Microsemi/Microchip Ocelot SerDes PHY (VSC7514)
Configures the high-speed SerDes lanes inside Microsemi (now Microchip) Ocelot family Ethernet switch chips such as the VSC7514, used in industrial and carrier Ethernet switches to drive SFP cages and copper PHYs. The Ocelot line has shipped since the mid-2010s and is still in production for embedded networking gear.
recommendation
Worth keeping but documenting its niche because the underlying Ocelot switch silicon (VSC7514) is still sold by Microchip in 2025 with an active reference board, and the kernel code is still being maintained as recently as 2026 treewide updates. Deployments are limited to specialized industrial Ethernet switching gear, so it sees low traffic in upstream development but has no signs of being removed.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver file was still being touched in upstream kernel work in 2026; no removal thread was evident from the lore activity/timeline sample.
- microchip.com
Microchip lists the VSC7514 Ocelot-family switch as 'Status: In Production', indicating the hardware family is still sold.
- microchip.com
Microchip still lists the VSC7514EV reference design, showing an active industrial Ethernet switch deployment/use case with SFP ports connected through SERDES.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: Kconfig/Makefile plus platform PHY driver code in phy-ocelot-serdes.c. Lore evidence came from lore_file_timeline and lore_activity on the file; latest hit is a 2026 treewide include update, which shows the code is still integrated but not heavily subsystem-active, and I saw no removal discussion in those lore results. Deployment evidence came from web search results on microchip.com for VSC7514 and VSC7514EV; both pages indicate current production/reference-board availability. This looks like niche industrial/embedded switch silicon with ongoing but low-volume relevance, so keep rather than deprecate, but annotate as low-deployment/specialized hardware.