---
name: "spif"
section: "4"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/spif"
---

# spif(4)

SBus (spiffy) Serial/Parallel Interface

## NAME

**spif** – SBus (spiffy) Serial/Parallel Interface

## SYNOPSIS

**spif\* at sbus?** **stty\* at spif?** **sbpp\* at spif?**

## DESCRIPTION

The **spif** driver provides support for the Sun Serial/Parallel Interface card (Sun part number 501-1931) based around the Cirrus Logic CD180 octal serial controller and the Cirrus Logic PPC2 parallel port controller.

The device minor numbers for this driver are encoded as follows:

```
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
      |   |   |   |   |   +---+---+---> port number
      |   |   |   |   |
      |   |   |   |   +---------------> unused
      |   |   |   |
      |   |   |   +-------------------> dial-out (on tty ports)
      |   |   |
      |   |   +-----------------------> unused
      |   |
      +---+---------------------------> card number
```

Up to four cards are supported in the system.

Each of the serial ports has an 8 byte FIFO for receive and transmit as well as automatic hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control.

## FILES

- /dev/tty\[jkl\]\[0-7\]

  Serial ports

- /dev/sbpp\[0-3\]

  Parallel ports

## DIAGNOSTICS

- spif0: ccr timeout

  A timeout occurred while writing to one of the CD180 registers.

- stty0-N: ring overflow

  Incoming characters were discarded because the application in control of the device did not read the input fast enough.

## SEE ALSO

[intro(4)](/intro/4.md), [sbus(4)](/sbus/4.md), [tty(4)](/tty/4.md)

## HISTORY

The **spif** driver was first supported in OpenBSD 3.1.

## AUTHORS

The driver was written by Jason Wright ⟨*jason@thought.net*⟩, and is heavily based on the [magma(4)](/magma/4.md) driver written by Iain Hibbert ⟨*plunky@skate.demon.co.uk*⟩.

## TODO

The parallel port is not supported yet.

Dial-out (cua) devices are not yet supported.