PA Semi PWRficient on-chip 1G/10G Ethernet MAC
The integrated 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller built into PA Semi's PWRficient PA6T processors, a short-lived line of PowerPC server SoCs that shipped around 2007 and were used in a handful of niche workstations and evaluation boards before the company was acquired by Apple in 2008.
recommendation
A candidate for future removal because the hardware was tied to a single defunct vendor (PA Semi, absorbed by Apple in 2008), the PWRficient PA6T was the only product line ever shipped, and the chip has not been sold new for well over a decade. Recent kernel activity on this code in 2025 has only been incidental treewide cleanups rather than real feature or bugfix work, suggesting almost no remaining users. There is no replacement driver to point people at because the MAC was integral to the SoC itself, so any holdouts on legacy PA6T boxes would lose networking when it eventually goes.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream touches to pasemi_mac.c in 2025 are treewide timer API cleanups rather than device-specific feature work, which suggests maintenance is incidental rather than driven by active hardware demand.
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies this as the PA Semi 1/10Gbit MAC driver for on-chip Ethernet on PWRficient chips, limited to PA Semi PCI IDs a005/a006.
- en.wikipedia.org
PWRficient was PA Semi's processor line; the PA6T was the only productized processor, initially shipped in 2007, and development effectively ended after Apple acquired PA Semi in 2008.
- en.wikipedia.org
P.A. Semi was acquired by Apple in April 2008 and is defunct as an independent vendor, supporting the conclusion that no new mainstream hardware based on this MAC is being sold in 2025.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection (`rg`) identified the directory as the PA Semi PWRficient Ethernet driver. The lore URL was obtained via `lore_file_timeline` on drivers/net/ethernet/pasemi/pasemi_mac.c and shows only treewide cleanups in 2025, with no evident removal series; combined with the provided static summary (few substantive commits in 5y, latest 2024-09-03), that argues for deprecate rather than remove. The LKDDb and Wikipedia URLs were obtained via web search, and they show niche, vendor-specific hardware tied to a defunct 2008-era platform. No natural replacement driver exists because this is the SoC's own MAC; remaining use is legacy/hobbyist or embedded carryover, so deployments today are low.