Intel Keem Bay and Lightning Mountain SoC PHYs
Low-level physical-layer interface blocks built into two Intel system-on-chip families: Keem Bay (the Movidius VPU platform used in vision and edge AI products, including the 3700VC launched in 2023) and Lightning Mountain (network gateway chipsets). The drivers cover eMMC storage PHYs on both SoCs and a multi-protocol ComboPHY on Lightning Mountain.
recommendation
Worth keeping but flagging as a niche, SoC-specific corner of the tree. The hardware ships in low-volume embedded and edge-AI products rather than mass-market systems, but Intel's Keem Bay-derived Movidius parts were still being launched as recently as 2023 and the code is still receiving upstream attention, so there is no case for removal. Documenting it as platform glue for two specific Intel SoC lines would help future maintainers understand its limited reach.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream touch exists for this directory's code, indicating the driver family is still maintained rather than abandoned.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows the Keem Bay eMMC PHY driver still present through current kernel heads and tied to Intel Keem Bay hardware.
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies Intel Lightning Mountain ComboPHY support for gateway chipsets in this directory.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows the Lightning Mountain eMMC PHY driver remains in current kernels.
- intel.com
Intel ARK lists a Keem Bay-derived Movidius 3700VC VPU as launched in Q1 2023, supporting the view that at least part of this hardware family was still commercially current heading into 2025.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: four platform PHY drivers in drivers/phy/intel for Intel Keem Bay and Lightning Mountain SoCs. lore_file_timeline on the directory path returned no events, so I fell back to lore_activity on a concrete file; that produced a 2026 lore URL from mcp__lore_http__.lore_activity showing ongoing upstream churn, with no removal discussion surfaced in the limited lore probes. Hardware evidence came from web search hits to LKDDb pages for the three active configs and Intel ARK for the Keem Bay-derived 3700VC. Conclusion: niche embedded/industrial deployments remain, no generic replacement exists, and active maintenance argues against deprecation; annotate as low-volume, SoC-specific code rather than remove.