Near Field Communication (NFC) controller subsystem
A collection of Linux drivers for short-range Near Field Communication chips, the same kind of radio used for contactless payments, transit cards, and tag reading. It covers controllers from vendors such as NXP, STMicroelectronics, Samsung, Marvell, and Sony, found in phones, embedded boards, and USB readers from the early 2010s onward.
recommendation
Worth keeping but document its niche because the directory is an active umbrella subsystem covering many NFC controller chips from NXP, ST, Marvell, Samsung and others, not a single legacy driver. Recent bug-fix and refactor activity across pn533, s3fwrn5, port100, nfcmrvl, nxp-nci and microread shows it is still maintained, and parts like NXP's PN7160 and ST's ST21NFCL remain on sale in 2025. Some of the older sub-drivers may deserve individual review later, but the parent subsystem clearly stays.
repository signals
sources
- docs.kernel.org
The Linux NFC subsystem is a maintained in-kernel subsystem with a standardized userspace interface, indicating this directory is subsystem driver code rather than a dead one-off driver.
- nxp.com
NXP lists PN7160 as an active NFC controller with Linux support, showing at least some NFC controller hardware in this ecosystem is still sold new.
- st.com
ST lists ST21NFCL as active and in volume production, showing ST21-family NFC controller deployments are still current.
- git.kernel.org
Canonical kernel log location for drivers/nfc; local git history in this workspace shows multiple non-removal fixes/refactors in 2026 across pn533, s3fwrn5, port100, nfcmrvl, nxp-nci, and microread.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Recommend keep-annotate because drivers/nfc is an active umbrella subsystem containing multiple NFC controller drivers plus simulator drivers, not a single obsolete chipset. Local `exec_command` reads of `drivers/nfc/Kconfig` showed many enabled chip families and active simulator entries; local `git log --all --since=2021-01-01 -- drivers/nfc` showed fresh 2026 bug-fix/refactor traffic rather than removal work. `lore_file_timeline` and `lore_maintainer_profile` on the directory prefix returned no matches, indicating a tooling/path coverage blind spot rather than inactivity; `lore_path_mentions` timed out. URLs were obtained via `web.search_query` (kernel docs, NXP, ST) plus canonical recall for the kernel.org log URL, with the kernel log claim grounded by the local git-log tool output. Because some subdrivers are likely legacy while the subsystem is clearly alive and still maps to currently sold NFC silicon, annotate per-subdriver for future cleanup rather than deprecating or removing the parent directory.