linux-drivers/
drivers/usb/gadget/udc

USB Gadget Device Controller (UDC) drivers

A collection of drivers for the "device side" USB controllers found inside SoCs, BMCs, and embedded boards — the silicon that lets a Linux machine present itself as a USB peripheral (for example a serial console, mass storage, or Ethernet gadget) when plugged into a host. It covers everything from 1990s-era OMAP and PXA chips through to current ASPEED BMC controllers and Renesas RZ/V SoCs.

keep conf=0.89 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=usb category=bus-usb
89%

recommendation

It should stay because this is an actively maintained bucket of many independent controller drivers, not a single legacy chip. New silicon is still landing in 2025 (ASPEED AST2700 BMCs, Renesas RZ/V2M), older hardware like the Palm Tungsten E's OMAP UDC still gets real bug fixes, and the only recent pruning has been narrow cleanups of individually orphaned drivers rather than any move against the directory as a whole.

repository signals

72 files
81,295 source lines
340 commits, 5y
+12,514 / −17,863 lines added / removed, 5y
122 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 340 total · active in 59/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 3 commits · +22 −9 2021-05: 20 commits · +161 −100 2021-06: 4 commits · +12 −61 2021-07: 4 commits · +31 −5 2021-08: 9 commits · +41 −63 2021-09: 4 commits · +30 −5 2021-10: 6 commits · +35 −59 2021-11: 4 commits · +62 −4 2021-12: 5 commits · +71 −13 2022-01: 5 commits · +14 −14 2022-02: 1 commit · +6 −0 2022-03: 27 commits · +189 −137 2022-04: 11 commits · +158 −179 2022-05: 6 commits · +1,631 −9 2022-06: 6 commits · +22 −20 2022-07: 6 commits · +20 −15 2022-08: 7 commits · +137 −50 2022-09: 8 commits · +52 −3,713 2022-10: 4 commits · +15 −1,490 2022-11: 8 commits · +32 −36 2022-12: 2 commits · +25 −10 2023-01: 5 commits · +3,683 −45 2023-02: 8 commits · +10 −21 2023-03: 11 commits · +41 −45 2023-04: 5 commits · +111 −49 2023-05: 26 commits · +110 −202 2023-06: 9 commits · +4,970 −68 2023-07: 9 commits · +28 −35 2023-08: 8 commits · +24 −24 2023-09: 2 commits · +27 −12 2023-10: 8 commits · +30 −21 2023-11: 7 commits · +38 −32 2023-12: 3 commits · +72 −73 2024-01: 2 commits · +6 −2 2024-02: 4 commits · +14 −3 2024-03: 8 commits · +102 −120 2024-04: 4 commits · +29 −27 2024-05: 2 commits · +14 −14 2024-06: 2 commits · +4 −2 2024-07: 2 commits · +5 −7 2024-08: 2 commits · +31 −37 2024-09: 9 commits · +63 −59 2024-10: 2 commits · +28 −18 2024-11: 3 commits · +7 −7 2024-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-01: 2 commits · +20 −13 2025-02: 2 commits · +3 −5 2025-03: 2 commits · +3 −2 2025-04: 4 commits · +14 −10,673 2025-05: 4 commits · +11 −11 2025-06: 5 commits · +11 −11 2025-07: 3 commits · +4 −6 2025-08: 4 commits · +17 −75 2025-09: 2 commits · +4 −2 2025-10: 1 commit · +16 −1 2025-11: 4 commits · +34 −8 2025-12: 3 commits · +35 −27 2026-01: 2 commits · +11 −5 2026-02: 3 commits · +63 −65 2026-03: 3 commits · +26 −16 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. git.kernel.org

    Upstream activity is current: this directory gained AST2700 support in 2025, indicating active enablement for new ASPEED hardware rather than retirement.

  2. git.kernel.org

    Legacy deployments still surface real regressions: omap_udc received a fix for Palm TE gadget behavior in 2024.

  3. git.kernel.org

    Recent removals were selective orphan cleanups, not a subsystem-wide deprecation/removal of UDC support in this directory.

  4. aspeedtech.com

    ASPEED lists AST2700/AST2720/AST2750 BMC products as current with ongoing sampling, supporting that hardware covered by this directory is still entering new designs.

  5. renesas.com

    Renesas marks RZ/V2M as Active and advertises USB3.1 host/peripheral capability, showing another currently marketed SoC family mapped to this directory.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

`exec_command` on the local tree showed heavy 2024-2026 churn across multiple UDC drivers, including bug fixes and new hardware support, plus only a selective cleanup commit (`1d73df245b19`, orphaned UDC drivers) rather than active removal talk for this directory. Kernel commit URLs were formed from those locally obtained commit ids using canonical kernel.org commit-page URLs. `web.search_query` found current vendor product pages for ASPEED AST27xx and Renesas RZ/V2M, which confirms at least some represented UDC-capable hardware is still sold/new in 2025. Because this directory is a live bucket of multiple USB device-controller drivers with ongoing fixes and fresh silicon enablement, there is no single replacement driver and removal/deprecation is not justified.