Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 0/2] Native uio-based PMD for Mellanox ConnectX-3 devices

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas.monjalon@6wind.com>]

2015-07-07 00:57, Keunhong Lee:
> Answer 1. UIO based driver is faster then ib based driver.
> It can saturate 40G link with MTU sized packets using a single thread while
> ib wrapper cannot.

OK, interesting. Do you have numbers and details about your testbed/scenario?

> Answer 2. Sorry, I missed that. I'll make a new patch email with my real
> name.
> 
> Question 1. Is it OK if I separate GPL-based and BSD-based codes into
> separated patches?
> mlx4 kernel driver itself is dual licenses, so I think they are considered
> as BSD in my source code.
> The only source code under GPL is bitmap, integer logarithm, and red-black
> tree contained in mlnx_uio/kernel directory.

These parts will be built in the user-space driver library, right?
It would change the license, which is not desirable.

Technically, your approach may be interesting.
But from a maintenance point of view, this huge codebase may be a nightmare.


> 2015-07-06 23:17 GMT+09:00 Thomas Monjalon <thomas.monjalon@6wind.com>:
> 
> > 2015-07-06 22:28, leeopop:
> > > This is a native UIO-based PMD for Mellanox ConnectX-3 devices.
> > > It uses a persistent memory library in order to provide a persistent
> > > scartch area for the mlx4 HCA driver.
> >
> > What is the benefit of this UIO approach compared to the OFED based driver?
> >
> > > We release the driver itself under BSD license, but to use it for
> > > commercial products, you may have to re-implement the separated GPL
> > > sources.
> >
> > The GPL sources are not really separated.
> > The DPDK libraries must be BSD-licensed.
> >
> > > The GPL affected source codes reside in the mlnx_uio/kernel directory.
> >
> > It seems that a large part of the GPL driver was also copied in
> > mlnx_uio/mlnx/.
> >
> > Given that you are dropping a huge GPL codebase (whose you don't own the
> > copyright) in a BSD library, and that you didn't give your real name in
> > the signed-off line, it is NACK.