4.2BSD/usr/man/man4/intro.4

.TH INTRO 4 "27 July 1983"
.UC 4
.SH NAME
intro \- introduction to special files and hardware support
.SH 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
.IR config (8)
program.
The DIAGNOSTICS section lists messages which may appear on the console
and in the system error log
.I /usr/adm/messages
due to errors in device operation.
.PP
This section contains both devices
which may be configured into the system, ``4'' entries,
and network related information,
``4N'', ``4P'', and ``4F'' entries;
The networking support is introduced in
.IR intro (4N).
.SH "VAX DEVICE SUPPORT"
This section describes the hardware supported on the DEC VAX-11.
Software support for these devices comes in two forms.  A hardware
device may be supported with a character or block
.IR "device driver" ,
or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a
.IR "network interface driver" .
Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file
system of a special type; c.f.
.IR mknod (8).
Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess
communication facilities provided by the system; see
.IR socket (2).
.PP
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
on either the UNIBUS or MASSBUS and, if found, enable the software
support for it.  If a UNIBUS device does not respond at autoconfiguration
time it is not accessible at any time afterwards.  To
enable a UNIBUS device which did not autoconfigure, the system will have to
be rebooted.  If a
MASSBUS device comes ``on-line'' after the autoconfiguration sequence
it will be dynamically autoconfigured into the running system.
.PP
The autoconfiguration system is described in
.IR autoconf (4).
VAX specific device support is described in ``4V'' entries.
A list of the supported devices is given below.
.SH SEE ALSO
intro(4),
intro(4N),
autoconf(4),
config(8)
.SH "LIST OF DEVICES"
The devices listed below are supported in this incarnation of
the system.  Devices are indicated by their functional interface.
If second vendor products provide functionally identical interfaces
they should be usable with the supplied software.
(\fBBeware however that we promise the software works
ONLY with the hardware indicated on the appropriate manual page.\fP)
.sp
.ta 1.0i
.nf
acc	ACC LH/DH IMP communications interface
ad	Data translation A/D interface
css	DEC IMP-11A communications interface
ct	C/A/T phototypesetter
dh	DH-11 emulators, terminal multiplexor
dmc	DEC DMC-11/DMR-11 point-to-point communications device
dmf	DEC DMF-32 terminal multiplexor
dn	DEC DN-11 autodialer interface
dz	DZ-11 terminal multiplexor
ec	3Com 10Mb/s Ethernet controller
en	Xerox 3Mb/s Ethernet controller (obsolete)
kg	KL-11/DL-11W line clock
fl	VAX-11/780 console floppy interface
hk	RK6-11/RK06 and RK07 moving head disk
hp	MASSBUS disk interface (with RP06, RM03, RM05, etc.)
ht	TM03 MASSBUS tape drive interface (with TE-16, TU-45, TU-77)
hy	DR-11B or GI-13 interface to an NSC Hyperchannel
ik	Ikonas frame buffer graphics device interface
il	Interlan 10Mb/s Ethernet controller
lp	LP-11 parallel line printer interface
mt	TM78 MASSBUS tape drive interface
pcl	DEC PCL-11 communications interface
ps	Evans and Sutherland Picture System 2 graphics interface
rx	DEC RX02 floppy interface
tm	TM-11/TE-10 tape drive interface
ts	TS-11 tape drive interface
tu	VAX-11/730 TU58 console cassette interface
uda	DEC UDA-50 disk controller
un	DR-11W interface to Ungermann-Bass
up	Emulex SC-21V UNIBUS disk controller
ut	UNIBUS TU-45 tape drive interface
uu	TU58 dual cassette drive interface (DL11)
va	Benson-Varian printer/plotter interface
vp	Versatec printer/plotter interface
vv	Proteon proNET 10Mb/s ring network interface