drivers/staging/sm750fb

Silicon Motion SM750 embedded 2D graphics framebuffer

A small, low-power 2D PCI/PCIe graphics chip from Silicon Motion (PCI ID 126f:0750) used mainly for basic console and VGA output on servers, embedded systems, and industrial boards. It showed up in things like ASRock Rack's M.2 VGA add-in module from 2020 and is still sold through embedded distributors for headless management and minimal display needs.

keep-annotate conf=0.76 last_sold=2020 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=staging category=graphics-display
76%

recommendation

Worth keeping but worth flagging as a niche part, since the SM750 is still being manufactured and sold for embedded and server-management use in 2025, the kernel code is still receiving real maintenance, and Linux hardware probes confirm working systems in the wild. Its mainstream visibility is low — its last broadly visible appearance was the 2020 ASRock Rack M.2 VGA module — so a note clarifying its embedded/industrial scope would help future maintainers, but there is no case for removal.

repository signals

23 files
6,124 source lines
76 commits, 5y
+536 / −1,486 lines added / removed, 5y
31 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 76 total · active in 29/61 months
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sources

  1. cateee.net

    LKDDb still lists CONFIG_FB_SM750 in current kernel series and ties it to PCI ID 126f:0750 and module sm750fb.

  2. linux-hardware.org

    Recent Linux hardware probes still report real-world detection/working systems for PCI 126f:0750, indicating some surviving deployments.

  3. hy-line-group.com

    Distributor product page still offers the SM750 as an embedded graphics processor, supporting the view that the part remained purchasable in the 2025 timeframe.

  4. siliconmotion.com

    Silicon Motion still publishes SM750 product-brief/download material on its Graphics Display SoC page, consistent with ongoing long-tail support.

  5. tomshardware.com

    ASRock Rack shipped an SM750-based M.2 VGA module in 2020, a useful marker for the chipset's last broadly visible commercial appearance outside specialist channels.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Local inspection via `rg` and `sed` confirmed a real PCI framebuffer driver with PCI ID 126f:0750 and module_init in sm750.c. Upstream activity was checked via local `git -c safe.directory=... log` because lore MCP was unavailable and `lei` was not installed; the directory shows substantive touches through 2026-02-23 and no clear removal-oriented commit trail, so this does not look abandoned. Web `search_query` produced LKDDb, linux-hardware, distributor, vendor, and ASRock/Tom's Hardware pages: together they support a low-volume embedded/industrial niche that is still extant, but far from mainstream. Given active kernel maintenance plus niche-but-real deployment, `keep-annotate` fits better than deprecate/remove.