Aquantia/Marvell AQtion Multi-Gigabit Ethernet Controllers (AQC100/107/108/109/111/112)
The original Aquantia AQtion family of 2.5/5/10 Gbps PCIe Ethernet controllers (AQC100, AQC107, AQC108, AQC109, AQC111, AQC112), shipped in Apple workstations, NAS boxes, enthusiast motherboards and 10GbE add-in cards from about 2017 onward, and continued under Marvell after the 2019 acquisition.
recommendation
It should stay because this is the older-silicon backend of the still-active atlantic driver, the chips are widely deployed in workstations, NAS boxes, and 10GbE add-in cards, and Marvell is still selling and supporting them. Netdev traffic into 2026 shows ongoing fixes touching these exact files, so the code is being maintained rather than left to rot. The annotation is just to make clear that this subdirectory specifically covers the first-generation A0/B0/B1 hardware.
repository signals
sources
- spinics.net
Netdev traffic in February 2026 shows active feature/bug-fix work touching hw_atl files, so the backend is not abandoned upstream.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows CONFIG_AQTION is still present through current kernel heads and maps the atlantic module to Aquantia AQtion PCI IDs.
- marvell.com
Marvell still published collateral for AQC107/AQC108-class controllers, indicating the hw_atl generation remained a real product family into the mid-2020s.
- station-drivers.com
A 2026-packaged vendor driver bundle still lists AQC100/AQC107/AQC108/AQC111/AQC112 devices, supporting ongoing installed-base usage.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection showed hw_atl is compiled into atlantic.o and aq_pci_func.c maps hw_atl to AQC100/107/108/109/111/112-era boards; local git log shows substantive fixes/features through 2025-11-20, so removal/deprecation would be premature. The spinics URL was obtained via web search for recent atlantic patch traffic; it shows 2026 maintenance directly touching hw_atl files, which argues against deprecate/remove. The LKDDb, Marvell product brief, and Station-Drivers URLs were obtained via web search and support that this is still a maintained, deployed multi-gig NIC family, though mostly in workstation/NAS/embedded/add-in-card niches rather than broad mainstream volume. I chose keep-annotate because this subdirectory is an older hardware-generation backend inside an otherwise active driver, with no natural upstream replacement driver beyond newer atlantic hardware backends.