+Alternatively to the internal default per-lcore local cache, an application can create and manage external caches through the ``rte_mempool_cache_create()``, ``rte_mempool_cache_free()`` and ``rte_mempool_cache_flush()`` calls.
+These user-owned caches can be explicitly passed to ``rte_mempool_generic_put()`` and ``rte_mempool_generic_get()``.
+The ``rte_mempool_default_cache()`` call returns the default internal cache if any.
+In contrast to the default caches, user-owned caches can be used by non-EAL threads too.
+
+Mempool Handlers
+------------------------
+
+This allows external memory subsystems, such as external hardware memory
+management systems and software based memory allocators, to be used with DPDK.
+
+There are two aspects to a mempool handler.
+
+* Adding the code for your new mempool operations (ops). This is achieved by
+ adding a new mempool ops code, and using the ``MEMPOOL_REGISTER_OPS`` macro.
+
+* Using the new API to call ``rte_mempool_create_empty()`` and
+ ``rte_mempool_set_ops_byname()`` to create a new mempool and specifying which
+ ops to use.
+
+Several different mempool handlers may be used in the same application. A new
+mempool can be created by using the ``rte_mempool_create_empty()`` function,
+then using ``rte_mempool_set_ops_byname()`` to point the mempool to the
+relevant mempool handler callback (ops) structure.
+
+Legacy applications may continue to use the old ``rte_mempool_create()`` API
+call, which uses a ring based mempool handler by default. These applications
+will need to be modified to use a new mempool handler.
+
+For applications that use ``rte_pktmbuf_create()``, there is a config setting
+(``RTE_MBUF_DEFAULT_MEMPOOL_OPS``) that allows the application to make use of
+an alternative mempool handler.
+
+ .. note::
+
+ When running a DPDK application with shared libraries, mempool handler
+ shared objects specified with the '-d' EAL command-line parameter are
+ dynamically loaded. When running a multi-process application with shared
+ libraries, the -d arguments for mempool handlers *must be specified in the
+ same order for all processes* to ensure correct operation.
+