QLogic/Marvell FastLinQ 41000/45000 FCoE offload adapters
Hardware Fibre Channel over Ethernet offload on Marvell (originally QLogic) FastLinQ 41000 and 45000 series Converged Network Adapters, which let enterprise servers present FCoE storage HBAs over 10/25/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet links. These CNAs are typically deployed in data centres that bridge Ethernet and Fibre Channel SAN fabrics.
recommendation
It should stay because Marvell still markets the FastLinQ 41000 and 45000 CNAs as current products with FCoE offload, and the driver received maintenance commits as recently as November 2025. Although hardware FCoE is a niche enterprise-storage use case with modest deployment numbers, there is no equivalent in-kernel replacement — software FCoE over a generic NIC does not provide the same offload — so removing it would strand customers of currently-sold hardware.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent 2025 linux-scsi patch directly touched drivers/scsi/qedf/qedf_main.c, showing ongoing upstream maintenance rather than abandonment or removal work.
- marvell.com
Current Marvell FastLinQ CNA page lists 41000/45000 series CNAs and explicitly advertises FCoE offload support, indicating the hardware family remained an active product line in/after 2025.
- marvell.com
Current Marvell 41000-series product page shows QLogic-branded FastLinQ 41000 adapters still marketed, supporting continued new-hardware availability around 2025.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source inspection via exec_command found PCI IDs 0x165c/0x8080 and strings naming 'Marvell FastLinQ 41xxx/45xxx FCoE' and module description 'QLogic FastLinQ 4xxxx FCoE Module', identifying the device family. lore_file_timeline on the directory returned no matches for the directory path, so I used lore_activity on drivers/scsi/qedf/qedf_main.c; that produced the cited 2025 linux-scsi patch URL, which indicates live maintenance and no obvious removal series. Web search plus direct page open provided the two Marvell URLs; those pages show the 41000/45000 FastLinQ CNA family and FCoE offload still being marketed, so this is not legacy-only silicon. Deployment is still likely low because hardware FCoE offload is a niche enterprise-storage use case, but the combination of current vendor product pages and recent upstream work argues to keep the driver. No clear upstream successor driver for the same offloaded FCoE function was found; software FCoE on generic NICs is not a like-for-like replacement.