Marvell MVEBU pin controllers (Orion, Kirkwood, Dove, Armada)
Pin multiplexing and GPIO configuration support for Marvell's family of ARM system-on-chips, spanning older Orion, Kirkwood, and Dove parts found in mid-2000s NAS boxes and home routers through to current Armada 37xx, AP806/CP110, and AC5 SoCs used in networking gear, storage appliances, and Prestera-based switches still shipping today.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the directory covers a wide span of Marvell SoC generations and is still actively maintained, with fixes landing upstream in 2025 and stable backports for the Armada 37xx parts. Marvell continues to ship new Armada, OCTEON, and Prestera silicon that depends on this code, so it remains relevant to currently sold hardware rather than legacy-only.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream maintenance exists in 2025 for this driver family; the path is still receiving non-removal fixes.
- lore.kernel.org
The Armada 37xx portion was still being backported to stable in 2025, indicating ongoing real-world relevance.
- marvell.com
Marvell still markets ARMADA/OCTEON data-infrastructure processors for current networking equipment, supporting continued new-deployment relevance for newer MVEBU-derived SoCs.
- marvell.com
Marvell continues to market Prestera switch families; this directory includes MVEBU pinctrl support for Prestera-related parts such as 98DX variants, extending the family beyond purely legacy NAS/router SoCs.
- investor.marvell.com
Marvell announced newer Prestera DX switching devices for carrier/edge deployments, reinforcing that at least part of the supported hardware space remains contemporary rather than obsolete-only.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local rg inspection showed this directory spans multiple Marvell SoC generations, including older Orion/Kirkwood/Dove and newer Armada 37xx/AP806/CP110 plus AC5-related support, so it is a mixed-age platform driver rather than a single dead chip. lore_file_timeline MCP on pinctrl-armada-37xx.c returned the 2025 linux-gpio patch URL and stable backport URL; both indicate active maintenance and no evident removal trajectory. Web search returned Marvell ARMADA/OCTEON and Prestera product pages showing ongoing new-networking silicon families adjacent to devices covered here. Because there is still upstream fix traffic and some covered hardware remains in current networking deployments, deprecate/remove is not supported; keep is the defensible recommendation.