AMD Pensando DPU core support
The shared core layer for AMD Pensando Data Processing Units and SmartNICs, including the Salina 400, Giglio, Elba, and Pollara 400 AI NIC families. These PCIe cards offload networking, storage, and security workloads in hyperscale clouds, enterprise data centers, and AI clusters, and are still being shipped into new deployments in 2025.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is current AMD product line that AMD is actively selling and deploying in 2025, and the driver itself saw substantial maintenance activity in 2025, including memory leak fixes, reset flow work, and an fwctl auxiliary device. There are no signs of upstream removal, and no other in-tree driver covers this vendor-specific DPU stack.
repository signals
sources
- amd.com
AMD markets current Pensando DPU generations (Salina 400, Giglio, Elba) and describes them as deployed in hyperscale, cloud, and enterprise data centers.
- amd.com
AMD lists the Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC as a current product with 2025-era availability and ecosystem support, indicating the Pensando networking platform remains active.
- amd.com
AMD announced Pensando Salina DPU and Pollara 400 NIC with first-half-2025 availability, showing the hardware family is still in new deployments.
- amd.com
AMD said Pensando Distributed Services Cards were already deployed at scale across hyperscalers, cloud providers, and enterprises.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
`rg` on the local tree showed a real PCI driver in pds_core (`struct pci_driver`, `MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE`) and Kconfig names it "AMD/Pensando Data Systems Core Device Support". Local `git -c safe.directory=... log` for this path showed substantial 2025 maintenance/fix traffic (memory leak, reset flow, fwctl auxiliary device, adminq fixes) and no path-scoped remove/deprecate/orphan hits, so there is no sign of active upstream removal. Web `search_query` returned AMD official product and press pages showing Pensando DPU/NIC products continuing into 2025 and describing large real-world deployments. This points to an actively maintained, still-current datacenter driver with no natural in-tree replacement beyond this vendor-specific stack.