xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_18_05.rst (revision 33584c19ddc20468ba19e209c88fd5b342e9e8e5)

..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
    Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors

DPDK Release 18.05
==================

New Features
------------

* **Reworked memory subsystem.**

  Memory subsystem has been reworked to support new functionality.

  On Linux, support for reserving/unreserving hugepage memory at runtime has been
  added, so applications no longer need to pre-reserve memory at startup. Due to
  reorganized internal workings of memory subsystem, any memory allocated
  through ``rte_malloc()`` or ``rte_memzone_reserve()`` is no longer guaranteed
  to be IOVA-contiguous.

  This functionality has introduced the following changes:

  * ``rte_eal_get_physmem_layout()`` was removed.
  * A new flag for memzone reservation (``RTE_MEMZONE_IOVA_CONTIG``) was added
    to ensure reserved memory will be IOVA-contiguous, for use with device
    drivers and other cases requiring such memory.
  * New callbacks for memory allocation/deallocation events, allowing users (or
    drivers) to be notified of new memory being allocated or deallocated
  * New callbacks for validating memory allocations above a specified limit,
    allowing user to permit or deny memory allocations.
  * A new command-line switch ``--legacy-mem`` to enable EAL behavior similar to
    how older versions of DPDK worked (memory segments that are IOVA-contiguous,
    but hugepages are reserved at startup only, and can never be released).
  * A new command-line switch ``--single-file-segments`` to put all memory
    segments within a segment list in a single file.
  * A set of convenience function calls to look up and iterate over allocated
    memory segments.
  * ``-m`` and ``--socket-mem`` command-line arguments now carry an additional
    meaning and mark pre-reserved hugepages as "unfree-able", thereby acting as
    a mechanism guaranteeing minimum availability of hugepage memory to the
    application.

  Reserving/unreserving memory at runtime is not currently supported on FreeBSD.

* **Added bucket mempool driver.**

  Added a bucket mempool driver which provides a way to allocate contiguous
  block of objects.
  The number of objects in the block depends on how many objects fit in the
  ``RTE_DRIVER_MEMPOOL_BUCKET_SIZE_KB`` memory chunk which is a build time option.
  The number may be obtained using ``rte_mempool_ops_get_info()`` API.
  Contiguous blocks may be allocated using ``rte_mempool_get_contig_blocks()`` API.

* **Added support for port representors.**

  Added DPDK port representors (also known as "VF representors" in the specific
  context of VFs), which are to DPDK what the Ethernet switch device driver
  model (**switchdev**) is to Linux, and which can be thought as a software
  "patch panel" front-end for applications. DPDK port representors are
  implemented as additional virtual Ethernet device (**ethdev**) instances,
  spawned on an as-needed basis through configuration parameters passed to the
  driver of the underlying device using devargs.

* **Added support for VXLAN and NVGRE tunnel endpoint.**

  New actions types have been added to support encapsulation and decapsulation
  operations for a tunnel endpoint. The new action types are
  ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_[VXLAN/NVGRE]_ENCAP``, ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_[VXLAN/NVGRE]_DECAP``,
  ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_JUMP``. A new item type ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_MARK`` has been
  added to match a flow against a previously marked flow. A shared counter has also been
  introduced to the flow API to count a group of flows.

* **Added PMD-recommended Tx and Rx parameters.**

  Applications can now query drivers for device-tuned values of
  ring sizes, burst sizes, and number of queues.

* **Added RSS hash and key update to CXGBE PMD.**

  Added support for updating the RSS hash and key to the CXGBE PMD.

* **Added CXGBE VF PMD.**

  CXGBE VF Poll Mode Driver has been added to run DPDK over Chelsio
  T5/T6 NIC VF instances.

