Microchip Ocelot VSC7514 Industrial Ethernet Switch
A 10-port industrial Ethernet switch chip from Microsemi (now Microchip), built around the Ocelot VSC7514 silicon. It is used in embedded and industrial networking gear that needs managed switching features such as VLANs, time-sensitive networking, and PTP timestamping rather than in mainstream PCs or servers.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is still actively sold by Microchip in 2025, the evaluation board is still listed, and the driver was still receiving real upstream changes as recently as April 2025. Deployment is niche rather than mass-market, but no replacement driver covers the same silicon, so removing it would orphan working industrial switches.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The mscc Ocelot driver stack was still receiving upstream functional changes in 2025; this patch touched drivers/net/ethernet/mscc/ocelot_vsc7514.c.
- microchip.com
Microchip lists VSC7514 as 'In Production' and describes it as a 10-port industrial switch.
- microchip.com
Microchip still lists the VSC7514EV reference design/evaluation board, indicating ongoing hardware ecosystem availability.
- cateee.net
LKDDb maps CONFIG_MSCC_OCELOT_SWITCH to drivers/net/ethernet/mscc and the OF compatible 'mscc,vsc7514-switch', confirming the covered hardware/use case.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Keep: this is an active, niche industrial Ethernet switch driver, not an abandoned legacy leaf. `functions.exec_command` on local Kconfig/driver files identified the target as the Microsemi/Microchip Ocelot VSC7514 switch driver. `mcp__lore_http__.lore_file_timeline` on ocelot_vsc7514.c showed sustained real upstream traffic through 2025; a separate removal-search attempt (`lore_regex`) timed out and a `lei` fallback failed due local socket permissions, so there is no positive removal evidence. `web.search_query` returned Microchip product pages showing VSC7514 still in production and its eval board still listed, which supports hardware_still_sold_new_in_2025=true. Deployment today is rated low because this is specialized industrial/embedded switch silicon rather than broad commodity NIC hardware. No natural replacement driver exists upstream for the same silicon; newer switch families are different hardware, not drop-in replacements.