Sunplus SP7021 dual 10/100 Ethernet MAC and switch
The on-chip dual 10/100 Mbps Ethernet controller with a built-in two-port Layer-2 switch found in the Sunplus SP7021 system-on-chip, a Linux-oriented industrial and IoT processor introduced around 2021 and still sold for new designs in 2025.
recommendation
It should stay because the SP7021 is a current Sunplus SoC aimed at industrial control and IoT designs, still marketed and documented by the vendor in 2025, and the driver has been receiving steady fixes and API updates upstream since it was added in 2022. Deployment is modest but real, and there is no replacement driver in the tree.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
Upstream history shows the driver was added in 2022 and continued receiving fixes and API-maintenance commits through 2025, indicating active maintenance rather than abandonment.
- w3.sunplus.com
Vendor product page lists SP7021 as a current Linux/industrial-control SoC and explicitly advertises dual Ethernet MAC controllers with built-in switch fabric.
- sunplus.atlassian.net
Sunplus SP7021 documentation portal was still being updated in 2025, supporting the conclusion that the platform remains vendor-supported and available for new designs.
- sunplus.atlassian.net
Vendor Ethernet-switch documentation describes the SP7021 L2 switch hardware as two 10/100 Ethernet ports plus a SoC/CPU port, matching this driver's use case.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection (`sed`, `rg`) identified OF compatible `sunplus,sp7021-emac` and module text 'Sunplus Dual 10M/100M Ethernet driver'. Local shell `git -c safe.directory=... log -- drivers/net/ethernet/sunplus` showed nontrivial activity through 2025-01-15 with many distinct authors; I mapped that to the canonical kernel.org log URL by canonical recall. Web search found the Sunplus SP7021 product page and documentation pages, including an overview page with 2025 updates and the Ethernet Switch chapter. No removal/deprecation discussion was found in the available evidence; this looks like a young SoC driver for still-marketed industrial/IoT hardware, with low but real present-day deployment and no natural upstream replacement.