linux-drivers/
drivers/net/wireless/st/cw1200

ST-Ericsson CW1100 and CW1200 Wi-Fi chipsets

A family of single-chip 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi controllers from ST-Ericsson that connected over SDIO or SPI, found in NovaThor-based smartphones and a handful of embedded boards from roughly 2011 to 2013.

keep-annotate conf=0.79 last_sold=2013 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=net category=networking-wireless
79%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting as a legacy, low-deployment driver. The hardware has not been sold in new products for over a decade and ST-Ericsson itself wound down, but the code is still being touched by routine upstream maintenance into 2024 and 2025, and a small postmarketOS community keeps old NovaThor phones like the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 alive on mainline kernels. Removal would hurt those legacy users without freeing meaningful maintenance burden.

repository signals

27 files
13,413 source lines
39 commits, 5y
+188 / −203 lines added / removed, 5y
28 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 39 total · active in 23/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-05: 2 commits · +8 −10 2021-06: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-08: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-10: 1 commit · +0 −2 2021-11: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-01: 2 commits · +2 −4 2022-02: 1 commit · +2 −1 2022-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-04: 2 commits · +12 −10 2022-05: 3 commits · +25 −31 2022-06: 2 commits · +6 −4 2022-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-08: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-09: 3 commits · +4 −8 2022-10: 2 commits · +2 −1 2022-11: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-01: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-02: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-03: 1 commit · +1 −1 2023-04: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-05: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-06: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-08: 1 commit · +1 −1 2023-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-10: 1 commit · +1 −1 2023-11: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-01: 3 commits · +69 −54 2024-02: 1 commit · +6 −0 2024-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-04: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-05: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-06: 1 commit · +2 −2 2024-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-08: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-10: 2 commits · +1 −29 2024-11: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-12: 1 commit · +1 −1 2025-01: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-02: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-04: 1 commit · +6 −6 2025-05: 1 commit · +3 −2 2025-06: 1 commit · +6 −4 2025-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-08: 1 commit · +1 −1 2025-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-10: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-11: 2 commits · +7 −4 2025-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-01: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-02: 4 commits · +22 −26 2026-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    CW1200 still receives upstream linux-wireless maintenance as part of mac80211 API adaptation work in 2024.

  2. lore.kernel.org

    CW1200 was still touched by treewide kernel maintenance in 2025, so it is not abandoned in-tree.

  3. wireless.docs.kernel.org

    Kernel wireless documentation identifies cw1200 as the driver for ST-Ericsson CW1100/CW1200 WLAN chipsets over SDIO or SPI.

  4. cateee.net

    LKDDb shows the driver is for SDIO-attached CW1200 hardware and remains present in current kernel series.

  5. en.wikipedia.org

    NovaThor/ST-Ericsson mobile platforms using this wireless generation were a 2011-2013 smartphone era product line, indicating no meaningful new-hardware market in 2025.

  6. wiki.postmarketos.org

    There is still niche contemporary community deployment on old NovaThor phones via postmarketOS/mainline, implying legacy-user demand rather than new-device demand.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Real driver directory. `exec_command` on local Kconfig confirmed ST-Ericsson CW1100/CW1200 over SDIO/SPI. `lore_file_timeline` on drivers/net/wireless/st/cw1200/main.c produced the cited lore URLs showing recent 2024-2025 upkeep but no clear removal thread. `web.search_query` produced the wireless docs, LKDDb, Wikipedia NovaThor, and postmarketOS URLs. Conclusion: hardware is commercially obsolete and legacy-only, but upstream attention is still active enough that removal is not justified; annotate as legacy/low-deployment instead.