ChipIdea ci_hdrc USB 2.0 dual-role controllers
A widely-licensed USB 2.0 host/device/OTG controller IP block (originally from Chipidea, now owned by Synopsys) embedded in many SoCs, including NXP/Freescale i.MX, NVIDIA Tegra, Qualcomm MSM, Nuvoton NPCM, and various PCI-based designs. It is the on-chip USB found on a large share of ARM embedded boards and industrial gateways shipping today.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is still in current production: NXP lists i.MX 8M Mini and newer parts as active, and the upstream code is being actively maintained with 2025-era fixes and new SoC support for i.MX94, i.MX95, and S32G. There is no alternative driver for the same controller IP, so removing it would orphan a large amount of currently shipping embedded hardware.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
Upstream activity is current rather than dormant: local git log for this directory shows multiple 2025-2026 fixes and new SoC support, including i.MX94/i.MX95 and NXP S32G updates, and no path-specific deprecation/removal series was found in the checked history.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows CONFIG_USB_CHIPIDEA still present through current kernel series and maps the driver to active OF/PCI bindings including generic chipidea,usb2 and many Freescale/NXP i.MX compatibles.
- nxp.com
NXP lists the i.MX 8M Mini as Active and advertises 2x USB 2.0 OTG controllers with integrated PHY, indicating this IP block remains in currently sold embedded SoCs and partner boards.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Directory inspection via shell (`rg`, `sed`) identifies this as the main ChipIdea HDRC/ci_hdrc USB controller family with glue for i.MX, Tegra, MSM, NPCM, generic USB2, and PCI. Lore-specific MCP/`lei` access was unavailable in this environment, so upstream-maintenance evidence came from local `git -c safe.directory=... log` on the directory; the kernel.org log URL is included as the canonical history page for the same path. Web tool opened LKDDb and the NXP product page. The evidence points to active maintenance and ongoing deployment in embedded/industrial SoCs, so removal or deprecation is not justified; there is also no single replacement driver for the same hardware IP.