Marvell 88SE64xx and 88SE94xx SAS/SATA host controllers
A family of 3 Gb/s and 6 Gb/s SAS/SATA storage controller chips that Marvell introduced starting in 2007, found on PCIe 2.0 add-in HBAs and on motherboards from vendors who rebadged the silicon. They were widely used in workstations, small servers, and enthusiast storage builds throughout the late 2000s and 2010s.
recommendation
Worth keeping but documenting as legacy hardware. The code is still receiving real fixes upstream and getting backported to stable kernels as recently as late 2025, which means actual users still depend on it, and Marvell continues to list parts like the 88SE9485/9445 in its catalog. That said, the underlying silicon is PCIe 2.0 / SAS-2 era and well past its prime, so it should be treated as a long-tail driver for existing deployments rather than a growth platform.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Upstream still sees direct functional fixes in 2026 for mvsas, indicating active maintenance rather than abandonment.
- lore.kernel.org
mvsas fixes are being backported to stable trees in late 2025, a strong signal of ongoing deployed users.
- marvell.com
Marvell still lists 88SE9485/9445 SAS/SATA I/O controllers on a current product page, supporting the view that the family was not fully withdrawn from vendor catalogs by 2025.
- marvell.com
The 88SE94xx family is an older 6Gb/s PCIe 2.0 SAS/SATA controller generation, consistent with legacy/niche rather than mainstream new deployments.
- marvell.com
The family originated in Marvell's 2007 SAS controller push, reinforcing that this driver targets long-lived but aging storage silicon.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source inspection via shell (`rg`, `sed`) identified the supported IDs/family as Marvell 88SE64xx/88SE94xx plus rebadged cards. Lore evidence came from `lore_file_timeline` on `drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c`, which showed fixes through 2026 and stable backports in 2025; sampled removal-discussion queries (`lore_regex`, `lore_path_mentions`) timed out and a `lei` fallback was blocked by sandbox socket restrictions, so absence of removal talk is inferred only weakly. Marvell URLs were obtained via web search results: current product-page presence suggests still-orderable/new silicon in 2025, but the PCIe 2.0 / SAS-2 era feature set and age imply low modern deployment volume. Result: keep the driver, but annotate it as legacy/niche hardware rather than a growth platform.