Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] ntnic: add PMD driver

[Finn Christensen <fc@napatech.com>]

> From: Thomas Monjalon [mailto:thomas.monjalon@6wind.com]
> Sent: 26. august 2016 16:44
> To: Finn Christensen <fc@napatech.com>
> Cc: dev@dpdk.org
> Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] ntnic: add PMD driver
>
> Welcome,

Thanks!

>
> 2016-08-26 13:44, Finn Christensen:
> > +NTNIC Poll Mode Driver
> > +======================
> > +
> > +The NTNIC poll mode driver library (**librte_pmd_ntnic**) implements
> > +support for **Napatech NIC** 40/50 Gbps adapters.
> > +This PMD is implemented as a pure software virtual device and must be
> > +created by using the EAL --vdev=parameter (parameters are explained i
> detail later).
> > +It runs on top of the Napatech NIC Driver Suite that must be
> > +installed and started.
>
> It would help a lot to describe what is the Napatech NIC Driver Suite, and why
> it is a virtual driver.

I will elaborate on the description to make it more clear and send an update patch.
However, the driver is a virtual driver because we already bypasses the kernel stack in our NIC driver and does that in an effective manner.

> What is the hardware it runs on? Where can we get it?

It is running on a newly developed hardware by Napatech. It is not yet available, but it will soon be.

> Where can we download the Driver Suite?

When the Napatech NIC is released, the driver suite will then be available for download.
If you need something sooner, we will need to make special arrangements.
>
> > +Supported Features
> > +------------------
> > +
> > +- RSS (Receive Side Scaling)
> > +- TSS (Transmit Side Scaling)
> > +- Promiscuous mode
> > +- Basic statistics
> > +
> > +
> > +Prerequisites
> > +-------------
> > +
> > +Requires Napatech NIC and Napatech NIC Driver Suite installed and
> > +running in version **0.3.0** or higher.
> > +This includes external libraries and kernel driver for resources
> > +allocations and initialization.
>
> So the Driver Suite is just a library to help implementing the driver for the
> Napatech NIC?

Yes and no. The driver suite contains additional monitoring and diagnostics tools, but the DPDK PMD only needs a few libraries and the kernel driver.

>
> Thanks for explaining your solution

Thank you for the fast reply. This is really appreciated. Thanks again!

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