drivers/zorro · keep-annotate

Amiga Zorro II/III AutoConfig expansion bus

Core support for the Zorro II and Zorro III expansion buses used by Commodore Amiga computers from 1987 through the mid-1990s, including the AutoConfig mechanism that let cards announce themselves to the system. It is the plumbing that lets Linux on Amiga m68k hardware enumerate and talk to expansion cards like Zorro Ethernet adapters and SCSI controllers.

keep-annotate conf=0.80 last_sold=1994 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=zorro category=bus-other

80%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting its niche: the Amiga hardware it serves stopped shipping in the mid-1990s and real-world users today are retrocomputing hobbyists running Linux/m68k on Amiga 2000/3000/4000 machines or accelerator cards. However, several in-tree drivers (such as the Zorro8390 Ethernet driver) still depend on it, it received light maintenance as recently as 2024, and removing it in isolation would break the broader Amiga/m68k port. Any retirement should be part of a coordinated m68k-Amiga sunset rather than a standalone cleanup.

repository signals

10 files

886 source lines

16 commits, 5y

+35 / −46 lines added / removed, 5y

11 authors, 5y

monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 16 total · active in 11/61 months

sources

lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream activity still touches drivers/zorro; at least one 2024 patch updated this directory, indicating it is not fully abandoned.
cateee.net
CONFIG_ZORRO remains present in current kernels as Amiga Zorro (AutoConfig) bus support, and is tied to CONFIG_AMIGA rather than generic platforms.
cateee.net
Other in-tree drivers still depend on CONFIG_ZORRO, so drivers/zorro is shared bus infrastructure rather than an isolated dead leaf.
en.wikipedia.org
Zorro III is the Amiga 3000-era expansion bus introduced in 1990, placing the hardware family firmly in legacy Amiga territory rather than new mainstream deployments.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

`drivers/zorro` is real kernel bus-driver code, not docs/tests: local tree inspection showed module_init/platform_driver bus support in `zorro.c`. Lore evidence came from `lore_file_timeline(drivers/zorro/zorro.c)`, which showed only sparse 2023-2024 maintenance cleanups and no inspected removal series. Deployment evidence came from web search: LKDDB pages show ZORRO still gates a few in-tree dependent drivers, while the Wikipedia Zorro III page identifies the bus as Amiga-era hardware from 1990. Recommendation is `keep-annotate`: hardware is clearly legacy and current deployments are low/retro, but the subsystem still has downstream dependents and some upstream maintenance, so deprecation/removal would be premature without a broader m68k/Amiga retirement plan.