A kernel framework that lets userspace allocate buffers of memory which can be shared between devices like GPUs, cameras, and video codecs. It is the modern replacement for Android's ION allocator and is used heavily on mobile and embedded Linux systems for zero-copy multimedia pipelines.
This is not actually a hardware driver; it is a generic memory-allocation framework that sits underneath real device drivers. It provides system and CMA heap types that any driver or userspace component can use to get shareable buffers, so the question of deprecation does not apply.
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monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 24 total · active in 18/61 months
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codex reasoning notes (technical)
Not a driver directory: contains generic DMA-BUF heap allocator/framework code rather than a hardware-specific kernel driver.