Linux 7.4 To Support Realtek RTL8127atf & RTL8116af Networking

Queued this past week into the net-next development tree of the latest networking additions for the Linux kernel is enabling support for Realtek's newer RTL8127atf and RTL8116af wired networking ASICs. For the Realtek RTL8116af there isn't too much public information on it besides the Linux kernel enablement patches itself and some since-removed Alibaba store listings. The RTL8116af enablement is going into the Realtek r8169 Linux driver and is described in the support patch as: "RTL8116af is sfp mode. Phylink uses pcs to get the link status from its serdes reg, instead of standard phy reg. Speed and duplex are hardcoded to 1000Mbps Full-Duplex. Also, RTL8116af doesn't have internal phy, so we add some checks to ensure that tp->phydev is not empty when we need it. In rtl_hw_start_8117(), the MAC calibration for register 0xd412 relies on reading the internal PHY register 0x0c42. Since RTL8116af does not have an internal PHY, this calibration step is intentionally bypassed." Merged at the same time into the r8169 net-next driver code was support for the RTL8127atf. This fiber mode card requires some other alterations over RTL8116af for 10G and 1G support being enabled. This builds upon some preliminary support for the RTL8127ATF that made it to the mainline kernel earlier this year but lacked operating in 1G mode and other caveats like no mainline SFP support. The RTL8127atf is a low-power, single-port 10Gbps SFP+ fiber network controller chip. The RTL8127atf is already found in some products such as the Ciciglow 10Gbps PCIe Network Card that is listed on Amazon.com (Prime; affiliate link) for around $70 USD. There are also some RTL8127atf 10 Gbps PCIe network card listings on the likes of AliExpress for $30~40. Look for this new hardware support in the Realtek r8169 network driver for the Linux 7.4 kernel later in the year. We'll see what more networking hardware support arrives in net-next over the weeks ahead.