* **Updated mlx5 driver.**

  Updated the mlx5 driver including the following changes:

  * Introduced Multi-packet Rx to enable 100Gb/sec with 64B frames.
  * Support for being run by non-root users given a reduced set of capabilities
    ``CAP_NET_ADMIN``, ``CAP_NET_RAW`` and ``CAP_IPC_LOCK``.
  * Support for TSO and checksum for generic UDP and IP tunnels.
  * Support for  inner checksum and RSS for GRE, VXLAN-GPE, MPLSoGRE
    and MPLSoUDP tunnels.
  * Accommodate the new memory hotplug model.
  * Support for non virtually contiguous mempools.
  * Support for MAC adding along with allmulti and promiscuous modes from VF.
  * Support for Mellanox BlueField SoC device.
  * Support for PMD defaults for queue number and depth to improve the out
    of the box performance.

* **Updated mlx4 driver.**

  Updated the mlx4 driver including the following changes:

  * Support for to being run by non-root users given a reduced set of capabilities
    ``CAP_NET_ADMIN``, ``CAP_NET_RAW`` and ``CAP_IPC_LOCK``.
  * Supported CRC strip toggling.
  * Accommodate the new memory hotplug model.
  * Support non virtually contiguous mempools.
  * Dropped support for Mellanox OFED 4.2.

* **Updated Solarflare network PMD.**

  Updated the sfc_efx driver including the following changes:

  * Added support for Solarflare XtremeScale X2xxx family adapters.
  * Added support for NVGRE, VXLAN and GENEVE filters in flow API.
  * Added support for DROP action in flow API.
  * Added support for equal stride super-buffer Rx mode (X2xxx only).
  * Added support for MARK and FLAG actions in flow API (X2xxx only).

* **Added Ethernet poll mode driver for AMD XGBE devices.**

  Added the new ``axgbe`` ethernet poll mode driver for AMD XGBE devices.
  See the :doc:`../nics/axgbe` nic driver guide for more details on this
  new driver.

* **Updated szedata2 PMD.**

  Added support for new NFB-200G2QL card.
  A new API was introduced in the libsze2 library which the szedata2 PMD depends
  on, thus the new version of the library was needed.
  New versions of the packages are available and the minimum required version
  is 4.4.1.

* **Added support for Broadcom NetXtreme-S (BCM58800) family of controllers (aka Stingray).**

  Added support for the Broadcom NetXtreme-S (BCM58800) family of controllers
  (aka Stingray). The BCM58800 devices feature a NetXtreme E-Series advanced
  network controller, a high-performance ARM CPU block, PCI Express (PCIe)
  Gen3 interfaces, key accelerators for compute offload and a high-speed
  memory subsystem including L3 cache and DDR4 interfaces, all interconnected
  by a coherent Network-on-chip (NOC) fabric.

  The ARM CPU subsystem features eight ARMv8 Cortex-A72 CPUs at 3.0 GHz,
  arranged in a multi-cluster configuration.

* **Added vDPA in vhost-user lib.**

  Added support for selective datapath in the vhost-user lib. vDPA stands for vhost
  Data Path Acceleration. It supports virtio ring compatible devices to serve
  the virtio driver directly to enable datapath acceleration.

* **Added IFCVF vDPA driver.**

  Added IFCVF vDPA driver to support Intel FPGA 100G VF devices. IFCVF works
  as a HW vhost data path accelerator, it supports live migration and is
  compatible with virtio 0.95 and 1.0. This driver registers the ifcvf vDPA driver
  to vhost lib, when virtio connects. With the help of the registered vDPA
  driver the assigned VF gets configured to Rx/Tx directly to VM's virtio
  vrings.

* **Added support for vhost dequeue interrupt mode.**

  Added support for vhost dequeue interrupt mode to release CPUs to others
  when there is no data to transmit. Applications can register an epoll event
  file descriptor to associate Rx queues with interrupt vectors.

* **Added support for virtio-user server mode.**

  In a container environment if the vhost-user backend restarts, there's no way
  for it to reconnect to virtio-user. To address this, support for server mode
  has been added. In this mode the socket file is created by virtio-user, which the
  backend connects to. This means that if the backend restarts, it can reconnect
  to virtio-user and continue communications.

* **Added crypto workload support to vhost library.**

  New APIs have been introduced in the vhost library to enable virtio crypto support
  including session creation/deletion handling and translating virtio-crypto
  requests into DPDK crypto operations. A sample application has also been introduced.

