Chelsio T4–T6 iSCSI hardware offload adapters
Hardware iSCSI initiator offload on Chelsio's T4, T5, and T6 Unified Wire converged network adapters, used in datacenter storage deployments where the NIC handles iSCSI and TCP processing in silicon to reduce host CPU load. The cards have shipped since the early 2010s and Chelsio still sells T6-based versions in 2025.
recommendation
Worth keeping but worth documenting as niche, because Chelsio continues to sell T6 Unified Wire adapters with iSCSI offload in 2025 and there is no in-tree replacement, yet recent kernel activity on this code is essentially treewide cleanup rather than feature work. That points to a small but real specialized user base in storage-offload deployments rather than a thriving codebase.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent 2025 touch to cxgb4i was part of a large treewide timers rename series, indicating maintenance noise rather than device-specific feature work.
- chelsio.com
Chelsio still markets T6 Unified Wire and Server Offload adapters, including models with TOE/iSCSI offload capability, so the hardware family was still sold new in 2025.
- chelsio.com
Chelsio's current product selector lists T6 ASIC-based adapters and explicitly advertises iSCSI offload support on those products.
- chelsio.com
Chelsio continues to position T6 as an iSCSI storage-offload platform, suggesting the driver still serves a real but specialized deployment niche.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local `rg` identified this as the Chelsio T4-T6 iSCSI driver (`DRV_MODULE_DESC` says T4-T6). `lore_file_timeline` and `lore_activity` showed recent hits are mostly treewide cleanups, with no clear removal thread; `lore_regex` found no deprecation/removal discussion. Vendor evidence came from web search results on chelsio.com showing T6 adapters and iSCSI offload still marketed in 2025. That supports keeping the driver, but annotating it as low-activity, niche datacenter/storage-offload code with low present-day deployment and no obvious in-tree replacement.