Renesas RZ/V2H Input Video Control (IVC) block
The Input Video Control block inside Renesas RZ/V2H(P) (R9A09G057) vision-AI microprocessors, which feeds camera data into the on-chip Mali-C55 image signal processor. The RZ/V2H is a current Renesas part aimed at machine vision, robotics, and factory automation, with an evaluation kit still on sale in 2025.
recommendation
It should stay because this is a brand-new driver, added to mainline in late 2025, for a current Renesas vision-AI processor that the vendor still sells and actively promotes for machine-vision and factory-automation designs. Bug-fix patches were still flowing in early 2026, and there is no alternative driver since the IVC block is SoC-specific.
repository signals
sources
- spinics.net
The upstream patch series adding `rzv2h-ivc` was under active review in 2025, indicating a new driver rather than a legacy orphan.
- spinics.net
A March 13, 2026 7-patch fix series for `rzv2h-ivc` shows ongoing upstream maintenance and bug-fix activity, not removal.
- renesas.com
Renesas lists RZ/V2H as `Active` and markets it as a current vision-AI MPU with Mali-C55 ISP option and machine-vision/factory-automation use cases.
- renesas.com
Renesas still offers an active RZ/V2H evaluation kit with optional ISP and video-streaming support, supporting current deployability/new designs.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Shell inspection (`exec_command`) of `rzv2h-ivc-dev.c` and `Kconfig` identified a real V4L2 platform driver for compatible `renesas,r9a09g057-ivc`, i.e. the RZ/V2H(P) Input Video Control block feeding a Mali-C55 ISP. Shell `git show` on commit `f0b3984d821b` showed the driver was added to mainline in November 2025, so the low in-tree commit count is explained by youth, not abandonment. Web search found the 2025 add-driver review thread and a March 2026 7-patch fix series on spinics; I found no removal/deprecation discussion. Web search on Renesas pages showed the SoC family and EVK are still `Active`; `deployments_today=low` is an inference from the part being a specialized industrial/machine-vision MPU that was only upstreamed recently. No natural replacement driver exists because this is a SoC-specific IVC block driver.