numam-dpdk/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_17_05.rst

DPDK Release 17.05
==================

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New Features
------------

.. This section should contain new features added in this release. Sample
   format:

   * **Add a title in the past tense with a full stop.**

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     should be enough to allow someone scanning the release notes to
     understand the new feature.

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     this:

     * Added feature foo to do something.
     * Enhanced feature bar to do something else.

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     This section is a comment. do not overwrite or remove it.
     Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
     =========================================================

* **Added free Tx mbuf on demand API.**

  Added a new function ``rte_eth_tx_done_cleanup()`` which allows an application
  to request the driver to release mbufs from their Tx ring that are no longer
  in use, independent of whether or not the ``tx_rs_thresh`` has been crossed.

* **Added descriptor status ethdev API.**

  Added a new API to get the status of a descriptor.

  For Rx, it is almost similar to the ``rx_descriptor_done`` API, except
  it differentiates descriptors which are hold by the driver and not
  returned to the hardware. For Tx, it is a new API.

* **Increased number of next hops for LPM IPv6 to 2^21.**

  The next_hop field is extended from 8 bits to 21 bits for IPv6.

* **Added VFIO hotplug support.**

  How hotplug supported with UIO and VFIO drivers.

* **Added powerpc support in pci probing for vfio-pci devices.**

  sPAPR IOMMU based pci probing enabled for vfio-pci devices.

* **Kept consistent PMD batching behaviour.**

  Removed the limit of fm10k/i40e/ixgbe TX burst size and vhost RX/TX burst size
  in order to support the same policy of "make an best effort to RX/TX pkts"
  for PMDs.

* **Updated the ixgbe base driver.**

  Updated the ixgbe base driver, including the following changes:

  * Add link block check for KR.
  * Complete HW initialization even if SFP is not present.
  * Add VF xcast promiscuous mode.

* **Added powerpc support for i40e and its vector PMD .**

  i40e PMD and its vector PMD enabled by default in powerpc.

* **Added VF max bandwidth setting on i40e.**

  i40e HW supports to set the max bandwidth for a VF. Enable this capability.

* **Added VF TC min bandwidth setting on i40e.**

  i40e HW supports to set the allocated bandwidth for a TC on a VF. Enable this
  capability.

* **Added VF TC max bandwidth setting on i40e.**

  i40e HW supports to set the max bandwidth for a TC on a VF. Enable this
  capability.

* **Added TC strict priority mode setting on i40e.**

  There're 2 TX scheduling modes supported for TCs by i40e HW, round ribon mode
  and strict priority mode. By default it's round robin mode. Enable the
  capability to change the TX scheduling mode for a TC. It's a global setting
  on a physical port.

* **Added i40e dynamic device personalization support.**

  * Added dynamic device personalization processing to i40e FW.

* **Added TSO support for tunneled and non-tunneled packets on mlx5 driver.**

  Added support for Hardware TSO for tunneled and non-tunneled packets.
  Tunneling protocols supported are GRE and VXLAN.

* **Added support for Rx interrupts on mlx5 driver.**

  Rx queues can be armed with an interrupt which will trigger on the
  next packet arrival.

* **Updated the sfc_efx driver.**

  * Generic flow API support for Ethernet, VLAN, IPv4, IPv6, UDP and TCP
    pattern items with QUEUE action for ingress traffic.

  * Support virtual functions (VFs)

* **Added LiquidIO network PMD.**

  Added poll mode driver support for Cavium LiquidIO II server adapter VFs.

* **Added support for the Wind River Systems AVP PMD.**

  Added a new networking driver for the AVP device type. Theses devices are
  specific to the Wind River Systems virtualization platforms.

* **Added vmxnet3 version 3 support.**

  Added support for vmxnet3 version 3 which includes several
  performance enhancements viz. configurable TX data ring, Receive
  Data Ring, ability to register memory regions.

