AMD/Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ and Versal SoC crypto accelerators
Hardware crypto blocks built into AMD (formerly Xilinx) Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and Versal adaptive SoC chips, exposing firmware-backed AES-GCM encryption, SHA-3 hashing, and a true random number generator. These chips are widely used in industrial, aerospace, networking, and embedded systems where an FPGA fabric is paired with ARM cores.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is current AMD product line silicon still being sold new in 2025, with stated product availability stretching toward 2045, and the driver itself is actively maintained — AMD engineers were adding new GCM(AES) functionality for Versal in late 2025 and posting fixes into early 2026. Software crypto cannot substitute for these on-chip accelerators, so removing it would strand real users.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Upstream was still adding new functionality in late 2025: GCM(AES) support for AMD/Xilinx Versal in this driver area.
- lore.kernel.org
The driver still received linux-crypto maintenance in January 2026, indicating current upstream attention rather than abandonment.
- amd.com
AMD was still marketing Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoCs as current products, with stated long product lifespans through 2045 for UltraScale+ adaptive SoCs/FPGAs.
- amd.com
AMD was still marketing Versal adaptive SoCs as an active product family, supporting ongoing new deployments.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source inspection via `rg` showed three real hardware-backed crypto drivers: ZynqMP AES-GCM, ZynqMP SHA3, and Versal TRNG. `lore_file_timeline` on the directory path returned no hits (likely exact-path/file-oriented behavior), so I used `lore_activity` on `drivers/crypto/xilinx/zynqmp-aes-gcm.c`, which showed late-2025 feature work and a January 27, 2026 fix on lore URLs above. Web search found current AMD product pages for Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and Versal, supporting that the hardware remained sold new in 2025. No natural in-tree replacement covers the same SoC firmware-backed crypto blocks; software crypto exists but is not a like-for-like driver replacement.