SoC last-level cache controllers for RISC-V and Arm platforms
A small collection of cache-maintenance controllers found on modern systems-on-chip, including SiFive's L2/L3 composable cache, StarFive's StarLink cache, Andes' AX45MP, and HiSilicon's HHA. They handle flushing, invalidation, and error reporting for the shared last-level cache on boards like the HiFive Premier P550, StarFive VisionFive 2, and Renesas RZ/Five.
recommendation
It should stay because the code is young, actively maintained, and tied to RISC-V and Arm SoCs that vendors are still selling new in 2025 — SiFive's HiFive Premier P550, StarFive's JH7110 boards, and Renesas RZ/Five parts with longevity guaranteed through 2033. Recent commits and new hardware enablement keep landing, and there is no sign upstream of any move to retire it.
repository signals
sources
- sifive.com
SiFive lists the HiFive Premier P550 as 'Available Now' and sells a current board based on an ESWIN EIC7700X SoC with SiFive P550 cores, indicating current hardware using this driver family remains on the market.
- renesas.com
Renesas marks RZ/Five as Active with product longevity to 2033 and identifies it as using an Andes AX45MP core, supporting that AX45MP-based deployments are still current.
- doc-en.rvspace.org
StarFive documentation presents JH7110 as a current SoC and ties it to VisionFive 2, supporting ongoing StarFive platform relevance for the cache driver family.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows CONFIG_SIFIVE_CCACHE in current kernels and maps it to active compatible strings including ESWIN EIC7700 and StarFive JH7100-related hardware.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows CONFIG_STARFIVE_STARLINK_CACHE present in current kernels (6.11-6.19 and 7.0-rc+HEAD), indicating ongoing upstream support rather than retirement.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: local `exec_command` inspection found four driver objects and platform-driver/module registrations in `drivers/cache/*.c`. Local `git -c safe.directory=... log -- drivers/cache` showed substantive commits through 2026-02-06 across multiple files/authors, with recent fixes and new hardware enablement, so upstream activity is current. Lore-specific tools were unavailable here (`lei` missing; web lore queries returned no indexed removal/deprecation thread), so I treated the absence of removal evidence plus recent git activity as a strong signal against deprecation. URLs were obtained via `web.search_query`/`web.open`; kernel support URLs show configs still present in current kernels, and vendor pages show relevant SiFive/StarFive/Andes-based hardware still shipping. Recommendation is `keep` because the code is young, recently maintained, and still tied to new-niche embedded/RISC-V/server deployments rather than abandoned legacy hardware.