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NAME

      pnpbios - support for embedded devices on the motherboard

DESCRIPTION

      The pnpbios driver enumerates embedded ISA devices on the motherboard
      whose BIOS supports “Plug and Play BIOS Specification”.  It assigns ISA
      bus resources (interrupt line, DMA channel, I/O ports, and memory region)
      to each device and activates it.
 
      If it cannot assign necessary resources to a device without causing con‐
      flict with other devices in the system, the device will not be activated
      and will be unavailable to programs.

CAVEATS

      There is no explicit way to disable individual embedded devices.  The
      pnpbios driver will find all devices reported by the “Plug and Play
      (PnP)” BIOS and try to activate them all.
 
      There is no way to explicitly assign particular resource to a device.
      The resource assignment is fully automatic and there is no provision for
      manual override.
      pnp(4)

STANDARDS

      Compaq, Phenix, and Intel, Plug and Play BIOS Specification Version 1.0A,
      May 5, 1994.
 
      Compaq, Phenix, and Intel, Plug and Play BIOS CLARIFICATION Paper for
      Plug and Play BIOS Specification Version 1.0A, October 6, 1994.

HISTORY

      The pnpbios driver first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS

      The pnpbios driver was written by Mike Smith.