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

NAME
     intro - introduction to 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 specifi-
     cation for use in constructing a system description for the config(8)
     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 sys-
     tem and network related information.  The networking support is intro-
     duced in netintro(4).

DEVICE SUPPORT
     This section describes the hardware supported on the Alpha 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 ac-
     cessed 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 must be rebooted.

     The autoconfiguration system is described in autoconf(4). A list of the
     supported devices is given below.

SEE ALSO
     autoconf(4), cd(4), sd(4), ss(4), st(4), config(8)

SUPPORTED SYSTEMS
     The following Alpha system architectures and models are supported:

     DEC 3000/[3456789]00 series Alpha systems.

     AlphaStation 200/250/255/400/500 and AXPpci systems.

     The DECpc AXP 150 systems (EISA-bus PC-like systems), Alpha "server" sys-
     tems (other than perhaps the AlphaServer 400, which might actually be an
     AlphaStation 400 in disguise), and multiprocessor Alpha systems are not
     supported.

HISTORY
     The Alpha intro first appeared with OpenBSD 2.3.

OpenBSD 2.9                      March 7, 1998                               1
