linux-drivers/
drivers/pinctrl/spear

STMicroelectronics SPEAr SoC pin controller

Pin multiplexing and configuration support for STMicroelectronics' SPEAr (Structured Processor Enhanced Architecture) family of ARM-based system-on-chips, including the SPEAr3xx and SPEAr13xx series introduced around 2010 for networking gear, set-top boxes, printers, and other embedded appliances.

keep-annotate conf=0.76 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=pinctrl category=platform-vendor
76%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting as legacy because the underlying SPEAr SoCs are marked obsolete and out of production by ST, yet the code still receives routine upstream maintenance (for example a 2024 pinctrl cleanup patch) and likely supports long-lived industrial and embedded deployments. There is no active removal effort, so the sensible course is to flag it as serving aging hardware rather than rip it out.

repository signals

12 files
11,513 source lines
17 commits, 5y
+144 / −109 lines added / removed, 5y
9 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 17 total · active in 11/61 months
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sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    Upstream still touches the SPEAr pinctrl code in recent kernels; at least one 2024 maintenance cleanup patch targeted drivers/pinctrl/spear/pinctrl-spear.c.

  2. st.com

    ST marks SPEAr1310 as 'Obsolete' and 'Out of Production', indicating the family is no longer sold for new designs.

  3. prnewswire.com

    SPEAr13xx was introduced around 2010 for networking/embedded appliances, reinforcing that this is an aging SoC family rather than a current platform.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Real driver directory: multiple platform_driver/arch_initcall entries in local source. Lore evidence came from mcp__lore_http__.lore_file_timeline on drivers/pinctrl/spear/pinctrl-spear.c; it shows recent upstream maintenance but not an obvious removal thread in the limited lore checks. Product-market evidence came from web search: ST's SPEAr1310 product page says obsolete/out of production, and a 2010 ST press release shows the family era/use case. Given obsolete silicon, likely legacy/industrial deployments remain, but recent substantive touches in the user-provided metadata argue against deprecate/remove right now; annotate as legacy instead.