NXP/Freescale i.MX GPMI raw NAND flash controller
The General-Purpose Media Interface (GPMI) NAND flash controller built into NXP and Freescale i.MX application processors, spanning the i.MX23, i.MX28, i.MX6, i.MX7, and i.MX8X families. It lets these ARM SoCs talk to raw NAND chips that are commonly soldered onto industrial and embedded boards as the primary boot and storage medium.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is still being sold new in 2025 on widely used industrial modules from vendors like Variscite (DART-6UL) and Toradex (Colibri iMX6ULL), and the code is genuinely active upstream — bug fixes landed in September 2025 and further functional work was posted by NXP itself in early 2026. Mainstream desktop and server users will never encounter it, but it remains essential for the embedded and industrial Linux base that ships on i.MX silicon.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver was still receiving functional upstream work in March 2026, indicating active maintenance rather than removal.
- lore.kernel.org
A September 2025 bug-fix patch for gpmi-nand shows real-world maintenance traffic in the recent window.
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies CONFIG_MTD_NAND_GPMI_NAND as the Freescale GPMI NAND controller and lists support across current kernel series.
- variscite.com
A currently marketed i.MX6UL/i.MX6ULL SoM is sold with a NAND-equipped variant, supporting continued new-hardware availability for this controller family.
- developer.toradex.com
A recent vendor product page shows Colibri iMX6ULL modules are still commercially available, supporting ongoing embedded deployments of compatible i.MX parts.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Lore evidence came from `lore_file_timeline` and `lore_activity` on drivers/mtd/nand/raw/gpmi-nand/gpmi-nand.c; both showed recent 2025-2026 patches and no visible driver-removal thread, so removal/deprecation is not supported. Deployment evidence came from web search results opened to LKDDb and vendor product pages (Variscite, Toradex), which show supported i.MX-family hardware still sold for industrial/embedded use. Chipset-family scope was cross-checked by local `rg` inspection of the driver's compatible table (i.MX23/28/6/7/8X lineage). Use appears niche embedded/industrial rather than mainstream, so deployments are low, but active maintenance plus hardware still on sale argues to keep rather than deprecate.