Rockchip CIF camera capture interface (PX30 VIP and RK3568 VICAP)
The camera capture interface found inside Rockchip ARM SoCs, including the older PX30 (VIP variant) and the RK3568 (VICAP variant). It receives video from MIPI CSI and parallel image sensors on single-board computers and AIoT/industrial boards such as the Radxa ROCK 3A, feeding the frames into the Linux video subsystem.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because this is brand-new code, merged through a v14 patch series in 2025, that supports the camera input block on Rockchip SoCs still actively sold today. Boards like the Radxa ROCK 3A (RK3568) and Geniatech PX30 development hardware remain on the market in 2025 with documented CSI camera support, and no other in-tree driver covers this IP.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver was under active upstream development as a v14 18-patch series in late 2025, not under removal.
- kernel.org
Upstream kernel documentation describes rkcif as the driver for Rockchip CIF variants including PX30 VIP and RK3568 VICAP.
- radxa.com
A commercially offered RK3568 board (Radxa ROCK 3A) was still being sold, indicating new hardware availability in 2025.
- docs.radxa.com
The RK3568-based ROCK 3A has a CSI camera interface with documented supported cameras, showing present-day camera deployments.
- geniatech.com
PX30 development hardware remained commercially marketed for industrial/AIoT use, indicating ongoing niche deployments for the older CIF variant.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source inspection plus `git -c safe.directory=... log -- drivers/media/platform/rockchip/rkcif` showed the directory is brand-new in-tree code added by a 2025 patch series, with no aging-out signal. The lore MCP server named in the prompt was unavailable in this session and `lei` was not installed, so lore evidence was obtained via web search snippets: the v14 cover-letter lore URL came from web search results (turn3search2 / turn3search4). Kernel documentation was obtained by web search then opened (turn2search1 -> turn4view1). Commercial/deployment evidence came from web search then opened/found on Radxa and Geniatech pages (turn0search1/2/7 -> turn4view2/3/4 and turn5view0/1). This is active, newly merged/merging support for still-sold Rockchip camera-capable SoCs, with no natural generic replacement driver for the same IP block, so `keep` is the defensible recommendation.