[dpdk-announce] release candidate 18.11-rc1

[dpdk-announce] release candidate 18.11-rc1

[Thomas Monjalon]

A new DPDK release candidate is ready for testing:
	https://git.dpdk.org/dpdk/tag/?id=v18.11-rc1

It is one of the biggest -rc1: 1056 patches.
The integration deadline was on October 5th, so we look very late.
The good news is that almost everything planned is integrated.

The release notes so far:
	http://doc.dpdk.org/guides/rel_notes/release_18_11.html
Please think about updating the release notes when you add a feature.

Some highlights of 18.11-rc1:
	- ability to use externally allocated memory
	- new hotplug features, including multi-process and PCI failure handler
	- MAC swap, MPLS encapsulation and metadata matching in rte_flow API
	- new ethdev PMDs: Marvell Armada, NXP ENETC, Aquantia Atlantic
	- multi-process support in tap
	- postcopy live-migration in vhost-user
	- vDPA sample application
	- classification and metering in SoftNIC
	- crypto in Packet Framework and SoftNIC
	- new cryptodev PMDs: CAAM JR and OCTEON TX
	- AES-CMAC in QAT
	- AES-GCM in AESNI MB
	- PDCP in security library
	- dynamic Huffman in QAT compression
	- eventdev Tx adapter
	- distributed software eventdev PMD
	- extendable table and lock-free r/w concurrency in hash library
	- traffic pattern aware power management
	- JSON power policy interface
	- JSON telemetry interface
	- noisy VNF forward mode in testpmd

Some features are expected in 18.11-rc2:
	- C11 memory model in ring library
	- FIPS validation application
	- compressdev test application
	- unit tests clean-up

Some planned features are postponed to 19.02:
	- IPsec library
	- new devargs syntax
	- libedit integration
	- clean-up of panic calls

Please be aware that there are some API changes in 18.11:
	http://doc.dpdk.org/guides/rel_notes/release_18_11.html#api-changes
The ethdev PMDs are invited to update their behaviour for port closing:
	http://dpdk.org/commit/23ea57a
In all, we need more testing of hotplug features.

18.11-rc2 is expected in one week (around 5th of November).
The 18.11 release should happen on 20th of November.

In order to match these dates, please help testing and reviewing quickly.
When finding a new bug, please report it on bugzilla:
	https://bugs.dpdk.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=__open__&product=DPDK

Thank you everyone, and happy Halloween to our friends of IBM/Red Hat!


PS: next events for DPDK talks,
	December: https://www.dpdk.org/event/dpdk-summit-north-america-2018
	February: http://mdr78.github.io/fosdem/2018/10/15/fosdem-2019-cfp.html