BCM2835class

BCM2835class is a Linux kernel device class associated with drivers that manage peripherals built around the Broadcom BCM2835 system-on-chip, a processor used in early Raspberry Pi models. The term appears in some kernel source trees and documentation to group devices that implement or expose BCM2835-based functionality. It is not universally present in all kernel trees, and naming conventions can vary between versions and forks.

The class serves to provide a common registration and lifecycle model for platform devices corresponding to BCM2835 peripherals. Drivers within this class interact with the Linux device model and, where available, the device-tree facility to bind hardware resources to their software counterparts. By exposing a unified class, developers can implement shared logic for initialization, resource management, and debugging while keeping peripheral-specific code localized to individual drivers.

Typical devices associated with the BCM2835 class include controllers for general-purpose I/O, timers, PWM, and other on-chip peripherals that are tightly integrated with the BCM2835 SoC. These drivers may expose sysfs attributes or other interfaces to allow user-space applications to configure and monitor the hardware through standard kernel mechanisms.

Status and naming variants: The exact existence and naming of BCM2835class vary across kernels. In many mainstream kernels, BCM2835 peripherals are handled by a broader set of bcm2835 drivers without a distinct, persistent class name, or the class name may be fork-specific or historical. For precise details, consult the local kernel source tree or vendor documentation.

See also: BCM2835, Raspberry Pi, Linux kernel device model, GPIO.