* **Added virtio crypto PMD.**

  Added a new Poll Mode Driver for virtio crypto devices, which provides
  AES-CBC ciphering and AES-CBC with HMAC-SHA1 algorithm-chaining. See the
  :doc:`../cryptodevs/virtio` crypto driver guide for more details on
  this new driver.

* **Added AMD CCP Crypto PMD.**

  Added the new ``ccp`` crypto driver for AMD CCP devices. See the
  :doc:`../cryptodevs/ccp` crypto driver guide for more details on
  this new driver.

* **Updated AESNI MB PMD.**

  The AESNI MB PMD has been updated with additional support for:

  * AES-CMAC (128-bit key).

* **Added the Compressdev Library, a generic compression service library.**

  Added the Compressdev library which provides an API for offload of compression and
  decompression operations to hardware or software accelerator devices.

* **Added a new compression poll mode driver using Intels ISA-L.**

   Added the new ``ISA-L`` compression driver, for compression and decompression
   operations in software. See the :doc:`../compressdevs/isal` compression driver
   guide for details on this new driver.

* **Added the Event Timer Adapter Library.**

  The Event Timer Adapter Library extends the event-based model by introducing
  APIs that allow applications to arm/cancel event timers that generate
  timer expiry events. This new type of event is scheduled by an event device
  along with existing types of events.

* **Added OcteonTx TIM Driver (Event timer adapter).**

  The OcteonTx Timer block enables software to schedule events for a future
  time, it is exposed to an application via the Event timer adapter library.

  See the :doc:`../eventdevs/octeontx` guide for more details

* **Added Event Crypto Adapter Library.**

  Added the Event Crypto Adapter Library.  This library extends the
  event-based model by introducing APIs that allow applications to
  enqueue/dequeue crypto operations to/from cryptodev as events scheduled
  by an event device.

* **Added Ifpga Bus, a generic Intel FPGA Bus library.**

  Added the Ifpga Bus library which provides support for integrating any Intel
  FPGA device with the DPDK framework. It provides Intel FPGA Partial Bit
  Stream AFU (Accelerated Function Unit) scan and drivers probe.

* **Added IFPGA (Intel FPGA) Rawdev Driver.**

  Added a new Rawdev driver called IFPGA (Intel FPGA) Rawdev Driver, which cooperates
  with OPAE (Open Programmable Acceleration Engine) shared code to provide common FPGA
  management ops for FPGA operation.

  See the :doc:`../rawdevs/ifpga` programmer's guide for more details.

* **Added DPAA2 QDMA Driver (in rawdev).**

  The DPAA2 QDMA is an implementation of the rawdev API, that provide a means
  of initiating a DMA transaction from CPU. The initiated DMA is performed
  without the CPU being involved in the actual DMA transaction.

  See the ``rawdevs/dpaa2_qdma`` guide for more details.

* **Added DPAA2 Command Interface Driver (in rawdev).**

  The DPAA2 CMDIF is an implementation of the rawdev API, that provides
  communication between the GPP and NXP's QorIQ based AIOP Block (Firmware).
  Advanced IO Processor i.e. AIOP are clusters of programmable RISC engines
  optimized for flexible networking and I/O operations. The communication
  between GPP and AIOP is achieved via using DPCI devices exposed by MC for
  GPP <--> AIOP interaction.

  See the :doc:`../rawdevs/dpaa2_cmdif` guide for more details.

* **Added device event monitor framework.**

  Added a general device event monitor framework to EAL, for device dynamic
  management to facilitate device hotplug awareness and associated
  actions. The list of new APIs is:

  * ``rte_dev_event_monitor_start`` and ``rte_dev_event_monitor_stop`` for
    the event monitor enabling and disabling.
  * ``rte_dev_event_callback_register`` and ``rte_dev_event_callback_unregister``
    for registering and un-registering user callbacks.

  Linux uevent is supported as a backend of this device event notification framework.

* **Added support for procinfo and pdump on eth vdev.**

  For ethernet virtual devices (like TAP, PCAP, etc.), with this feature, we can get
  stats/xstats on shared memory from a secondary process, and also pdump packets on
  those virtual devices.

