AMCC/AppliedMicro PPC4xx on-chip crypto accelerator
The hardware crypto engine built into AMCC (later AppliedMicro, now MACOM) PowerPC 4xx embedded processors, including the PPC405EX, PPC460EX, and PPC460SX. These SoCs were aimed at networking gear, storage controllers, and industrial appliances from the late 2000s onward, with the on-chip accelerator handling bulk symmetric and hash crypto offload.
recommendation
Worth keeping but documenting its niche: the underlying PowerPC 4xx parts are still listed as orderable by MACOM in 2025, and the code received maintainer-driven cleanups and a compiler-warning fix from the crypto subsystem maintainer in 2025, so it is not abandoned. There is no software or alternative driver that can replace an on-SoC accelerator block, but real-world deployments are small and embedded, so a note about its narrow scope would help future triage.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
In 2025 the driver still received subsystem-maintainer attention; this patch removes obsolete ahash-related code from crypto4xx rather than the whole driver.
- lore.kernel.org
In 2025 the driver still received a targeted compiler-warning fix, indicating active maintenance rather than abandonment.
- cateee.net
LKDDb maps CONFIG_CRYPTO_DEV_PPC4XX to the AMCC PPC4xx crypto accelerator and shows it still present in current kernel series.
- macom.com
MACOM still lists the PPC460EX embedded processor as an orderable product with an optional security subsystem.
- macom.com
MACOM still lists the PPC405EX embedded processor as an orderable product with an optional security subsystem.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection of drivers/crypto/amcc identified a real platform driver and the covered SoCs: code references amcc,ppc405ex-crypto, amcc,ppc460ex-crypto, and amcc,ppc460sx-crypto. lore_activity on crypto4xx_core.c showed recent 2024-2025 cleanup and bug-fix traffic, including maintainer-authored changes, plus no lore evidence of a whole-driver removal series; one failed/empty directory-level lore_file_timeline query suggests path-prefix mismatch, not inactivity. Web search produced LKDDb and MACOM product pages: LKDDb confirms upstream presence; MACOM pages indicate at least some PPC4xx silicon remains sold new by quote/order in 2025, but this is clearly niche embedded hardware, so deployments are low. No natural upstream replacement driver exists for the same on-SoC accelerator block; software crypto fallback is not a hardware-driver replacement.