1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors
7 .. **Read this first.**
9 The text in the sections below explains how to update the release notes.
11 Use proper spelling, capitalization and punctuation in all sections.
13 Variable and config names should be quoted as fixed width text:
16 Build the docs and view the output file to ensure the changes are correct::
20 xdg-open build/doc/html/guides/rel_notes/release_18_11.html
26 .. This section should contain new features added in this release.
29 * **Add a title in the past tense with a full stop.**
31 Add a short 1-2 sentence description in the past tense.
32 The description should be enough to allow someone scanning
33 the release notes to understand the new feature.
35 If the feature adds a lot of sub-features you can use a bullet list
38 * Added feature foo to do something.
39 * Enhanced feature bar to do something else.
41 Refer to the previous release notes for examples.
43 Suggested order in release notes items:
44 * Core libs (EAL, mempool, ring, mbuf, buses)
45 * Device abstraction libs and PMDs
47 - cryptodev (lib, PMDs)
48 - eventdev (lib, PMDs)
51 * Apps, Examples, Tools (if significative)
53 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
54 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
55 =========================================================
57 * **Added support for using externally allocated memory in DPDK.**
59 DPDK has gained support for creating new ``rte_malloc`` heaps referencing
60 memory that was created outside of DPDK's own page allocator, and using that
61 memory natively with any other DPDK library or data structure.
63 * **Added hot-unplug handle mechanism.**
65 ``rte_dev_hotplug_handle_enable`` and ``rte_dev_hotplug_handle_disable`` are
66 for enabling or disabling hotplug handle mechanism.
68 * **Support device multi-process hotplug.**
70 Hotplug and hot-unplug for devices will now be supported in multiprocessing
71 scenario. Any ethdev devices created in the primary process will be regarded
72 as shared and will be available for all DPDK processes. Synchronization
73 between processes will be done using DPDK IPC.
75 * **Added new Flow API actions to rewrite fields in packet headers.**
77 Added new Flow API actions to:
79 * Modify source and destination IP addresses in the outermost IPv4/IPv6
81 * Modify source and destination port numbers in the outermost TCP/UDP
84 * **Added new Flow API action to swap MAC addresses in Ethernet header.**
86 Added new Flow API action to swap the source and destination MAC
87 addresses in the outermost Ethernet header.
89 * **Add support to offload more flow match and actions for CXGBE PMD**
91 Flow API support has been enhanced for CXGBE Poll Mode Driver to offload:
93 * Match items: destination MAC address.
94 * Action items: push/pop/rewrite vlan header,
95 rewrite IP addresses in outermost IPv4/IPv6 header,
96 rewrite port numbers in outermost TCP/UDP header,
97 swap MAC addresses in outermost Ethernet header.
99 * **Added a devarg to use the latest supported vector path in i40e.**
100 A new devarg ``use-latest-supported-vec`` was introduced to allow users to
101 choose the latest vector path that the platform supported. For example, users
102 can use AVX2 vector path on BDW/HSW to get better performance.
104 * **Added support for SR-IOV in netvsc PMD.**
106 The ``netvsc`` poll mode driver now supports the Accelerated Networking
107 SR-IOV option in Hyper-V and Azure. This is an alternative to the previous
108 vdev_netvsc, tap, and failsafe drivers combination.
110 * **Added a new net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device.**
112 Added the new ``mvneta`` net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device. See the
113 :doc:`../nics/mvneta` NIC guide for more details on this new driver.
115 * **Added NXP ENETC PMD.**
117 Added the new enetc driver for NXP enetc platform. See the
118 "ENETC Poll Mode Driver" document for more details on this new driver.
120 * **Added Ethernet poll mode driver for Aquantia aQtion family of 10G devices.**
122 Added the new ``atlantic`` ethernet poll mode driver for Aquantia XGBE devices.
123 See the :doc:`../nics/atlantic` nic driver guide for more details on this
126 * **Updated Solarflare network PMD.**
128 Updated the sfc_efx driver including the following changes:
130 * Added support for Rx scatter in EF10 datapath implementation.
131 * Added support for Rx descriptor status API in EF10 datapath implementation.
132 * Added support for TSO in EF10 datapath implementation.
133 * Added support for Tx descriptor status API in EF10 (ef10 and ef10_simple)
134 datapaths implementation.
136 * **Updated failsafe driver.**
138 Updated the failsafe driver including the following changes:
140 * Support for Rx and Tx queues start and stop.