* **Enhancements to the Packet Framework Library.**

  Design and development of new API functions for Packet Framework library that
  implement a common set of actions such as traffic metering, packet
  encapsulation, network address translation, TTL update, etc., for pipeline
  table and input ports to speed up application development. The API functions
  includes creating action profiles, registering actions to the profiles,
  instantiating action profiles for pipeline table and input ports, etc.

* **Added the BPF Library.**

  The BPF Library provides the ability to load and execute
  Enhanced Berkeley Packet Filters (eBPF) within user-space DPDK applications.
  It also introduces a basic framework to load/unload BPF-based filters
  on Eth devices (right now only via SW RX/TX callbacks).
  It also adds a dependency on libelf.


API Changes
-----------

* service cores: No longer marked as experimental.

  The service cores functions are no longer marked as experimental, and have
  become part of the normal DPDK API and ABI. Any future ABI changes will be
  announced at least one release before the ABI change is made. There are no
  ABI breaking changes planned.

* eal: The ``rte_lcore_has_role()`` return value changed.

  This function now returns true or false, respectively,
  rather than 0 or < 0 for success or failure.
  It makes use of the function more intuitive.

* mempool: The capability flags and related functions have been removed.

  Flags ``MEMPOOL_F_CAPA_PHYS_CONTIG`` and
  ``MEMPOOL_F_CAPA_BLK_ALIGNED_OBJECTS`` were used by octeontx mempool
  driver to customize generic mempool library behavior.
  Now the new driver callbacks ``calc_mem_size`` and ``populate`` may be
  used to achieve it without specific knowledge in the generic code.

* mempool: The following xmem functions have been deprecated:

  - ``rte_mempool_xmem_create``
  - ``rte_mempool_xmem_size``
  - ``rte_mempool_xmem_usage``
  - ``rte_mempool_populate_iova_tab``

* mbuf: The control mbuf API has been removed in v18.05. The impacted
  functions and macros are:

  - ``rte_ctrlmbuf_init()``
  - ``rte_ctrlmbuf_alloc()``
  - ``rte_ctrlmbuf_free()``
  - ``rte_ctrlmbuf_data()``
  - ``rte_ctrlmbuf_len()``
  - ``rte_is_ctrlmbuf()``
  - ``CTRL_MBUF_FLAG``

  The packet mbuf API should be used as a replacement.

* meter: API updated to accommodate configuration profiles.

  The meter API has been changed to support meter configuration profiles. The
  configuration profile represents the set of configuration parameters
  for a given meter object, such as the rates and sizes for the token
  buckets. These configuration parameters were previously part of the meter
  object internal data structure. The separation of the configuration
  parameters from the meter object data structure results in reducing its
  memory footprint which helps in better cache utilization when a large number
  of meter objects are used.

* ethdev: The function ``rte_eth_dev_count()``, often mis-used to iterate
  over ports, is deprecated and replaced by ``rte_eth_dev_count_avail()``.
  There is also a new function ``rte_eth_dev_count_total()`` to get the
  total number of allocated ports, available or not.
  The hotplug-proof applications should use ``RTE_ETH_FOREACH_DEV`` or
  ``RTE_ETH_FOREACH_DEV_OWNED_BY`` as port iterators.

* ethdev: In struct ``struct rte_eth_dev_info``, field ``rte_pci_device *pci_dev``
  has been replaced with field ``struct rte_device *device``.

* ethdev: Changes to the semantics of ``rte_eth_dev_configure()`` parameters.

  If both the ``nb_rx_q`` and ``nb_tx_q`` parameters are zero,
  ``rte_eth_dev_configure()`` will now use PMD-recommended queue sizes, or if
  recommendations are not provided by the PMD the function will use ethdev
  fall-back values. Previously setting both of the parameters to zero would
  have resulted in ``-EINVAL`` being returned.

* ethdev: Changes to the semantics of ``rte_eth_rx_queue_setup()`` parameters.

  If the ``nb_rx_desc`` parameter is zero, ``rte_eth_rx_queue_setup`` will
  now use the PMD-recommended Rx ring size, or in the case where the PMD
  does not provide a recommendation, will use an ethdev-provided
  fall-back value. Previously, setting ``nb_rx_desc`` to zero would have
  resulted in an error.

