TDK InvenSense ICM-456xx 6-axis IMU sensors
A current generation of TDK InvenSense 6-axis motion-tracking chips (combined accelerometer and gyroscope) used in phones, wearables, drones, robotics, and other embedded devices. The family covers parts like the ICM-45605, ICM-45686, and ICM-45689-P, and connects over I2C, SPI, or I3C.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is brand new: the driver was merged upstream in 2025 and is still receiving bug fixes into 2026, while TDK actively sells the ICM-456xx parts and ships a current DK-45686 development kit aimed at new designs. There are no removal or deprecation discussions in the tree, and adoption is expected to grow as more embedded products ship using these IMUs.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
Upstream driver directory is very new and still seeing post-merge fixes in 2025-2026, which argues against deprecation/removal.
- git.kernel.org
Kernel Kconfig describes this as support for the InvenSense ICM-456xx family and lists supported parts including ICM-45605/06/08/34/86/87/88-P/89.
- invensense.tdk.com
TDK InvenSense still markets the 6-axis family in 2025/2026 and lists ICM-45605 and ICM-45686 as current products with purchase paths.
- invensense.tdk.com
TDK provides a current DK-45686 development kit page with 2024-07-25 datasheet and 2025 resource updates, indicating active commercial support for ICM-45686-based designs.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: multiple bus front-ends (I2C/SPI/I3C) plus core/accel/gyro code, confirmed via local shell `rg`. Upstream activity checked with local shell `git log` on the directory: initial merge in 2025 and several bug fixes through 2026-02-23; a separate local `git log --grep='remove|deprecat|obsolete|drop'` found no removal/deprecation hits. The two kernel.org URLs are canonical recall, cross-checked against local repo contents and local git history. The two TDK URLs were obtained via `web.search_query` results and show current product-family marketing plus an active development kit/resources page, supporting that the hardware is still sold and relevant for new designs. Deployment is rated low, not medium/high, because this is a recently upstreamed consumer/embedded IMU family rather than a broadly deployed legacy platform class.