141 * Support for Rx and Tx queues deferred start.
142 * Support for runtime Rx and Tx queues setup.
143 * Support multicast MAC address set.
145 * **Added a devarg to use PCAP interface physical MAC address.**
146 A new devarg ``phy_mac`` was introduced to allow users to use physical
147 MAC address of the selected PCAP interface.
149 * **Added support for GEN3 devices to Intel QAT driver .**
151 Added support for the third generation of Intel QuickAssist devices.
153 * **Updated the QAT PMD.**
155 The QAT PMD was updated with additional support for:
157 * AES-CMAC algorithm.
159 * **Updated the AESNI MB PMD.**
161 The AESNI MB PMD has been updated with additional support for AES-GCM
164 * **Added NXP CAAM JR PMD.**
166 Added the new caam job ring driver for NXP platforms. See the
167 "NXP CAAM JOB RING (caam_jr)" document for more details on this new driver.
169 * **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**
171 Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that provides configuration and
172 data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
173 processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
174 transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
175 a common implementation.
177 * **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**
179 Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
180 pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
181 among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
182 the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
183 gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.
185 * **Added extendable bucket feature to hash library (rte_hash).**
187 This new “extendable bucket” feature provides 100% insertion guarantee to
188 the capacity specified by the user by extending hash table with extra
189 buckets when needed to accommodate the unlikely event of intensive hash
190 collisions. In addition, the internal hashing algorithm was changed to use
191 partial-key hashing to improve memory efficiency and lookup performance.
193 * **Added Traffic Pattern Aware Power Control Library**
195 Added an experimental library. This extend Power Library and provide
196 empty_poll APIs. This feature measure how many times empty_poll are
197 executed per core, use the number of empty polls as a hint for system
200 See the :doc:`../prog_guide/power_man` section of the DPDK Programmers
201 Guide document for more information.
203 * **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**
205 Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
206 ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
207 the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
208 to reconfigure queues.
210 * **Add a new sample for vDPA**
212 The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
213 vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
214 virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
215 datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
216 this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
217 enqueue/dequeue operations.
223 .. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:
225 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
226 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
229 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
230 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
231 =========================================================
233 * eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
234 whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
235 for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
236 externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
237 over internal DPDK memory.
238 ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
239 as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
240 changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
241 kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
242 ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
243 instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
246 * eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
247 were removed in 18.11:
248 ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
249 ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.
251 * eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
252 from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.
254 * eal: The scope of ``rte_eal_hotplug_add()``/``rte_dev_probe()``
255 and ``rte_eal_hotplug_remove()``/``rte_dev_remove()`` is extended.
256 In multi-process model, they will guarantee that the device is
257 attached or detached on all processes.
259 * mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
260 functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
261 ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.
263 * A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
264 actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
265 support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
266 flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
267 important for bonding.
269 * The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
270 offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
271 DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
272 To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
275 * eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
276 has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.
282 .. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:
284 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
285 that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
286 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
289 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
290 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
291 =========================================================
293 * eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
294 ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
295 using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.
297 * eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
298 supporting external memory in DPDK:
299 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
300 of memory addressed by the segment list
301 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
302 the memseg list refers to external memory
303 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
304 ID the malloc heap belongs to
305 - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
306 resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
307 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
308 - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
309 socket ID for externally allocated segments
311 * eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
312 It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
313 device structures of all buses.
319 .. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:
321 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
324 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
325 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
326 =========================================================
329 Shared Library Versions
330 -----------------------
332 .. Update any library version updated in this release
333 and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:
336 + librte_cfgfile.so.2
339 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
340 =========================================================
342 The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.
348 librte_bitratestats.so.2
350 + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
351 + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
352 + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
353 + librte_bus_pci.so.2
354 + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
355 + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
358 librte_compressdev.so.1
359 librte_cryptodev.so.5
360 librte_distributor.so.1
363 + librte_ethdev.so.11
364 + librte_eventdev.so.6
365 librte_flow_classify.so.1
373 librte_latencystats.so.1
387 librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
388 librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
390 librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
391 librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
407 .. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:
409 * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**
411 Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
412 in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.
414 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
415 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
416 =========================================================
418 * When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
419 driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
420 unbound and passed to the DPDK.
426 .. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
431 * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations
436 * Other relevant details...
438 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
439 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
440 =========================================================