* ethdev: Changes to the semantics of ``rte_eth_tx_queue_setup()`` parameters.

   If the ``nb_tx_desc`` parameter is zero, ``rte_eth_tx_queue_setup`` will
   now use the PMD-recommended Tx ring size, or in the case where the PMD
   does not provide a recommendation, will use an ethdev-provided
   fall-back value. Previously, setting ``nb_tx_desc`` to zero would have
   resulted in an error.

* ethdev: Several changes were made to the flow API.

  * The unused DUP action was removed.
  * Actions semantics in flow rules: list order now matters ("first
    to last" instead of "all simultaneously"), repeated actions are now
    all performed, and they do not individually have (non-)terminating
    properties anymore.
  * Flow rules are now always terminating unless a ``PASSTHRU`` action is
    present.
  * C99-style flexible arrays were replaced with standard pointers in RSS
    action and in RAW pattern item structures due to compatibility issues.
  * The RSS action was modified to not rely on external
    ``struct rte_eth_rss_conf`` anymore to instead expose its own and more
    appropriately named configuration fields directly
    (``rss_conf->rss_key`` => ``key``,
    ``rss_conf->rss_key_len`` => ``key_len``,
    ``rss_conf->rss_hf`` => ``types``,
    ``num`` => ``queue_num``), and the addition of missing RSS parameters
    (``func`` for RSS hash function to apply and ``level`` for the
    encapsulation level).
  * The VLAN pattern item (``struct rte_flow_item_vlan``) was modified to
    include inner EtherType instead of outer TPID. Its default mask was also
    modified to cover the VID part (lower 12 bits) of TCI only.
  * A new transfer attribute was added to ``struct rte_flow_attr`` in order
    to clarify the behavior of some pattern items.
  * PF and VF pattern items are now only accepted by PMDs that implement
    them (bnxt and i40e) when the transfer attribute is also present, for
    consistency.
  * Pattern item PORT was renamed PHY_PORT to avoid confusion with DPDK port
    IDs.
  * An action counterpart to the PHY_PORT pattern item was added in order to
    redirect matching traffic to a specific physical port.
  * PORT_ID pattern item and actions were added to match and target DPDK
    port IDs at a higher level than PHY_PORT.
  * ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_[VXLAN/NVGRE]_ENCAP`` action items were added to support
    tunnel encapsulation operation for VXLAN and NVGRE type tunnel endpoint.
  * ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_[VXLAN/NVGRE]_DECAP`` action items were added to support
    tunnel decapsulation operation for VXLAN and NVGRE type tunnel endpoint.
  * ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_JUMP`` action item was added to support a matched flow
    to be redirected to the specific group.
  * ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_MARK`` item type has been added to match a flow against
    a previously marked flow.

* ethdev: Change flow APIs regarding count action:

  * ``rte_flow_create()`` API count action now requires the ``struct rte_flow_action_count``.
  * ``rte_flow_query()`` API parameter changed from action type to action structure.

* ethdev: Changes to offload API

   A pure per-port offloading isn't requested to be repeated in [rt]x_conf->offloads to
   ``rte_eth_[rt]x_queue_setup()``. Now any offloading enabled in ``rte_eth_dev_configure()``
   can't be disabled by ``rte_eth_[rt]x_queue_setup()``. Any new added offloading which has
   not been enabled in ``rte_eth_dev_configure()`` and is requested to be enabled in
   ``rte_eth_[rt]x_queue_setup()`` must be per-queue type, or otherwise trigger an error log.

* ethdev: Runtime queue setup

  ``rte_eth_rx_queue_setup`` and ``rte_eth_tx_queue_setup`` can be called after
  ``rte_eth_dev_start`` if the device supports runtime queue setup. The device driver can
  expose this capability through ``rte_eth_dev_info_get``. A Rx or Tx queue
  set up at runtime need to be started explicitly by ``rte_eth_dev_rx_queue_start``
  or ``rte_eth_dev_tx_queue_start``.


