drivers/net/ethernet/natsemi · keep-annotate

National Semiconductor SONIC, DP8381x, and DP83820 Ethernet controllers

A group of National Semiconductor Ethernet controllers, including the SONIC chips, the DP8381x 10/100 Mbps PCI family (such as the DP83815 found on late-1990s and early-2000s PCs and add-in cards), and the DP83820 gigabit PCI controller used on retail NICs like the D-Link DGE-500T. The product line was later inherited by Texas Instruments.

keep-annotate conf=0.81 last_sold=2011 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=net category=networking-ethernet

81%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting its niche, because although the hardware (PCI 10/100 and early gigabit NICs from National Semiconductor, later TI) has been marked not-recommended-for-new-designs and was last broadly available around 2011, the code is still receiving real upstream attention. Maintenance touch-ups landed on natsemi.c in 2025 and a genuine DMA bug fix went into ns83820.c in 2026, so it is still serving someone with surviving PCI hardware in older PCs, embedded systems, and retail cards like the D-Link DGE-500T.

repository signals

9 files

8,148 source lines

23 commits, 5y

+77 / −79 lines added / removed, 5y

18 authors, 5y

monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 23 total · active in 16/61 months

sources

lore.kernel.org
`natsemi.c` still received upstream maintenance work in 2025 (`net: ethernet: natsemi: Use pure PCI devres API`).
lore.kernel.org
`ns83820.c` still received real bug-fix traffic in 2026 (`fix DMA mapping error handling in hard_start_xmit`).
ti.com
TI lists DP83815 as `NOT RECOMMENDED FOR NEW DESIGNS`; it is a 33MHz PCI 10/100 controller aimed at older PC motherboards, adapter cards, and embedded systems.
cateee.net
LKDDb maps `CONFIG_NATSEMI` to National Semiconductor DP8381x PCI Ethernet controllers, including DP83815.
cateee.net
LKDDb maps `CONFIG_NS83820` to National Semiconductor DP83820 gigabit PCI Ethernet controllers and lists legacy retail cards such as the D-Link DGE-500T.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Local shell inspection showed this directory contains multiple real legacy Ethernet drivers (SONIC, DP8381x, DP83820), not helpers. `lore_file_timeline` on the directory path returned no aggregate hits, so I checked representative files directly with `lore_file_timeline`: `natsemi.c` shows 2025 maintenance and `ns83820.c` shows a 2026 bug fix, which argues against deprecation/removal now. Web search found TI's DP83815 page (`web.search_query`) marking the chip not recommended for new designs, and LKDDb pages (`web.search_query`) tying the configs to legacy PCI NICs/cards. `last_widely_available_year=2011` is an inference from the TI page's old PCI-era positioning plus its 2011 datasheet/update vintage, so confidence is moderate rather than absolute.