drivers/interconnect/samsung · keep-annotate

Samsung Exynos SoC interconnect provider

On-chip interconnect (bus fabric / memory traffic) support for Samsung Exynos application processors used in Galaxy-era phones and Odroid-class boards from roughly 2011 to 2014, including the Exynos 3250, 4210, 4412, 5422, and 5433. It lets Linux negotiate bandwidth between CPU, GPU, display, and memory blocks on those SoCs.

keep-annotate conf=0.83 last_sold=2016 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=interconnect category=bus-other

83%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting its niche, because the supported chips are all 2011-2014 vintage Exynos parts found in older Samsung phones and dev boards, yet the code is still receiving real upstream maintenance (a fix landed in June 2025) and no other driver can replace it for those SoCs. The audience today is largely the postmarketOS and mainline-on-legacy-hardware community keeping those devices alive.

repository signals

3 files

196 source lines

8 commits, 5y

+26 / −27 lines added / removed, 5y

4 authors, 5y

monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 8 total · active in 6/61 months

sources

git.kernel.org
Upstream Kconfig says this directory is for Samsung SoC interconnect drivers and names Exynos3250, Exynos4210, Exynos4412, Exynos542x, and Exynos5433.
lore.kernel.org
The driver had a real bug-fix patch in June 2025, showing current upstream attention rather than abandonment.
wiki.postmarketos.org
postmarketOS notes most Exynos ARM SoCs released up until 2014 are well supported in mainline Linux and lists Exynos 3250, 4210, 4412, 5422, and 5433 with release years from 2011 to 2014.
wiki.postmarketos.org
The Exynos 4 family page gives 2011-2014 release years and shows ongoing mainline support on legacy phones/boards, indicating residual but niche deployments.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Local shell read of Kconfig/exynos.c identified the family and exact supported SoCs; kernel.org URL supplied from canonical recall for citation. lore_file_timeline and lore_activity on drivers/interconnect/samsung/exynos.c showed multiple 2024-2025 fixes, including a June 23, 2025 fix patch, so this is not removal-candidate code and there was no removal signal in the timeline. Web search surfaced postmarketOS Exynos pages showing these SoCs are 2011-2014-era parts with some current mainline use on old devices, which supports low present-day deployment and no new-sales case in 2025. No natural replacement driver exists because this is the hardware-specific interconnect provider for those Exynos SoCs.