Intel Integrated Sensor Hub (ISH) PCI transport
The PCI-side transport for Intel's Integrated Sensor Hub, a small always-on coprocessor built into modern Intel client SoCs that handles laptop and 2-in-1 sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, ambient light, and lid/hinge detection without waking the main CPU. It has shipped in Intel client platforms since roughly Skylake and continues into current generations.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is current, not legacy: device IDs for Intel's newest client platforms including Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake are still being added through late 2025, and Intel began shipping Panther Lake systems at the end of 2025 with broad availability in early 2026. There is no alternative driver, since this is the platform-specific transport layer for ISH itself.
repository signals
sources
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows CONFIG_INTEL_ISH_HID is still present in current kernels and maps multiple PCI IDs from pci-ish.c, including IDs added in recent kernel series.
- codebrowser.dev
The upstream source file is an active PCI driver for Intel ISH and its device table includes recent platform-specific generations such as Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake.
- newsroom.intel.com
Intel announced Panther Lake client SoCs in 2025, with first SKU shipping before end of 2025 and broad availability starting January 2026, indicating the covered platform family is not legacy-only.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory, not a helper-only subtree: local source inspection via exec_command showed module_pci_driver() in ipc/pci-ish.c and a large PCI ID table. Upstream attention is active: local git log via exec_command shows substantive fixes and new device-ID enablement through 2025-10 and 2026-02, with no local git-log evidence of deprecation/removal discussion. Deployment is still current rather than legacy-only because the driver keeps gaining support for new Intel client platforms (PTL/WCL/NVL locally; Panther Lake also visible in the cited upstream file), and Intel's Panther Lake launch page indicates new-market systems shipping in late 2025/early 2026. No natural replacement exists; this is the platform-specific ISH PCI transport layer. Cited URLs were obtained by web search; local git/source inspection informed the activity assessment.