From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Finn Christensen Subject: Re: [PATCH] ntnic: add PMD driver Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2016 06:22:37 +0000 Message-ID: <8cec6b8c3d6c4a7f85ac117d2d90fd7e@napatech.com> References: <20160826134401.19337-1-fc@napatech.com> <20160826095409.6d49a24a@xeon-e3> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: "dev@dpdk.org" To: Stephen Hemminger Return-path: Received: from mail02.napatech.com (mail02.napatech.com [91.102.88.21]) by dpdk.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 69BD52BB3 for ; Mon, 29 Aug 2016 08:22:42 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: <20160826095409.6d49a24a@xeon-e3> Content-Language: en-US List-Id: patches and discussions about DPDK List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: dev-bounces@dpdk.org Sender: "dev" > From: Stephen Hemminger [mailto:stephen@networkplumber.org] > Sent: 26. august 2016 18:54 > To: Finn Christensen > Cc: dev@dpdk.org > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] ntnic: add PMD driver > > On Fri, 26 Aug 2016 13:44:01 +0000 > Finn Christensen wrote: > > > +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=3Dparameter (parameters are explained = i > detail later). > > +It runs on top of the Napatech NIC Driver Suite that must be > > +installed and started. > > What is the license of this driver suite? The driver suite is a closed-source driver, which is not free downloadable. > IMHO the upstream DPDK shouldn't be a platform for non-free driver suites= . This is our first steps towards opensource, and our upcoming NIC is partly = build on HW and SW from our Accelerator products. And since we already bypa= sses the kernel effectively in our driver, this first solution for a DPDK P= MD driver, has been built on top of that software suite. We like the idea of opensource, but we will need to do the transition stepw= ise, considering our NIC product. We have seen large performance improvements (x4-x7 times with 64 byte packe= ts compared to a std NIC in a phy-ovs-vm-ovs-phy setup utilizing a modified= DPDK), and this is the main motivation to go forward and try to push our c= ontribution to DPDK upstream. This is the first step of contributions that = we want to make. This DPDK PMD solution is not compileable unless you have our driver. We ma= y need to make that possible, so that a free downloadable driver can be ret= rieved. Once this is said, we thought that the DPDK was BSD licensed and I must adm= it that we have failed to see this limitation that you are mentioning. Is t= here another license or agreement text that we need to read? Thanks for your repy! Disclaimer: This email and any files transmitted with it may contain confid= ential information intended for the addressee(s) only. The information is n= ot to be surrendered or copied to unauthorized persons. If you have receive= d this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately and del= ete this e-mail from your system.