linux-drivers/
drivers/platform/olpc

OLPC XO laptop embedded controller drivers

Support for the embedded controller chips inside the One Laptop Per Child XO-series education laptops, including the ARM-based XO-1.75 with its ENE IO3731 controller. The embedded controller handles battery, power, and keyboard housekeeping on machines OLPC shipped to schools between roughly 2007 and 2014.

keep-annotate conf=0.84 last_sold=2014 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=platform category=platform-vendor
84%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting as legacy hardware. The OLPC project wound down around 2014 and no new XO laptops are being sold, but the code is still being actively patched upstream as recently as 2026, with fixes queued for stable backport. Removing it would strand the units still in the field, so it should stay as niche legacy support rather than being deprecated.

repository signals

4 files
1,250 source lines
8 commits, 5y
+8 / −12 lines added / removed, 5y
8 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 8 total · active in 6/61 months
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sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    The driver still receives upstream maintenance in 2026; this patch fixes `platform/olpc: olpc-xo175-ec` and was queued for stable backport.

  2. wiki.laptop.org

    The directory targets OLPC XO-1.75 laptop hardware; the platform page describes XO-1.75 as an ARM-based OLPC laptop and names its embedded controller as ENE IO3731.

  3. en.wikipedia.org

    OLPC as an initiative operated from 2005 to 2014, supporting the conclusion that this hardware is legacy and not a new-volume 2025 product line.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Real driver directory: local tree inspection via `rg` showed `platform_driver`/`spi_driver` code in `olpc-ec.c` and `olpc-xo175-ec.c`. `lore_file_timeline` on `drivers/platform/olpc/olpc-xo175-ec.c` showed fresh 2026 activity and yielded the cited lore URL, so removal would be premature. Web search returned the laptop.org XO-1.75 page and Wikipedia OLPC page; together they indicate niche legacy OLPC laptop hardware from the early-2010s, not hardware still sold new in 2025. Result: keep the driver, but annotate it as legacy/OLPC-specific rather than deprecating or removing it.