linux-drivers/
drivers/net/ethernet/hisilicon

HiSilicon HNS, HNS3, and HiBMCGE Ethernet controllers

A collection of Ethernet MAC drivers for HiSilicon (Huawei) networking hardware, spanning older platform-bus MACs in HiSilicon SoCs, the HNS and HNS3 controllers integrated into Kunpeng server processors used in Huawei Cloud and on-premises ARM64 servers, and the HIBMCGE Ethernet interface inside HiSilicon's HiBMC server management chips.

keep conf=0.84 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=net category=networking-ethernet
84%

recommendation

It should stay because this directory supports actively shipped HiSilicon networking silicon, including the HNS3 controllers built into Huawei's Kunpeng 920/930 server processors (still sold and deployed in Huawei Cloud's Kunpeng ECS instances in 2025) and the HIBMCGE Ethernet block found in HiBMC baseboard management controllers. The code saw substantial multi-author activity as recently as late November 2025, DPDK continues to track hns3 alongside the kernel driver, and there are no upstream removal signals.

repository signals

97 files
71,802 source lines
628 commits, 5y
+26,579 / −14,572 lines added / removed, 5y
92 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 628 total · active in 58/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 7 commits · +22 −6 2021-05: 49 commits · +4,003 −2,058 2021-06: 25 commits · +2,321 −271 2021-07: 13 commits · +448 −22 2021-08: 44 commits · +2,045 −1,048 2021-09: 26 commits · +278 −180 2021-10: 37 commits · +782 −365 2021-11: 36 commits · +837 −550 2021-12: 37 commits · +1,785 −2,255 2022-01: 16 commits · +1,386 −1,841 2022-02: 2 commits · +118 −13 2022-03: 14 commits · +226 −59 2022-04: 18 commits · +227 −104 2022-05: 8 commits · +279 −169 2022-06: 8 commits · +92 −46 2022-07: 1 commit · +2 −2 2022-08: 5 commits · +108 −48 2022-09: 11 commits · +1,048 −255 2022-10: 3 commits · +5 −6 2022-11: 6 commits · +113 −129 2022-12: 8 commits · +169 −75 2023-01: 5 commits · +149 −70 2023-02: 1 commit · +2 −0 2023-03: 5 commits · +208 −12 2023-04: 1 commit · +1 −1 2023-05: 4 commits · +50 −15 2023-06: 3 commits · +84 −71 2023-07: 9 commits · +130 −44 2023-08: 12 commits · +1,008 −791 2023-09: 15 commits · +76 −63 2023-10: 5 commits · +225 −99 2023-11: 7 commits · +62 −15 2023-12: 6 commits · +135 −82 2024-01: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-02: 1 commit · +2 −2 2024-03: 13 commits · +111 −39 2024-04: 7 commits · +1,472 −660 2024-05: 10 commits · +97 −62 2024-06: 2 commits · +22 −5 2024-07: 1 commit · +4 −4 2024-08: 11 commits · +84 −62 2024-09: 2 commits · +3 −11 2024-10: 20 commits · +1,925 −43 2024-11: 4 commits · +196 −417 2024-12: 11 commits · +813 −240 2025-01: 8 commits · +137 −93 2025-02: 9 commits · +1,315 −39 2025-03: 2 commits · +59 −54 2025-04: 12 commits · +124 −80 2025-05: 3 commits · +14 −11 2025-06: 9 commits · +150 −132 2025-07: 19 commits · +1,057 −1,634 2025-08: 7 commits · +62 −18 2025-09: 2 commits · +4 −2 2025-10: 8 commits · +101 −38 2025-11: 3 commits · +272 −43 2025-12: 3 commits · +7 −4 2026-01: 8 commits · +70 −65 2026-02: 6 commits · +54 −49 2026-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. git.kernel.org

    Upstream Kconfig shows this directory covers multiple active HiSilicon Ethernet families, including HNS3 for hip08/Kunpeng-class SoCs and HIBMCGE for HiBMC devices, not a single orphaned legacy driver.

  2. git.kernel.org

    The tree still contains a full PCI Ethernet driver for HNS3, indicating maintained production hardware support rather than dead code.

  3. hisilicon.com

    HiSilicon still markets Kunpeng server processors, which aligns with continued relevance of the HNS3 network stack in new systems.

  4. support.huaweicloud.com

    Huawei Cloud documented Kunpeng ECS offerings in 2025, showing contemporary deployment of Kunpeng-based platforms.

  5. core.dpdk.org

    DPDK lists Hisilicon hns3 support for Kunpeng 920/920s/930, consistent with ongoing ecosystem usage in server/datacenter deployments.

  6. cateee.net

    LKDDb tracks HIBMCGE in recent kernel releases, showing the directory still maps to currently shipped kernel support for HiSilicon BMC Ethernet hardware.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Not an early-exit case: directory contains real platform and PCI Ethernet drivers. Evidence mix: local shell inspection of Kconfig/source confirmed active driver families and module entry points; canonical recall used for stable kernel.org tree URLs; web search produced the HiSilicon Kunpeng, Huawei Cloud Kunpeng ECS, DPDK, and LKDDb URLs. Static input already shows substantial 5-year churn and a substantive touch in 2025-11-27 with many authors, which argues against deprecation/removal. I attempted lore-based checks for removal/deprecation signals, but the available lore queries returned no usable removal evidence (one empty result, one timeout, one missing embedding index), so I treat lore as showing no positive removal signal rather than inactivity.