Support for Russian Baikal CPUs is being pulled from the Linux kernel during the 7.1 development cycle. The first changes removed specific driver code merged by Linus Torvalds on April 15. Further patches are queued to eliminate remaining device tree bindings and drivers.
Developers initiated the removal process with the ATA subsystem pull request for Linux 7.1-rc1. This action dropped the Baikal bt1-ahci device tree binding and removed Baikal-specific code from the ahci_dwc driver. ATA maintainer Niklas Cassel stated that upstreaming for the Baikal SoC 'is not going to be finalized.' Linus Torvalds merged the changes on April 15, with additional patches already prepared to follow for other components of Baikal hardware support. The code had remained unmaintained for an extended period. Serge Semin, who contributed most of Baikal's kernel support, was among about a dozen Russian developers removed from the kernel's MAINTAINERS file in 2024. Baikal hardware is scarce even within Russia, leaving little justification to retain the code. Baikal Electronics, founded in January 2012 as a T-Platforms spinoff, developed MIPS-based chips before shifting to ARM processors manufactured by TSMC. Intended for Russian state enterprises as Intel and AMD alternatives, production halted after 2022 sanctions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These measures blocked TSMC access, seized 150,000 Baikal-M units in Taiwan, and revoked ARM licenses, leading to bankruptcy in August 2023. Despite setbacks, the company shipped 85,000 processors by late 2024 and started serial production of the RISC-V-based Baikal-U1000 in September 2025. Its current products include Baikal-T (MIPS), Baikal-M and Baikal-S (ARM), and Baikal-U (RISC-V). Users running Linux on Baikal hardware must stick to version 6.18 LTS or earlier.
