NVIDIA Tegra BPMP and IVC firmware interface
The communication channel Linux uses to talk to the Boot and Power Management Processor (BPMP), a small companion microcontroller embedded in NVIDIA's Tegra system-on-chip family. It handles clocks, power rails, resets, and thermal coordination on Tegra186, Tegra210, Tegra194, Tegra234 (Jetson Orin), and the upcoming Tegra264, and is required for these chips to boot and run properly on Linux.
recommendation
It should stay because this is an actively maintained interface that current NVIDIA hardware depends on. Jetson Orin modules were still being sold new in 2025, support for the next-generation Tegra264 was merged in mid-2025, and bug fixes continued landing as recently as September 2025. There is no alternative in the kernel for talking to the BPMP, so removal would break every supported Tegra platform.
repository signals
sources
- lore-kernel.gnuweeb.org
linux-tegra traffic in July 2025 included a Tegra firmware pull request, a build-fix patch, and a v2 BPMP patch series adding Tegra264 support.
- git.sceen.net
The kernel log for drivers/firmware shows Tegra firmware changes merged in 2025, including the 2025-09-15 fix "firmware: tegra: Do not warn on missing memory-region property" and the tegra-for-6.17-firmware merge.
- cateee.net
CONFIG_TEGRA_BPMP is present through current kernels and covers Tegra BPMP support, with compatibles including nvidia,tegra186-bpmp and nvidia,tegra210-bpmp.
- nvidia.com
NVIDIA was still marketing Jetson Orin production modules and developer kits for sale in 2025, indicating ongoing new deployments of Tegra SoCs using this firmware interface.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Keep: this is an active upstream firmware driver, not a legacy orphan. Lore MCP path queries/timeouts were attempted first (`lore_activity`, `lore_subsystem_churn`, `lore_regex`, `lore_count`) but did not return usable path evidence; I then used web search against public-inbox mirrors and kernel log pages. `lore-kernel.gnuweeb.org` was obtained via web search and shows 2025 BPMP/Tegra264 work, which strongly argues against deprecation or removal. `git.sceen.net` was obtained via web search and confirms merged 2025 Tegra firmware fixes. `cateee.net` was obtained via web search and shows the driver remains configured in current kernels. NVIDIA's Jetson Orin page was obtained via web search and supports that compatible Tegra hardware was still sold new in 2025. No natural in-tree replacement exists; BPMP is the required firmware transport for supported Tegra SoCs.