Intel/Altera SoCFPGA, Stratix, Cyclone, and Agilex clock controllers
On-chip clock controllers found in Intel (formerly Altera) SoC FPGAs, including the Arria, Cyclone, Stratix 10, Agilex, N5X, and Agilex 5 families. These chips combine ARM application processors with FPGA fabric and are widely used in embedded, industrial, networking, and aerospace gear from the 2010s through today.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is still actively sold by Intel/Altera in 2025 and the driver is under active development, with new Agilex 5 clock support being merged on the linux-clk list as recently as October 2025. This is current silicon with ongoing upstream enablement, not legacy code.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Upstream clock support for SoCFPGA Agilex5 was still being added on linux-clk in October 2025, indicating active maintenance and new silicon enablement rather than retirement.
- intel.com
Intel/Altera still marketed Agilex 5 FPGA and SoC FPGA devices, including SoC variants, in 2025.
- intel.com
A current Agilex 5 SoC FPGA SKU page listed the product as 'Launched' with HPS details, supporting that this hardware family remained commercially available in 2025.
- git.kernel.org
The driver family covers Intel SoCFPGA and eASIC devices including Aria, Cyclone, Stratix 10, Agilex, and N5X/Agilex5 clock controllers.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local path inspection shows a real kernel clock-driver directory, not helpers. `lore_file_timeline` on drivers/clk/socfpga/clk-agilex5.c showed fresh 2025 linux-clk/LKML activity and a new Agilex5 driver addition; that is strong evidence against deprecation. Web search returned current Intel/Altera product pages for Agilex 5 SoC FPGAs, showing the family is still sold for new embedded/industrial deployments. Kconfig scope was verified from the local tree via shell; the kernel.org Kconfig URL is cited as a canonical stable source. A precise `lei` removal search was attempted but blocked by local `lei-daemon` permission failure, and no removal evidence surfaced from the lore timeline evidence.