SpacemiT K1 RISC-V SoC Gigabit Ethernet MAC
Drives the on-chip Gigabit Ethernet controller found in SpacemiT's K1 RISC-V system-on-chip, which powers a small but growing crop of RISC-V single-board computers introduced in 2024 and 2025 such as the Bit-Brick K1 and the Sipeed LicheePi 3A.
recommendation
It should stay because this is brand-new code, upstreamed in September 2025 to support the Gigabit Ethernet built into SpacemiT's K1 RISC-V system-on-chip, and it is still receiving active fixes as recently as early 2026. K1-based boards such as Bit-Brick K1 and LicheePi 3A are still sold new, so the driver has a real, if niche, user base in the growing RISC-V hobbyist and developer-board market.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
Driver was upstreamed in September 2025 as "net: spacemit: Add K1 Ethernet MAC", so it is a very new in-tree platform driver rather than legacy carryover.
- git.kernel.org
The driver received substantive functional fixes in February 2026, including jumbo-frame support work.
- git.kernel.org
The driver received another bug fix in March 2026, indicating ongoing upstream maintenance rather than removal prep.
- bit-brick.com
Bit-Brick still markets the K1 board, with a live product page showing a buy link and onboard Gigabit Ethernet based on the SpacemiT K1 SoC.
- docs.bit-brick.com
Vendor documentation published in September 2024 documents the Bit-Brick K1 hardware and its Gigabit Ethernet, confirming contemporary productization around the K1 SoC.
- cnx-software.com
Third-party coverage shows additional K1-based hardware (LicheePi 3A / LM3A) with dual Gigabit Ethernet, supporting evidence of real deployments beyond a single board.
- workswithriscv.guide
Community hardware tracking describes SpacemiT K1 as a SoC used on several boards and notes 2x Gigabit Ethernet, consistent with an active but niche deployment base.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local inspection via shell showed this is an OF platform driver for compatible "spacemit,k1-emac" and Kconfig names it the SpacemiT K1 Ethernet MAC driver. Shell `git log` on the directory showed first upstream touch on 2025-09-16 and multiple net fixes through 2026-03-06; canonical git.kernel.org commit URLs were formed from those hashes. Web search/open was used for deployment evidence on Bit-Brick, CNX, and workswithriscv pages. A web search against lore.kernel.org for spacemit/k1-emac/removal terms returned no hits, so there is no visible removal discussion in the checked public record. Given very recent upstreaming plus ongoing fixes and still-sold K1 boards, this should be kept; deployment scale looks niche rather than broad, so `deployments_today` is low.