INTRO(4)              OpenBSD Programmer's Manual (i386)              INTRO(4)

NNAAMMEE
     iinnttrroo - introduction to special files and hardware support

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
     The manual pages in section 4 describe the special files, related driver
     functions, and networking support available in the system.  In this part
     of the manual, the _S_Y_N_O_P_S_I_S section of each configurable device gives a
     sample specification for use in constructing a system description for the
     config(8) program.  The _D_I_A_G_N_O_S_T_I_C_S section lists messages which may ap-
     pear on the console and/or in the system error log _/_v_a_r_/_l_o_g_/_m_e_s_s_a_g_e_s due
     to errors in device operation; see syslogd(8) for more information.

     This section contains both devices which may be configured into the sys-
     tem and network related information.  The networking support is intro-
     duced in netintro(4).

DDEEVVIICCEE SSUUPPPPOORRTT
     This section describes the hardware supported on the i386 (PC-clone)
     platform.  Software support for these devices comes in two forms.  A
     hardware device may be supported with a character or block _d_e_v_i_c_e _d_r_i_v_e_r,
     or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a _n_e_t_w_o_r_k
     _i_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e _d_r_i_v_e_r.  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 autoconfigura-
     tion time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.  To enable a de-
     vice which did not autoconfigure, the system will have to be rebooted.

     The autoconfiguration system is described in autoconf(4).

LLIISSTT OOFF DDEEVVIICCEESS
     A complete list of available devices is contained within the pages de-
     scribing the system buses and controllers.  For example, a PCI device
     would be listed in the pci(4) man page.  The following buses and con-
     trollers list these devices:

        cardbus(4)    introduction to CardBus support
        eisa(4)       introduction to EISA bus support
        iic(4)        Inter IC (I2C) bus
        isa(4)        introduction to ISA bus support
        isapnp(4)     introduction to ISA Plug-and-Play support
        onewire(4)    1-Wire bus
        pci(4)        introduction to PCI bus support
        pcmcia(4)     introduction to PCMCIA (PC Card) support
        usb(4)        introduction to Universal Serial Bus support

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
     autoconf(4), cpu(4), config(8)

HHIISSTTOORRYY
     The i386 iinnttrroo first appeared in NetBSD 1.0.

OpenBSD 4.4                     October 9, 2007                              1
