)
bus and associated device drivers.
Network interfaces:
- rtk
- Ethernet driver for the HIT-0400 Broadband Adapter
- mbe
- Ethernet driver for the HIT-0300 LAN Adapter
The intro
man page appeared in NetBSD
2.0.