ASPEED AST2400/AST2500/AST2600 BMC pin controllers
Pin multiplexing and configuration for ASPEED's AST2400, AST2500, and AST2600 baseboard management controllers, the small management chips soldered onto most modern servers for remote console, sensor monitoring, and out-of-band administration. It assigns each BMC pin to roles like GPIO, I2C, SPI, or UART for a given motherboard design.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is current, widely deployed, and actively maintained. ASPEED still markets the AST2500, AST2600, and newer AST2700 baseboard management controllers as current server-management silicon, OpenBMC ships board support for them, and the pinctrl code was receiving both cleanup work and new feature additions (such as PCIe PERST pin group support) into 2025 and early 2026.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver was still receiving upstream maintenance in January 2026; recent work touched the Aspeed pinctrl code as part of an active cleanup series, which argues against obsolescence.
- lore.kernel.org
The AST2600-generation Aspeed pinctrl driver saw functional feature work in July 2025 ('Add PCIe RC PERST pin group'), indicating current hardware enablement rather than legacy-only maintenance.
- aspeedtech.com
ASPEED's current server-management product page still lists AST2500, AST2600, and newer AST2700-family BMC SoCs, showing the hardware family remains in active/new-market use.
- aspeedtech.com
AST2600 is marketed by ASPEED as its 7th-generation server-management processor/BMC, supporting the conclusion that this driver covers still-relevant shipping hardware.
- gerrit.openbmc.org
OpenBMC maintains an AST2600 evaluation-board layer, which is deployment evidence for ongoing Linux/OpenBMC use of this Aspeed BMC generation.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Kernel static inspection via exec_command showed compatibles for aspeed,ast2400-pinctrl, aspeed,ast2500-pinctrl, and aspeed,ast2600-pinctrl, so this directory serves multiple Aspeed BMC generations. lore_file_timeline on drivers/pinctrl/aspeed/pinctrl-aspeed-g6.c returned recent 2025-2026 traffic, including cleanup and feature-addition patches, and did not surface removal/deprecation activity. Vendor deployment evidence came from web search results on aspeedtech.com plus an OpenBMC Gitiles page found via web search. Because the family is still sold and upstream work is active, the correct disposition is keep, with no obvious replacement driver.