ABI Changes
-----------

* ring: The alignment constraints on the ring structure has been relaxed
  to one cache line instead of two, and an empty cache line padding is
  added between the producer and consumer structures. The size of the
  structure and the offset of the fields remains the same on platforms
  with 64B cache line, but changes on other platforms.

* mempool: Some ops have changed.

  A new callback ``calc_mem_size`` has been added to ``rte_mempool_ops``
  to allow customization of the required memory size calculation.
  A new callback ``populate`` has been added to ``rte_mempool_ops``
  to allow customized object population.
  Callback ``get_capabilities`` has been removed from ``rte_mempool_ops``
  since its features are covered by ``calc_mem_size`` and ``populate``
  callbacks.
  Callback ``register_memory_area`` has been removed from ``rte_mempool_ops``
  since the new callback ``populate`` may be used instead of it.

* ethdev: Additional fields in rte_eth_dev_info.

  The ``rte_eth_dev_info`` structure has had two extra entries appended to the
  end of it: ``default_rxportconf`` and ``default_txportconf``. Each of these
  in turn are ``rte_eth_dev_portconf`` structures containing three fields of
  type ``uint16_t``: ``burst_size``, ``ring_size``, and ``nb_queues``. These
  are parameter values recommended for use by the PMD.

* ethdev: ABI for all flow API functions was updated.

  This includes functions ``rte_flow_copy``, ``rte_flow_create``,
  ``rte_flow_destroy``, ``rte_flow_error_set``, ``rte_flow_flush``,
  ``rte_flow_isolate``, ``rte_flow_query`` and ``rte_flow_validate``, due to
  changes in error type definitions (``enum rte_flow_error_type``), removal
  of the unused DUP action (``enum rte_flow_action_type``), modified
  behavior for flow rule actions (see API changes), removal of C99 flexible
  array from RAW pattern item (``struct rte_flow_item_raw``), complete
  rework of the RSS action definition (``struct rte_flow_action_rss``),
  sanity fix in the VLAN pattern item (``struct rte_flow_item_vlan``) and
  new transfer attribute (``struct rte_flow_attr``).

* bbdev: New parameter added to rte_bbdev_op_cap_turbo_dec.

  A new parameter ``max_llr_modulus`` has been added to
  ``rte_bbdev_op_cap_turbo_dec`` structure to specify maximal LLR (likelihood
  ratio) absolute value.

* bbdev: Queue Groups split into UL/DL Groups.

  Queue Groups have been split into UL/DL Groups in the Turbo Software Driver.
  They are independent for Decode/Encode. ``rte_bbdev_driver_info`` reflects
  introduced changes.


Known Issues
------------

* **Secondary process launch is not reliable.**

  Recent memory hotplug patches have made multiprocess startup less reliable
  than it was in past releases. A number of workarounds are known to work depending
  on the circumstances. As such it isn't recommended to use the secondary
  process mechanism for critical systems. The underlying issues will be
  addressed in upcoming releases.

  The issue is explained in more detail, including potential workarounds,
  in the Bugzilla entry referenced below.

  Bugzilla entry: https://bugs.dpdk.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50

* **pdump is not compatible with old applications.**

  As we changed to use generic multi-process communication for pdump
  negotiation instead of previous dedicated unix socket way, pdump
  applications, including the dpdk-pdump example and any other applications
  using ``librte_pdump``, will not work with older version DPDK primary
  applications.

* **rte_abort takes a long time on FreeBSD.**

  DPDK processes now allocates a large area of virtual memory address space.
  As a result ``rte_abort`` on FreeBSD now dumps the contents of the
  whole reserved memory range, not just the used portion, to a core dump file.
  Writing this large core file can take a significant amount of time, causing
  processes to appear to hang on the system.

  The work around for the issue is to set the system resource limits for core
  dumps before running any tests, e.g. ``limit coredumpsize 0``. This will
  effectively disable core dumps on FreeBSD. If they are not to be completely
  disabled, a suitable limit, e.g. 1G might be specified instead of 0. This
  needs to be run per-shell session, or before every test run. This change
  can also be made persistent by adding ``kern.coredump=0`` to ``/etc/sysctl.conf``.

