PMC-Sierra PM8001/PM80xx SAS and SATA host bus adapters
A family of 6 Gb and 12 Gb SAS/SATA host bus adapters built around PMC-Sierra (now Microchip) PM8001/8006/8081/8088/8089 and PM8070/8072/8074/8076/8077 controller chips. They are sold under PMC-Sierra, Adaptec, and ATTO brands, including the ATTO ExpressSAS H1280/H1208/H1244/H12F0 series used in enterprise direct-attached storage and tape setups from the early 2010s through today.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is still being sold new in 2025 (ATTO continues to ship 12 Gb ExpressSAS HBAs that depend on this code) and the driver is actively maintained upstream — Microchip engineers were still posting patches against it in 2026 and it shows up in current linux-scsi tree-wide work. Deployments are niche rather than mass-market, but no other in-tree driver covers the same PCI IDs, so removing it would strand current storage controllers.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver is still receiving current upstream maintenance in 2026, including nontrivial integration work touching pm8001_init.c.
- lore.kernel.org
Microchip is still directly sending pm8001 driver patches in 2026, indicating vendor involvement rather than abandonment.
- cateee.net
LKDDb ties CONFIG_SCSI_PM8001 to PMC-Sierra/Adaptec/ATTO SAS/SATA HBAs, including ATTO ExpressSAS H1280/H1208/H1244/H12F0 families supported by this driver.
- shop.atto.com
ATTO was still offering the ExpressSAS H1280 GT for sale recently; LKDDb maps H1280 to pm8001-supported hardware, showing at least part of the supported hardware family remained commercially available beyond 2025.
- atto.com
ATTO continues to market current ExpressSAS 12Gb SAS/SATA HBAs for enterprise/direct-attached storage use, consistent with ongoing niche deployments rather than pure legacy use.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source inspection via shell showed this is a real PCI SAS/SATA HBA driver with supported IDs for PMC-Sierra/Adaptec/ATTO controllers and module description naming PM8001/8006/8081/8088/8089/8074/8076/8077/8070/8072. lore_activity on drivers/scsi/pm8001/pm8001_init.c returned April 2026 linux-scsi activity, including an active scsi-wide patch touching the driver and a Microchip-authored pm8001 patch; that argues against deprecation/removal. Web search found LKDDb and current ATTO product/store pages; LKDDb links ATTO ExpressSAS 12Gb models to this driver, and ATTO still markets/sells those HBAs, so hardware is not purely historical. Deployment looks niche enterprise/storage/tape rather than broad, so low. No natural upstream replacement driver exists for the same PCI IDs. URL acquisition: lore_activity for the two lore links; web search for LKDDb and ATTO pages.