* **Updated the tap driver.**

  * Support MTU modification.
  * Support packet type for Rx.
  * Support segmented packets on Rx and Tx.
  * Speed up Rx on tap when no packets are available.
  * Support capturing traffic from another netdevice.
  * Dynamically change link status when the underlying interface state changes.
  * Generic flow API support for Ethernet, VLAN, IPv4, IPv6, UDP and TCP pattern
    items with DROP, QUEUE and PASSTHRU actions for ingress traffic.

* **Added MTU feature support to Virtio and Vhost.**

  Implemented new Virtio MTU feature into Vhost and Virtio:

  * Add ``rte_vhost_mtu_get()`` API to Vhost library.
  * Enable Vhost PMD's MTU get feature.
  * Get max MTU value from host in Virtio PMD

* **Added interrupt mode support for virtio-user.**

  Implemented Rxq interrupt mode and LSC support for virtio-user as a virtual
  device. Supported cases:

  * Rxq interrupt for virtio-user + vhost-user as the backend.
  * Rxq interrupt for virtio-user + vhost-kernel as the backend.
  * LSC interrupt for virtio-user + vhost-user as the backend.

* **Added event driven programming model library (rte_eventdev).**

  This API introduces event driven programming model.

  In a polling model, lcores poll ethdev ports and associated
  rx queues directly to look for packet. In an event driven model,
  by contrast, lcores call the scheduler that selects packets for
  them based on programmer-specified criteria. Eventdev library
  added support for event driven programming model, which offer
  applications automatic multicore scaling, dynamic load balancing,
  pipelining, packet ingress order maintenance and
  synchronization services to simplify application packet processing.

  By introducing event driven programming model, DPDK can support
  both polling and event driven programming models for packet processing,
  and applications are free to choose whatever model
  (or combination of the two) that best suits their needs.

* **Added Software Eventdev PMD.**

  Added support for the software eventdev PMD. The software eventdev is a
  software based scheduler device that implements the eventdev API. This
  PMD allows an application to configure a pipeline using the eventdev
  library, and run the scheduling workload on a CPU core.


Resolved Issues
---------------

.. This section should contain bug fixes added to the relevant
   sections. Sample format:

   * **code/section Fixed issue in the past tense with a full stop.**

     Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the resolved issue in the past
     tense.

     The title should contain the code/lib section like a commit message.

     Add the entries in alphabetic order in the relevant sections below.

   This section is a comment. do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================


