Apple Silicon PMGR power domain and reset controller
Controls the on-SoC power management and reset block (PMGR) inside Apple Silicon chips such as the M1, M2, M3, and M4, which power down and reset individual hardware units on the chip. It is a core piece of running Linux on Apple Silicon Macs, the line Apple has shipped since 2020 and continues to sell new in 2025.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because it is the native upstream driver for the on-chip power and reset controller in Apple Silicon SoCs (M1, M2, M3, M4 and the Macs built around them), with active commits through August 2025. Apple is still selling new Apple Silicon hardware — including the M4 MacBook Air launched in March 2025 — and there is no alternative driver for this block, so it is essential for anyone running Linux on these Macs.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
Upstream activity is recent rather than stale; the directory has commits in 2024 and 2025, including Apple-specific enablement in 2025.
- git.kernel.org
The driver is an Apple SoC PMGR power-state / reset controller for on-SoC devices, integrated with generic power domains.
- support.apple.com
Apple was still shipping new Apple Silicon Macs in 2025; MacBook Air (13-inch, M4, 2025) is an official Apple product page.
- apple.com
Apple publicly launched a new M4-based MacBook Air on March 5, 2025, confirming continued new-hardware sales for the platform this driver serves.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local inspection via shell read of drivers/pmdomain/apple showed a real platform driver/Kconfig entry for Apple SoC PMGR power domains and reset control. Local git log via shell showed touches through 2025-08-28, so this is active enough to keep. lore-http MCP was unavailable and `lei` was not installed, so lore removal-check could not be performed directly; no removal evidence was found via web search, and recent kernel-tree activity argues against deprecation. Apple hardware using this SoC family was still sold new in 2025, but Linux deployments on Apple Silicon remain relatively niche versus x86 PCs, so deployment is low. No natural replacement exists because this is the native upstream driver for this PMGR block.