Broadcom Kona
Broadcom Kona Mainlining Community on Matrix. |
Kona was Broadcom's mobile SoC platform, spanning the BCM281x5, BCM21654, BCM2166x and BCM23550 chipsets.
Current mainlining work is being done in the bcm-kona-mainline/linux repo on GitHub. Progress can be tracked by checking the issues on the issue tracker.
There is a separate wiki for Broadcom Kona hardware; see Mainline:Broadcom Kona on wiki.dissonant.dev. For a brief overview of mainlining steps, see the Introduction article.
The Broadcom chips used in Raspberry Pi devices (BCM2837, etc.) are completely different from the Kona chips, the only thing they share is the GPU (Videocore IV). The Kona series is also different from the BCM21553 and other earlier Broadcom SoCs.
SoC | Arch | Year | Mainline | UART | USB | Storage | Display | CPU | GPU | Pinctrl | I²C | Audio | Video | Thermal | WiFi | BT | Modem | GPS | Camera | Suspend |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Broadcom BCM21654 | armv7 | 2012 | No | - | - | - | - | |||||||||||||
Broadcom BCM21664 | armv7 | 2012 | Yes | Y | N | P | P | Y | Y | - | - | - | - | |||||||
Broadcom BCM23550 | armv7 | 2013 | Yes | Y | N | P | P | Y | Y | - | - | - | - | |||||||
Broadcom BCM28155 | armv7 | 2012 | Yes | - | - | - | - |
Devices
Broadcom BCM21663/BCM21664 (Hawaii)
![]() BCM21664T on the board for the Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 (samsung-kyleprods). | |
Manufacturer | Broadcom |
---|---|
Name | BCM21664 |
Codenames | Hawaii |
Architecture | armv7 |
CPU | 2x 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 |
GPU | Broadcom VideoCore IV |
Year | 2012 |
Process | 40nm |
Mainline | yes |
Community Page | https://github.com/bcm-kona-mainline |
Components | |
CPU |
Partial |
UART |
Works |
Storage |
Partial |
USB |
Broken |
Pinctrl |
Works |
I²C |
Works |
Device | Codename | Mainline |
---|---|---|
Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 3G | samsung-logan | - |
Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 Duos | samsung-logands | N |
Samsung Galaxy Core Plus | samsung-cs02 | P |
Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 | samsung-kyleprods | |
Samsung Galaxy Trend Lite | samsung-kylevess | P |
Samsung Galaxy Trend Plus | samsung-kylepro | P |
More information
Broadcom BCM23550 (Java)
![]() BCM23550 on the board for the Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo (samsung-baffinlite). | |
Manufacturer | Broadcom |
---|---|
Name | BCM23550 |
Codenames | Java |
Architecture | armv7 |
CPU | 4x 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A7 |
GPU | Broadcom VideoCore IV |
Year | 2013 |
Process | 40nm |
Mainline | yes |
Community Page | https://github.com/bcm-kona-mainline |
Components | |
CPU |
Partial |
UART |
Works |
Storage |
Partial |
USB |
Broken |
Pinctrl |
Works |
I²C |
Works |
Device | Codename | Mainline |
---|---|---|
GoClever Quantum2 400 | goclever-quantum2400 | |
Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo | samsung-baffinlite | P |
Sony SmartWatch 3 | sony-tetra |
More information
Broadcom BCM21654 (Rhea)
Manufacturer | Broadcom |
---|---|
Name | BCM21654 |
Codenames | Rhea |
Architecture | armv7 |
CPU | 1x 850 MHz ARM Cortex-A9 |
GPU | Broadcom VideoCore IV |
Year | 2012 |
Process | 40nm |
Mainline | no |
Components | |
Device | Codename | Mainline |
---|---|---|
Samsung Galaxy Chat | samsung-zanin | |
Samsung Galaxy Fame | samsung-nevisp | N |
Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo | samsung-corsica |
More information
Broadcom BCM28145/BCM28155 (Capri)
Manufacturer | Broadcom |
---|---|
Name | BCM28155 |
Codenames | Capri |
Architecture | armv7 |
CPU | 2x 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 |
GPU | Broadcom VideoCore IV |
Year | 2012 |
Process | 40nm |
Mainline | yes |
Components | |
Device | Codename | Mainline |
---|---|---|
Amazon Fire TV Stick (1st gen) | amazon-montoya | |
Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos | samsung-baffin | N |
Samsung Galaxy SII Plus | samsung-i9105p |
More information
Mainline status
All Broadcom Kona-related mainlining work is currently being done in the bcm-kona-mainline/linux repo. At the moment, the BCM21664 and BCM23550 are being actively worked on there; the mainline kernel also has support for the BCM28155, and adding support for the BCM21654 should be relatively trivial, but they are planned to be supported at a later date.
Both the BCM21664 and the BCM23550 can boot into a complete system; I2C is fully working, and GPIO works as well. The SD card prints some errors but appears to be working on the Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo (samsung-baffinlite); internal storage works as well, but has some problems on some BCM21664 devices (at least the Samsung Galaxy Core Plus (samsung-cs02)). Display works through simple-framebuffer; GPU support will come at a later point, but is made easier by the fact that the VC4 chip is already well-supported thanks to being included in the Raspberry Pi 3 and earlier. USB is broken.
History
The initial work for Kona mainlining was started around 2012, when the board_bcm generic device and some extra drivers were added to the kernel (commit). Proper board development, as well as the addition of board files for the BCM21664 started around 2013, and ended around 2014, with a few commits to some devices later on (see: BCM21664 bringup). Support for the BCM23550 was added around 2016 (see: BCM23550 bringup).
Many Kona platform devices also make use of BCM590XX PMUs; initial support for one of them - the BCM59056 - was added in early 2014. According to a message on the Linux mailing list, support was planned for the similar BCM59054, however it has not been merged into upstream.
In 2014 Broadcom stopped its Mobile SoC activities, which also stopped further developments from Linaro (see this mail on the mailing list).
See also: Broadcom's old website with a list of their mobile chips (archive)