QLogic/Brocade BR-series 10Gb Converged Network Adapters
A family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Converged Network Adapters originally sold by Brocade and later QLogic — the BR-1010, BR-1020, and BR-1860 CNA cards — used in enterprise and datacenter servers in the early-to-mid 2010s for combined Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet connectivity.
recommendation
Worth keeping but flagging as legacy because the hardware has not been sold new for years (a representative BR-1860 retail listing is now marked unavailable) and 2025 upstream activity on the code is limited to minor cleanups and tree-wide networking-core adjustments rather than real feature work. Firmware blobs for these adapters still ship in linux-firmware, suggesting some installed base remains, so removing the driver would strand those users; an annotation noting its low-deployment, maintenance-only status is the right middle ground.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver still receives upstream touches in 2025, but the sampled netdev change was minor/comment-only maintenance rather than a feature update.
- lore.kernel.org
The driver is still adjusted for wider networking-core changes in 2025, indicating compatibility maintenance rather than active hardware evolution.
- cateee.net
CONFIG_BNA supports QLogic BR-series 1010/1020/1860 10Gb Ethernet/CNA hardware and remains present in current upstream kernel series.
- bhphotovideo.com
A representative BR-1860 retail product page is marked 'No Longer Available', supporting that this hardware is not sold new in 2025.
- kernel.googlesource.com
linux-firmware still carries proprietary firmware entries for QLogic BR-series BFA/BNA devices, consistent with legacy deployed hardware needing support.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Identified hardware family locally via exec_command on Kconfig and PCI/FW identifiers in the driver. Upstream activity was checked with lore_file_timeline on bnad.c; it shows continued 2025 touches, but sampled recent traffic is mostly treewide/network-core compatibility work plus a trivial comment fix, not evidence of growing deployments. Separate lore_path_mentions and lore_regex removal-discussion probes timed out, so no positive removal-thread evidence was found. Deployment evidence came from web search hits: LKDDb confirms current kernel presence, linux-firmware WHENCE shows firmware still shipped, and a BR-1860 retail page is now unavailable. Conclusion: legacy enterprise/datacenter CNA hardware still exists in some installed base, but new-sales signal is absent; keep the driver, annotate it as legacy/low-deployment rather than deprecate or remove outright.