Linux 6.5 Brings WiFi & Bluetooth Support For The MIPS Creator CI20

Nearly a decade ago when there was more hope for the MIPS open-source ecosystem and the initial growth of lower-cost single board computers the MIPS Creator CI20 was launched by Imagination Tech. It wasn't too successful and MIPS development has since reached the end of the road, but finally with Linux 6.5 is the Bluetooth and WiFi on this MIPS single board computer going to finally be supported by the mainline kernel.

The MIPS Creator CI20 was an interesting board but ultimately didn't drive a renaissance into the MIPS architecture or stave off the growing wave of Arm SBCs. MIPS has since shifted focus to RISC-V while some hobbyists continue working with the CI20.

For the Linux 6.5 kernel, the MIPS architecture pull adds support for WiFi and Bluetooth on the CI20. The CI20 as a reminder features the Ingenic JZ4780 SoC with a 1.2GHz dual-core MIPS32 processor and PowerVR SGX540 graphics. The board had 1GB of RAM and 4GB of flash memory. It was interesting at the time for a sub-$100 price point, but in the eight years since launch is easily surpassed by much more interesting Arm or even RISC-V boards. The Creator CI20 supports 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.

In addition to the WiFi/Bluetooth for the Creator CI20, the MIPS pull for Linux 6.5 also adds mainline support for the TP-Link HC220 G5 v1 mesh WiFi system devices. Aside from those additions, the rest of the MIPS changes are mostly minor maintenance items for this new kernel.