Allwinner A10/A20/A33 Security System crypto accelerator
Hardware crypto accelerator block (AES, DES/3DES, SHA, hardware RNG) built into early Allwinner ARM SoCs such as the A10, A20, A31, and A33, which powered a wave of cheap single-board computers, tablets, and set-top boxes in the early-to-mid 2010s. Boards like the Olimex OLinuXino LIME2 still ship with this chip today for niche embedded and industrial use.
recommendation
Worth keeping but flagging as legacy because the Allwinner A10/A20/A33 SoCs it serves are no longer mainstream parts, yet the driver is still being actively maintained upstream (cleanup work in 2023, build fixes patched as recently as 2026) and at least one vendor, Olimex, still sells new A20-based boards in 2025. Removing it would break working hardware for a small but real embedded user base, so annotation as niche legacy support is the safer call.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver family is still seeing upstream fixes in 2026 rather than removal work; this patch touches the Allwinner SS drivers to fix build/reference issues.
- lore.kernel.org
sun4i-ss received crypto-core cleanup work in 2023, indicating maintained in-tree integration.
- cateee.net
LKDDb still lists CONFIG_CRYPTO_DEV_SUN4I_SS in current kernel series and maps it to Allwinner sun4i-a10-crypto and sun8i-a33-crypto compatibles.
- olimex.com
An A20-based product built on A20-OLinuXino-LIME2 is still sold new and marked in stock, showing surviving niche hardware deployments for this IP block family.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
In-tree static inspection via shell `rg` showed DT compatibles for allwinner,sun4i-a10-crypto and allwinner,sun8i-a33-crypto, while DTs also reuse the A10 compatible for sun7i-a20 and sun6i-a31. Lore evidence came from `lore_activity(file=drivers/crypto/allwinner/sun4i-ss/sun4i-ss-core.c)`, which returned recent 2023-2026 maintenance patches and no removal series in the sampled activity; attempted broader `lore_regex` removal scans timed out, so removal evidence was not found. Deployment evidence came from web search: LKDDb confirms current kernel support, and Olimex current product pages show at least niche A20 hardware still sold new. The hardware is no longer mainstream, but upstream activity and surviving embedded/industrial sales argue against deprecation; annotate as niche legacy hardware instead.