EAL
~~~


Drivers
~~~~~~~


Libraries
~~~~~~~~~


Examples
~~~~~~~~


Other
~~~~~


Known Issues
------------

.. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:

   * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**

     Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue in the present
     tense. Add information on any known workarounds.

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   =========================================================

* **LSC interrupt cannot work for virtio-user + vhost-kernel.**

  LSC interrupt cannot be detected when setting the backend, tap device,
  up/down as we fail to find a way to monitor such event.


API Changes
-----------

.. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:

   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change. Use fixed width
     quotes for ``rte_function_names`` or ``rte_struct_names``. Use the past
     tense.

   This section is a comment. do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================

* The LPM ``next_hop`` field is extended from 8 bits to 21 bits for IPv6
  while keeping ABI compatibility.

* **Reworked rte_ring library**

  The rte_ring library has been reworked and updated. The following changes
  have been made to it:

  * removed the build-time setting ``CONFIG_RTE_RING_SPLIT_PROD_CONS``
  * removed the build-time setting ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_RING_DEBUG``
  * removed the build-time setting ``CONFIG_RTE_RING_PAUSE_REP_COUNT``
  * removed the function ``rte_ring_set_water_mark`` as part of a general
    removal of watermarks support in the library.
  * added an extra parameter to the burst/bulk enqueue functions to
    return the number of free spaces in the ring after enqueue. This can
    be used by an application to implement its own watermark functionality.
  * added an extra parameter to the burst/bulk dequeue functions to return
    the number elements remaining in the ring after dequeue.
  * changed the return value of the enqueue and dequeue bulk functions to
    match that of the burst equivalents. In all cases, ring functions which
    operate on multiple packets now return the number of elements enqueued
    or dequeued, as appropriate. The updated functions are:

    - ``rte_ring_mp_enqueue_bulk``
    - ``rte_ring_sp_enqueue_bulk``
    - ``rte_ring_enqueue_bulk``
    - ``rte_ring_mc_dequeue_bulk``
    - ``rte_ring_sc_dequeue_bulk``
    - ``rte_ring_dequeue_bulk``

    NOTE: the above functions all have different parameters as well as
    different return values, due to the other listed changes above. This
    means that all instances of the functions in existing code will be
    flagged by the compiler. The return value usage should be checked
    while fixing the compiler error due to the extra parameter.

* **Reworked rte_vhost library**

  The rte_vhost library has been reworked to make it generic enough so that
  user could build other vhost-user drivers on top of it. To achieve that,
  following changes have been made:

  * The following vhost-pmd APIs are removed:

    * ``rte_eth_vhost_feature_disable``
    * ``rte_eth_vhost_feature_enable``
    * ``rte_eth_vhost_feature_get``

  * The vhost API ``rte_vhost_driver_callback_register(ops)`` is reworked to
    be per vhost-user socket file. Thus, it takes one more argument:
    ``rte_vhost_driver_callback_register(path, ops)``.

  * The vhost API ``rte_vhost_get_queue_num`` is deprecated, instead,
    ``rte_vhost_get_vring_num`` should be used.

  * Following macros are removed in ``rte_virtio_net.h``

    * ``VIRTIO_RXQ``
    * ``VIRTIO_TXQ``
    * ``VIRTIO_QNUM``

  * Following net specific header files are removed in ``rte_virtio_net.h``

    * ``linux/virtio_net.h``
    * ``sys/socket.h``
    * ``linux/if.h``
    * ``rte_ether.h``

  * The vhost struct ``virtio_net_device_ops`` is renamed to
    ``vhost_device_ops``

  * The vhost API ``rte_vhost_driver_session_start`` is removed. Instead,
    ``rte_vhost_driver_start`` should be used, and no need to create a
    thread to call it.

  * The vhost public header file ``rte_virtio_net.h`` is renamed to
    ``rte_vhost.h``


ABI Changes
-----------

.. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:

   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change that was announced
     in the previous releases and made in this release. Use fixed width quotes
     for ``rte_function_names`` or ``rte_struct_names``. Use the past tense.

   This section is a comment. do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================


Removed Items
-------------

.. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:

   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item in the past
     tense.

   This section is a comment. do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================

* KNI vhost support removed.


Shared Library Versions
-----------------------

.. Update any library version updated in this release and prepend with a ``+``
   sign, like this:

     librte_acl.so.2
   + librte_cfgfile.so.2
     librte_cmdline.so.2

   This section is a comment. do not overwrite or remove it.
   =========================================================


The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.

.. code-block:: diff

     librte_acl.so.2
     librte_cfgfile.so.2
     librte_cmdline.so.2
     librte_cryptodev.so.2
     librte_distributor.so.1
     librte_eal.so.3
     librte_ethdev.so.6
     librte_hash.so.2
     librte_ip_frag.so.1
     librte_jobstats.so.1
     librte_kni.so.2
     librte_kvargs.so.1
     librte_lpm.so.2
     librte_mbuf.so.2
     librte_mempool.so.2
     librte_meter.so.1
     librte_net.so.1
     librte_pdump.so.1
     librte_pipeline.so.3
     librte_pmd_bond.so.1
     librte_pmd_ring.so.2
     librte_port.so.3
     librte_power.so.1
     librte_reorder.so.1
     librte_ring.so.1
     librte_sched.so.1
     librte_table.so.2
     librte_timer.so.1
     librte_vhost.so.3


Tested Platforms
----------------

.. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested with this
   release.

   The format is:

   * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations

     * List of CPU
     * List of OS
     * List of devices
     * Other relevant details...

   This section is a comment. do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================