SEEQ 8003/8005 Ethernet controllers for SGI and Acorn workstations
Ethernet controllers based on SEEQ 8003/8005 chips that shipped on two long-obsolete platforms: SGI workstations like the mid-1990s O2 (handled by the sgiseeq driver) and Acorn Archimedes machines with the ANT Ether3 expansion card (handled by ether3). Both were 10 Mbit-era parts tied to non-x86 architectures that have not seen new deployments in roughly three decades.
recommendation
A candidate for future removal because the hardware only ever appeared in 1990s SGI workstations and Acorn Archimedes systems, neither of which has been sold for decades. Recent kernel touches to both files are purely mechanical treewide API sweeps (a platform_driver callback conversion and a timer API rename) rather than real maintenance, signaling no active user base beyond a small retro-computing community. Deprecation rather than immediate removal is appropriate so hobbyists running original SGI or Acorn hardware get fair warning.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream touch for sgiseeq was a treewide platform_driver remove-callback API conversion, not feature work or a revival of the hardware.
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream touch for ether3 was a treewide timer API rename, again indicating mechanical maintenance rather than active hardware-specific development.
- cateee.net
The sgiseeq driver is for SGI Seeq Ethernet support and is tied to SGI-specific platform support.
- cateee.net
The ether3 driver is for the Acorn/ANT Ether3 card and depends on ARCH_ACORN, showing a niche legacy platform scope.
- en.wikipedia.org
SGI O2 is a 1996-era SGI workstation family; this places sgiseeq in legacy workstation hardware rather than new 2025 deployments.
- en.wikipedia.org
Acorn Archimedes systems were sold until the mid-1990s, placing Ether3-class deployments firmly in retro/legacy territory.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection showed only two drivers in this directory: `sgiseeq` for SGI machines and `ether3` for Acorn/ANT cards. lore_activity on both files found only low-volume treewide API churn in 2024-2025 and no clear removal thread; the cited lore URLs came from MCP `lore_activity`. Hardware scope/dependency claims came from web search hits to LKDDb pages. Deployment/age evidence came from web search hits to Wikipedia pages for SGI O2 and Acorn Archimedes. Inference: hardware is long obsolete, not sold new in 2025, but some retro/hobbyist systems likely remain, so deprecate rather than remove.