[dpdk-users] Reg DPDK & PMD

[dpdk-users] Reg DPDK & PMD

[raman geetha gopalakrishnan]

Hi All,

I have just rephrased by last question to understand
1. *what is preventing us from having a common PMD layer for all NICs and
additional PMD specific to each NIC???*

Thanks
Raman

Re: [dpdk-users] Reg DPDK & PMD

[Wiles, Keith]

> On Mar 8, 2017, at 7:29 AM, raman geetha gopalakrishnan <glowingsun@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I have just rephrased by last question to understand
> 1. *what is preventing us from having a common PMD layer for all NICs and
> additional PMD specific to each NIC???*

We do have a common layer it is called the ethdev layer. The ethdev layer provides a common and generic API’s for the application to use and requires PMDs to register a set of function pointers to ethdev. These function pointers are common and generic to all of the PMDs. As for the PMDs it is impossible to have a cleaner solution unless every NIC is programmed in the same why. The two layer device model is used in just about all OS types like Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, … as this appears to be the best solution until you can get every vendor in the world to pick a single hardware interface.

> 
> Thanks
> Raman

Regards,
Keith

Re: [dpdk-users] Reg DPDK & PMD

[raman geetha gopalakrishnan]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for providing a detail answer. As i understood for the application
to have the same interface ethdev exposes a common API which gets
implemented by each PMD specifically based on the NIC it supports. My basic
assumption of all NIC having some common operating procedure is not
correct. Thanks for your time.

Thanks
Raman

On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 8:25 PM, Wiles, Keith <keith.wiles@intel.com> wrote:

>
> > On Mar 8, 2017, at 7:29 AM, raman geetha gopalakrishnan <
> glowingsun@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I have just rephrased by last question to understand
> > 1. *what is preventing us from having a common PMD layer for all NICs and
> > additional PMD specific to each NIC???*
>
> We do have a common layer it is called the ethdev layer. The ethdev layer
> provides a common and generic API’s for the application to use and requires
> PMDs to register a set of function pointers to ethdev. These function
> pointers are common and generic to all of the PMDs. As for the PMDs it is
> impossible to have a cleaner solution unless every NIC is programmed in the
> same why. The two layer device model is used in just about all OS types
> like Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, … as this appears to be the best solution
> until you can get every vendor in the world to pick a single hardware
> interface.
>
> >
> > Thanks
> > Raman
>
> Regards,
> Keith
>
>