linux-drivers/
drivers/net/ethernet/3com

3Com EtherLink, Vortex, and Typhoon Ethernet NICs

A family of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet cards 3Com sold from the early 1990s through the 2000s across ISA, EISA, PCI, and PCMCIA, including the EtherLink III (3c509), the Vortex/Boomerang/Cyclone/Tornado PCI line (3c59x), and the Typhoon 3CR990 series. They were ubiquitous in business PCs of that era but vanished after HP absorbed 3Com in 2010.

remove conf=0.92 last_sold=2010 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=net category=networking-ethernet
92%

recommendation

Already on the path to removal: upstream networking maintainers posted patches in April 2026 to delete both the 3c509 and 3c59x drivers, the two flagship members of this directory. With 3Com gone since HP's 2010 acquisition and the hardware confined to legacy and retro-computing setups, the kernel community has decided the maintenance burden no longer pays off. Anyone still running these cards should plan to stay on an older long-term-support kernel or replace the NIC.

repository signals

9 files
11,721 source lines
26 commits, 5y
+94 / −65 lines added / removed, 5y
15 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 26 total · active in 18/61 months
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sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    Upstream netdev has an April 21, 2026 patch titled "drivers: net: 3com: 3c509: Remove this driver," showing active removal work for one 3Com driver in this directory.

  2. lore.kernel.org

    Upstream netdev has an April 21, 2026 patch titled "drivers: net: 3com: 3c59x: Remove this driver," showing removal work extends to a major driver in this directory, not just a single fringe file.

  3. investor.hp.com

    HP completed its acquisition of 3Com on April 12, 2010, supporting that standalone 3Com NIC product lines were long out of new mainstream sale by 2025.

  4. cateee.net

    LKDDb shows this directory still maps to old 3Com PCI NIC families such as the 3CR990/Typhoon series, confirming the code targets legacy 3Com hardware rather than current shipping NICs.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Real driver directory: Kconfig/Makefile read via exec_command show six 3Com NIC drivers spanning ISA/EISA/PCI/PCMCIA EtherLink, Vortex/Boomerang/Cyclone/Tornado/Hurricane, and Typhoon families. lore_file_timeline on 3c509.c and 3c59x.c produced the cited lore URLs and showed April 2026 netdev removal patches for multiple drivers in this directory, which escalates the recommendation from deprecate to remove. HP acquisition URL was obtained via web search; LKDDb URL was obtained via web search. `last_widely_available_year=2010` is an inference from 3Com's 2010 absorption plus the legacy bus mix and product families. Current deployments are likely limited to legacy/retro/embedded systems, so `deployments_today` is `low`.