Microchip SparX-5 and LAN969x Ethernet switch family
Microchip's SparX-5 and LAN969x are multi-gigabit Ethernet switch chips aimed at industrial, carrier, and embedded networking gear, offering features like hardware-accelerated VLAN handling, PTP time synchronization, and Linux DSA integration. They are still actively marketed by Microchip in 2025 with current evaluation boards available for new product designs.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is still being sold into new designs and the driver is under active development, with a PTP clock fix landing in early 2026 and new LAN969x platform support added in September 2025. There is no alternative in-tree driver for these switch ASICs, so removing it would leave current Microchip hardware unsupported.
repository signals
sources
- github.com
The driver received a functional fix on 2026-02-13 (`net: sparx5/lan969x: fix PTP clock max_adj value`), indicating active upstream maintenance rather than retirement.
- github.com
The driver gained new platform-selection support on 2025-09-18 (`make it selectable for ARCH_LAN969X`), showing ongoing enablement for current hardware.
- microchip.com
Microchip's current Ethernet-switch portfolio page still markets LAN969x devices and associated Linux DSA support, indicating the family is still being sold into new designs.
- microchip.com
Microchip still lists a current SparX-5/-5i evaluation/reference design, which is evidence of continuing commercial availability and ecosystem support.
- microchip.com
Microchip still lists a LAN969x evaluation board, supporting the conclusion that LAN969x hardware remains active in current deployments.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
`exec_command` on the local kernel git history showed recent non-mechanical activity in 2025-2026, including the cited 2026-02-13 fix and 2025-09-18 LAN969x enablement commit; a separate local `git log --grep='remove|obsolete|deprecat'` over this path did not surface a sparx5 removal/deprecation series. The GitHub commit URLs were derived from the repo's `upstream` remote URL returned by `exec_command`. `web.search_query` found Microchip's current Ethernet-switch portfolio page plus active SparX-5 and LAN969x evaluation-board pages, which support 'still sold new' but also suggest this is a niche industrial/embedded switch family rather than a broad commodity NIC, so deployments are best rated `low`. No natural replacement driver exists upstream for the same ASIC family; this driver is the correct in-tree support path.