Socionext UniPhier AVE and SynQuacer NETSEC Ethernet MACs
Two on-chip Gigabit Ethernet controllers built into Socionext's Arm-based SoCs: the AVE block found in UniPhier consumer/industrial chips (used on boards like Akebi96) and the NETSEC block in the SynQuacer SC2A11 server-class SoC that powers the 96Boards DeveloperBox. Both are integrated MACs on developer and embedded boards rather than discrete NICs.
recommendation
Worth keeping but documenting as a niche, because the hardware is SoC-integrated and only ships on specialty developer boards (Akebi96, DeveloperBox) that are still available new but in low volume. Both drivers show clear signs of active upstream maintenance, including a direct AVE patch from a Socionext engineer in January 2026 and an XDP metadata feature addition to NETSEC in March 2025, so there is no replacement driver and no reason to remove them.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
`sni_ave.c` received a direct net-next patch in January 2026, indicating active upstream maintenance rather than abandonment.
- lore.kernel.org
`netsec.c` received a feature patch in March 2025 adding XDP metadata support, showing ongoing functional development.
- 96boards.org
The 96Boards Enterprise Edition product page still listed Akebi96 and Developerbox in 2026 and exposed Buy links for both, supporting that related hardware was still available new in/around 2025.
- 96boards.org
The current 96Boards enterprise documentation page still lists Akebi96 as LD20-based and DeveloperBox as SynQuacer SC2A11-based, matching the two SoC families covered by this directory.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection of Kconfig and OF match tables identified two real SoC MAC drivers in this directory: UniPhier AVE (`socionext,uniphier-*-ave4`) and SynQuacer NETSEC (`socionext,synquacer-netsec`). `lore_file_timeline` on both C files showed recent real work, with direct per-driver patches in 2025-2026 and no sampled removal discussion, so this is not a dead driver directory. Web search plus `open` on 96Boards pages showed both hardware families still documented in 2026 and still carrying Buy links on the EE product page; that supports `hardware_still_sold_new_in_2025=true`, but these are specialty developer/embedded boards rather than broad-volume mainstream NICs, so deployments today are low. No natural upstream replacement driver exists because these are SoC-integrated MAC blocks, not rebadged commodity NICs.