Actions Semi OWL S500/S700/S900 SoC clock controllers
Provides clock and PLL management for Actions Semi's OWL-family ARM SoCs, specifically the S500, S700, and S900 chips that powered a handful of mid-2010s single-board computers and Android tablets, most notably the 96Boards Bubblegum-96 developer board.
recommendation
Worth keeping but documenting its niche, because the hardware family is small and legacy-skewed (the most visible product is the 96Boards Bubblegum-96 developer board built around the S900) yet the code is clearly still maintained: it was touched as part of a treewide clk cleanup in August 2025 and had a real bug fix backported to stable in 2022. There is no replacement driver possible since this is the SoC-specific clock provider, so removing it would break the boards that still exist.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The directory still receives upstream touches in 2025; owl-common.c was part of a 2025 clk treewide cleanup series, so it is not abandoned.
- lore.kernel.org
The Actions clock code had a real bug fix backported to stable in 2022, indicating maintained deployed users rather than dead code.
- 96boards.org
Bubblegum-96 is a real Actions S900 board, tying the driver family to shipping developer hardware.
- ucrobotics.com.tw
A current retailer page still lists Bubblegum-96 hardware, supporting that at least some Actions S900 hardware remained sold new into the 2025 timeframe, albeit as a niche board.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: Kconfig says 'Clock driver for Actions Semi SoCs' and SoC-specific objects exist for S500/S700/S900. lore_file_timeline on drivers/clk/actions/owl-common.c showed 23 matches with newest touch on 2025-08-13 and no removal signal in returned events. lore_activity on drivers/clk/actions/owl-s900.c surfaced stable backports including the 2022 sentinel fix, showing ongoing maintenance for deployed systems. web search returned the 96Boards Bubblegum-96 product page and a current uCRobotics sales page; that supports niche ongoing availability, but only for older dev boards, so deployments today look low rather than none. No natural replacement driver exists because this is the SoC-specific CMU/clock provider for Actions OWL parts. Recommendation is keep-annotate: upstream attention exists, removal evidence was not found, but the hardware family appears niche and legacy-skewed.