Arrow SpeedChips XRS7000 industrial Ethernet switches
A family of small managed gigabit Ethernet switch chips (XRS7003 and XRS7004) sold by Arrow for industrial networking gear that needs HSR and PRP redundancy, such as smart-grid equipment, factory automation, and motion-control systems. The chips connect to a host CPU over either I2C or MDIO and are typically found on rugged, low-port-count industrial boards.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is still actively sold in 2025, with Arrow listing XRS7004E parts and reference boards as in stock for industrial automation and smart-grid use. The driver also saw real upstream maintenance recently, including a late-2025 netdev fix from Vladimir Oltean covering unsupported HSR configurations, so it is neither orphaned nor superseded by another driver.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
The upstream Kconfig describes this directory as support for Arrow SpeedChips XRS7003/7004 gigabit Ethernet switches.
- lore.kernel.org
The driver saw substantive upstream work in late 2025, including a functional fix for unsupported HSR configurations.
- arrow.com
Arrow still marketed the SpeedChips family with XRS7004E/XRS7004F products and reference boards shown as in stock on a page crawled recently.
- arrow.com
Arrow listed ARWSC-XRS7004E as an active product, indicating continued commercial availability beyond legacy-only status.
- arrow.com
Arrow positions XRS7003/XRS7004 for industrial automation, smart grid, motion control, and similar redundancy-focused deployments, supporting ongoing niche use.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection (`rg`, `sed`) identified the family as Arrow SpeedChips XRS7003/XRS7004 and showed both I2C and MDIO transport drivers; the kernel.org Kconfig URL is canonical recall for that local finding. `mcp__lore_http__.lore_activity` and `lore_file_timeline` showed steady activity through 2025 with a recent netdev fix and stable backports, which argues against deprecation or removal. `web.search_query` found current Arrow marketing/product/reference-design pages showing active listings and niche industrial use, so this looks like a still-sold industrial switch family with low but real new deployments and no natural replacement driver.