Huawei HiNIC Hi1822 data-center Ethernet adapters
Huawei's IN200-series server network cards built around the HiSilicon Hi1822 ASIC, offering 10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet with SR-IOV for virtualization. They ship in Huawei's enterprise servers in variants like the SP570, SP580, and SC371, and remain documented as current products in 2024.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is still sold and shipped in Huawei servers as of late 2024, and Huawei is actively maintaining the code: roughly 59 substantive commits over the past five years and a 2025 netdev series upstreaming a next-generation hinic3 driver alongside it. The newer hinic3 covers a different chip generation and is not a drop-in replacement for Hi1822 cards, so removing this would strand existing deployments.
repository signals
sources
- kernel.org
Official kernel documentation describes HiNIC as a data-center NIC family with 10/25/40GbE-class devices, SR-IOV support, and PF support in this driver.
- cateee.net
LKDDb maps CONFIG_HINIC to this directory and lists supported PCI IDs for the Hi1822 family, including 2x100GE, 4x25GE, and VF IDs, with support still present in current kernel series.
- support.huawei.com
Huawei's IN200 NIC guide, updated 2024-11-15, says the IN200 is based on the HiSilicon Hi1822 chip and lists current card variants such as SP570/SP580/SP572/SC371/SP582/SP586/SC381.
- lore.kernel.org
A 2025 netdev patch series shows Huawei actively upstreaming a 3rd-generation HiNIC driver, which is evidence the product line is still active rather than undergoing removal.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: local `rg` found CONFIG_HINIC in Kconfig and MODULE_DESCRIPTION/MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE in hinic_main.c. Upstream activity is not removal-shaped: static input reports 59 substantive commits in the last 5y with a latest substantive touch on 2026-01-10; an MCP `lore_file_timeline` query on the directory path returned 0 events, which looks like a path-prefix limitation rather than true inactivity. No removal series was found; web search/open instead surfaced ongoing Huawei netdev work on hinic3 in 2025. Deployment looks niche but real: official Huawei docs obtained via web search/open show Hi1822-based IN200 adapters still documented for server products as of 2024-11-15, so new-in-2025 sales are plausible. No natural in-tree replacement covers the same PCI IDs today; `hinic3` is a newer-generation driver, not a drop-in replacement for Hi1822 PF devices. Source acquisition: kernel.org/LKDDb/Huawei URLs via web search + open; lore URL extracted from the opened LKML page found by web search.