Sony Memory Stick host controllers (TI, JMicron, Ricoh, Realtek card readers)
Host-side support for the Memory Stick family of removable flash cards Sony pushed in cameras, camcorders, PSPs, and Vaio laptops from the late 1990s onward. The drivers cover the Memory Stick slot in multi-format card readers built into laptops and USB dongles, including TI FlashMedia, JMicron JMB38X, Ricoh R5C592, and Realtek RTS5129/RTS5139 chips.
recommendation
Worth keeping but worth flagging as legacy: Memory Stick itself faded from the mainstream around 2014 and most of the older TI, JMicron, and Ricoh silicon is only found in aging laptops, but the subsystem is not abandoned. Realtek's USB card readers (RTS5129/RTS5139) still ship in current OEM systems like Dell laptops, and 2025 upstream activity includes a Realtek patch from Ricky Wu and a memstick deadlock fix routed to stable, so real users would notice if the code disappeared.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
2025 upstream patch traffic still touches the Realtek USB card-reader path that backs `rtsx_usb_ms`, showing active maintenance rather than abandonment.
- lore.kernel.org
A 2025 `memstick` deadlock fix was posted and routed to stable, indicating live bug-fix traffic in the subsystem.
- cateee.net
LKDDb documents current `CONFIG_MISC_RTSX_USB` support for Realtek RTS5129/RTS5139-class USB card readers and says those readers support Memory Stick Pro alongside SD/MMC.
- dell.com
Dell published a Realtek USB memory-card-reader driver update on March 13, 2025, evidence that Realtek reader hardware is still present in supported OEM systems.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Keep rather than deprecate/remove: the directory is old and mostly serves legacy laptop/card-reader silicon, but lore evidence shows 2025 bug-fix and feature work, especially around the Realtek USB-backed path, so it is not a dead orphan. Deployment today is low because Memory Stick itself is largely obsolete and older TI/JMicron/Ricoh controllers are legacy; however, some new OEM systems still ship Realtek card readers that advertise Memory Stick capability. `last_widely_available_year` is an estimate for mainstream, broad deployment of Memory Stick-capable readers in laptops, not for the final niche sales tail. URL provenance: first two URLs came from `lore_file_timeline`; the LKDDb and Dell URLs came from `web.search_query`.