USB Type-C orientation muxes, redrivers, and retimers
A collection of small switch chips that sit next to a USB Type-C port and steer its high-speed lanes depending on cable orientation and whether the port is carrying USB, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, or USB4. Parts covered include TI TUSB1046, Parade PS883x, NXP PTN36502, ON Semi FSA4480, ITE IT5205, Pericom PI3USB30532, Qualcomm WCD939x, and Intel PMC-controlled muxes in modern laptops and phones.
recommendation
It should stay because this directory underpins working USB-C ports on a huge range of currently shipping hardware, from Intel and Qualcomm laptops to Android phones. Upstream activity is strong (around 62 commits from 26 authors in the last five years, with changes landing as recently as October 2025), parts like TI's TUSB1046 and Parade's PS8830 USB4/Thunderbolt 4 retimer are still sold for new designs, and there is no single replacement driver that could absorb the role. A few covered chips such as NXP's PTN36502 are discontinued, but they coexist here with very current silicon.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
Upstream Linux keeps this as a live directory of multiple chip-specific USB Type-C mux/redriver/retimer drivers rather than a legacy one-off driver.
- docs.kernel.org
The Type-C subsystem still exposes current mux/switch APIs; these drivers implement present-day USB-C orientation/Alt Mode routing support.
- ti.com
TI lists TUSB1046-DCI as ACTIVE, showing at least one supported chip family in this directory is still sold for new designs.
- paradetech.com
Parade markets PS8830 as a USB4/DisplayPort 2.0/Thunderbolt 4 retimer for notebooks, desktops and tablets, indicating ongoing relevance of this driver class in modern platforms.
- nxp.com
At least one older chip covered here, PTN36502, is discontinued, showing the directory spans both aging and current Type-C mux/redriver parts rather than only brand-new silicon.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection showed 10 real module drivers under this directory across several vendors; Kconfig/help text identifies active Type-C mux/redriver/retimer use cases. Prompt metadata shows strong current upstream activity (62 substantive commits in 5y, 26 authors, most recent substantive touch 2025-10-23), which argues against deprecation and gives no sign of abandonment. No lore MCP/lei access was available in this environment, so removal-talk checking fell back to the provided history metadata plus absence of any deprecation signal in the live upstream tree. URLs were obtained via web search for vendor/product pages and kernel docs; the git.kernel.org tree URL is canonical recall. Net: some individual parts are obsolete, but the directory as a whole serves currently deployed and still-sold USB-C mux/retimer hardware with no natural single replacement driver.