Adaptec AIC-94xx SAS/SATA host bus adapters
Adaptec's first-generation 3 Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI and SATA controllers built around the AIC-9410W chip, sold on 64-bit PCI-X cards in mid-2000s servers and RAID products before Adaptec was acquired by PMC-Sierra and later Microchip.
recommendation
Worth keeping but flagging as legacy: the hardware has not been sold new for many years and Microchip's current Adaptec lineup has moved on to 12 and 24 Gb/s PCIe SAS HBAs, but a 2025 use-after-free fix on linux-scsi shows the code still gets real maintenance attention. There is no in-kernel replacement for the same silicon, so users with surviving PCI-X servers would be stranded if it were dropped; the realistic migration path is new hardware, not a different driver.
repository signals
sources
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies this as the Linux driver for Adaptec AIC94xx SAS/SATA 3Gb/s 64-bit PCI-X host adapters, including AIC-9410W-class devices.
- lore.kernel.org
A 2025 linux-scsi patch fixes a use-after-free in aic94xx and is CCed to stable, showing current upstream bug-fix attention.
- microchip.com
Microchip's current Adaptec storage portfolio is presented as modern PCIe 12G/24G SAS/SATA/NVMe adapters rather than legacy 3Gb/s PCI-X HBAs.
- microchip.com
Recent Adaptec HBA literature covers 12 and 24 Gbps PCIe Gen3/Gen4 products, reinforcing that current-new deployments have moved far beyond AIC94xx-era hardware.
- storage.microsemi.com
An older Adaptec RAID 4000 datasheet ties the AIC-9410W controller to PCI-X-era storage products, consistent with legacy-server deployment rather than 2025-new design wins.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local `rg` of Kconfig/source identified the family as Adaptec AIC94xx/AIC-9410W 3Gb/s PCI-X. `lore_file_timeline` on the directory returned no hits (likely path-level blind spot), but `lore_activity` on `drivers/scsi/aic94xx/aic94xx_init.c` surfaced a 2025 linux-scsi UAF fix, so this is not abandoned and should not be slated for removal. Web search found LKDDb plus Microchip's current Adaptec portfolio/brochure and an older AIC-9410W RAID-era datasheet; together they support 'legacy hardware, low ongoing deployments, not sold new in 2025'. No natural in-kernel replacement driver exists for the same chipset; replacement is hardware migration to newer SAS HBAs, so recommendation is `keep-annotate` rather than `deprecate` or `remove`.