NAME

intro — introduction to macppc 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).

MACPPC DEVICE SUPPORT

This section describes the hardware supported on the Power Macintosh. 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 will have to 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), awacs(4), bm(4), gem(4), mc(4), tlp(4)

HISTORY

The macppc intro man page first appeared in NetBSD 1.5.1, based on the NetBSD/mac68k intro(4).

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.

PCMCIA devices are supported through the pcmcia(4) bus and associated devices.

Cardbus devices are supported through the cardbus(4) bus and associated devices.

USB devices are supported through the usb(4) bus and associated devices.

Additionally, the following specific devices are supported:

adb

Apple Desktop Bus event interface.

awacs

Audio Waveform Amplifier and Converter — Apple Sound Chip (supported systems include 603 and 604 based machines, and Open Firmware 3 based machines).

bm

BMac Ethernet.

de

DECchip 21x4x based Ethernet cards (see also tlp(4)).

esp

NCR 53C9x built-in SCSI interface.

gm

GMac Ethernet.

kmem

kernel virtual memory.

mc

MACE Ethernet.

mem

physical memory.

mesh

MESH built-in SCSI interface (most Old World machines up to the 1999 series of G3 PowerBooks).

nvram

NVRAM access.

ofb

PCI based frame buffer with Open Firmware support.

openfirm

Open Firmware access.

tlp

DECchip 21x4x based Ethernet cards.

wdc

Standard on-board IDE controller.

zsc

Zilog Z8530 built-in serial interface.