  Bugzilla entry: https://bugs.dpdk.org/show_bug.cgi?id=53

* **ixgbe PMD crash on hotplug detach when no VF created.**

  ixgbe PMD uninit path cause null pointer dereference because of port representor
  cleanup when number of VF is zero.

  Bugzilla entry: https://bugs.dpdk.org/show_bug.cgi?id=57

* **Bonding PMD may fail to accept new slave ports in certain conditions.**

  In certain conditions when using testpmd,
  bonding may fail to register new slave ports.

  Bugzilla entry: https://bugs.dpdk.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52.

* **Unexpected performance regression in Vhost library.**

  Patches fixing CVE-2018-1059 were expected to introduce a small performance
  drop. However, in some setups, bigger performance drops have been measured
  when running micro-benchmarks.

  Bugzilla entry: https://bugs.dpdk.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48


Shared Library Versions
-----------------------

The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.

.. code-block:: diff

     librte_acl.so.2
     librte_bbdev.so.1
     librte_bitratestats.so.2
   + librte_bpf.so.1
     librte_bus_dpaa.so.1
     librte_bus_fslmc.so.1
     librte_bus_pci.so.1
     librte_bus_vdev.so.1
     librte_cfgfile.so.2
     librte_cmdline.so.2
   + librte_common_octeontx.so.1
   + librte_compressdev.so.1
     librte_cryptodev.so.4
     librte_distributor.so.1
   + librte_eal.so.7
   + librte_ethdev.so.9
   + librte_eventdev.so.4
     librte_flow_classify.so.1
     librte_gro.so.1
     librte_gso.so.1
     librte_hash.so.2
     librte_ip_frag.so.1
     librte_jobstats.so.1
     librte_kni.so.2
     librte_kvargs.so.1
     librte_latencystats.so.1
     librte_lpm.so.2
   + librte_mbuf.so.4
   + librte_mempool.so.4
   + librte_meter.so.2
     librte_metrics.so.1
     librte_net.so.1
     librte_pci.so.1
     librte_pdump.so.2
     librte_pipeline.so.3
     librte_pmd_bnxt.so.2
     librte_pmd_bond.so.2
     librte_pmd_i40e.so.2
     librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
   + librte_pmd_dpaa2_cmdif.so.1
   + librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
     librte_pmd_ring.so.2
     librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
     librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
     librte_port.so.3
     librte_power.so.1
     librte_rawdev.so.1
     librte_reorder.so.1
   + librte_ring.so.2
     librte_sched.so.1
     librte_security.so.1
     librte_table.so.3
     librte_timer.so.1
     librte_vhost.so.3


Tested Platforms
----------------

* Intel(R) platforms with Intel(R) NICs combinations

   * CPU

     * Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU C2758 @ 2.40GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU D-1541 @ 2.10GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-4667 v3 @ 2.00GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2699 v4 @ 2.20GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2695 v4 @ 2.10GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2658 v2 @ 2.40GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2658 v3 @ 2.20GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8180 CPU @ 2.50GHz

   * OS:

     * CentOS 7.4
     * Fedora 25
     * Fedora 27
     * Fedora 28
     * FreeBSD 11.1
     * Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3
     * SUSE Enterprise Linux 12
     * Wind River Linux 8
     * Ubuntu 14.04
     * Ubuntu 16.04
     * Ubuntu 16.10
     * Ubuntu 17.10

   * NICs:

     * Intel(R) 82599ES 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

       * Firmware version: 0x61bf0001
       * Device id (pf/vf): 8086:10fb / 8086:10ed
       * Driver version: 5.2.3 (ixgbe)

     * Intel(R) Corporation Ethernet Connection X552/X557-AT 10GBASE-T

       * Firmware version: 0x800003e7
       * Device id (pf/vf): 8086:15ad / 8086:15a8
       * Driver version: 4.4.6 (ixgbe)

     * Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X710-DA4 (4x10G)

       * Firmware version: 6.01 0x80003221
       * Device id (pf/vf): 8086:1572 / 8086:154c
       * Driver version: 2.4.6 (i40e)

     * Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection X722 for 10GbE SFP+ (4x10G)

       * Firmware version: 3.33 0x80000fd5 0.0.0
       * Device id (pf/vf): 8086:37d0 / 8086:37cd
       * Driver version: 2.4.3 (i40e)

     * Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter XXV710-DA2 (2x25G)

       * Firmware version: 6.01 0x80003221
       * Device id (pf/vf): 8086:158b / 8086:154c
       * Driver version: 2.4.6 (i40e)

     * Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter XL710-QDA2 (2X40G)

       * Firmware version: 6.01 0x8000321c
       * Device id (pf/vf): 8086:1583 / 8086:154c
       * Driver version: 2.4.6 (i40e)

     * Intel(R) Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection

       * Firmware version: 1.63, 0x80000dda
       * Device id (pf/vf): 8086:1521 / 8086:1520
       * Driver version: 5.4.0-k (igb)

* Intel(R) platforms with Mellanox(R) NICs combinations

   * CPU:

     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6154 CPU @ 3.00GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697A v4 @ 2.60GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697 v3 @ 2.60GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v4 @ 2.20GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2640 @ 2.50GHz
     * Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 v4 @ 2.10GHz

   * OS:

     * Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.5 (Maipo)
     * Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.4 (Maipo)
     * Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3 (Maipo)
     * Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.2 (Maipo)
     * Ubuntu 18.04
     * Ubuntu 17.10
     * Ubuntu 16.10
     * Ubuntu 16.04
     * SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15

   * MLNX_OFED: 4.2-1.0.0.0
   * MLNX_OFED: 4.3-2.0.2.0

   * NICs:

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-3 Pro 40G MCX354A-FCC_Ax (2x40G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1007
       * Firmware version: 2.42.5000

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 10G MCX4111A-XCAT (1x10G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 10G MCX4121A-XCAT (2x10G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 25G MCX4111A-ACAT (1x25G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 25G MCX4121A-ACAT (2x25G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 40G MCX4131A-BCAT/MCX413A-BCAT (1x40G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 40G MCX415A-BCAT (1x40G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 50G MCX4131A-GCAT/MCX413A-GCAT (1x50G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 50G MCX414A-BCAT (2x50G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 50G MCX415A-GCAT/MCX416A-BCAT/MCX416A-GCAT (2x50G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 50G MCX415A-CCAT (1x100G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 100G MCX416A-CCAT (2x100G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
       * Device ID: 15b3:1013
       * Firmware version: 12.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 Lx 10G MCX4121A-XCAT (2x10G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1015
       * Firmware version: 14.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 Lx 25G MCX4121A-ACAT (2x25G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1015
       * Firmware version: 14.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-5 100G MCX556A-ECAT (2x100G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
       * Device ID: 15b3:1017
       * Firmware version: 16.21.1000 and above

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX-5 Ex EN 100G MCX516A-CDAT (2x100G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 4.0 x16
       * Device ID: 15b3:1019
       * Firmware version: 16.21.1000 and above

* ARM platforms with Mellanox(R) NICs combinations

   * CPU:

     * Qualcomm ARM 1.1 2500MHz

   * OS:

     * Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.5 (Maipo)

   * NICs:

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-4 Lx 25G MCX4121A-ACAT (2x25G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x8
       * Device ID: 15b3:1015
       * Firmware version: 14.22.0428

     * Mellanox(R) ConnectX(R)-5 100G MCX556A-ECAT (2x100G)

       * Host interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
       * Device ID: 15b3:1017
       * Firmware version: 16.22.0428

* ARM SoC combinations from Cavium (with integrated NICs)

   * SoC:

     * Cavium CN81xx
     * Cavium CN83xx

   * OS:

     * Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS with Cavium SDK-6.2.0-Patch2 release support package.

* ARM SoC combinations from NXP (with integrated NICs)

   * SoC:

     * NXP/Freescale QorIQ LS1046A with ARM Cortex A72
     * NXP/Freescale QorIQ LS2088A with ARM Cortex A72

   * OS:

     * Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS with NXP QorIQ LSDK 1803 support packages