Marvell's Prestera family of Ethernet switching ASICs powers managed enterprise and data-center switches, exposing their hardware forwarding, VLAN, and bridging features to Linux through the kernel's switchdev framework. The chips are current Marvell silicon, used by switch OEMs building modern multi-port Ethernet appliances.
It should stay in the kernel because Prestera is an active Marvell product line still sold for enterprise and OEM Ethernet switching in 2025, and the upstream driver is receiving regular maintenance with no successor in sight.
repository signals
32files
15,611source lines
137commits, 5y
+11,759 / −2,384lines added / removed, 5y
48authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 137 total · active in 34/61 months
Marvell markets Prestera packet processors as a current Ethernet-switching product family, supporting the conclusion that related hardware was still sold new in 2025.
Kernel documentation describes the upstream Prestera Ethernet driver as the in-tree driver for Marvell Prestera switch devices, with no successor driver indicated.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Lore evidence came from `lore_file_timeline` and `lore_activity` on `drivers/net/ethernet/marvell/prestera/prestera_main.c`; both showed substantial 2025 activity and no removal signal. A broad removal-subject search timed out, but the observed recent lore traffic was normal maintenance/treewide work, not deprecation. Marvell product and kernel-doc URLs are canonical recall pages used to establish that Prestera is a current switch-ASIC family and that this is the active upstream driver. No natural replacement driver surfaced; this is a modern switchdev ASIC driver with continuing deployments in enterprise/OEM switching rather than a legacy-only niche.