PLDA XpressRICH PCIe host controllers (StarFive JH7110, Microchip PolarFire SoC)
PCIe root-port host controllers based on PLDA's XpressRICH IP block, used as the on-chip PCIe interface in current embedded SoCs and FPGAs — most notably StarFive's JH7110 (the chip behind the VisionFive 2 RISC-V single-board computer) and Microchip's PolarFire SoC FPGAs. The directory contains the shared core plus the StarFive- and Microchip-specific glue.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is still sold new in 2025 and the code is being actively maintained upstream, with substantive patches landing as recently as late 2025 and into 2026. Deployment numbers are modest since this is embedded SoC and FPGA territory rather than desktop PCs, but there is no replacement driver — this is the upstream support for the PLDA controller itself, and removing it would break popular boards like the VisionFive 2 and Microchip's PolarFire SoC kits.
repository signals
sources
- spinics.net
Late-2025 upstream patch traffic still touches drivers/pci/controller/plda/pcie-starfive.c, showing ongoing maintenance rather than removal.
- spinics.net
The Microchip PLDA-based host driver received functional rework for alternate root-port instances, indicating continued upstream development for deployed hardware.
- microchip.com
Microchip continued marketing PolarFire SoC FPGAs with PCIe root-port capability and current documentation/kits in 2025-2026, so the supported hardware is still sold new.
- starfivetech.com
StarFive still markets VisionFive 2 hardware built on the JH7110 SoC, one of the concrete users of this driver family.
- doc-en.rvspace.org
The JH7110 datasheet documents two PCIe 2.0 controllers with root-port support, matching the StarFive-specific driver in this directory.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: local `rg`/file read showed platform PCIe host drivers for StarFive JH7110 and Microchip PolarFire SoC sharing the PLDA XpressRICH core. Local `git -c safe.directory=... log -- drivers/pci/controller/plda` showed steady substantive activity from 2024-05-28 through 2026-01-13, so this is active upstream code, not abandonware. The cited spinics URLs were obtained via `web.search_query` after a failed `lei q` attempt (`lei` not installed); they show recent patch traffic and no visible removal/deprecation discussion. The Microchip and StarFive product/doc URLs were obtained via `web.search_query` and show the underlying SoCs/boards are still current commercial embedded products. Deployment is low because this is niche embedded/SoC PCIe-host IP rather than mass PC hardware, but it is clearly still in active new deployments. No natural replacement driver exists because this directory is the upstream support stack for PLDA-based host controllers themselves.