[dpdk-dev] Reg DPDK & PMD

[Ferruh Yigit]

On 3/8/2017 1:35 PM, raman geetha gopalakrishnan wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I have the following basic question. Hope to get an answer / link where i
> can get myself clear.
> 
> 1. In DPDK PMD is optimized driver for an given NIC to get maximum
> performance.
>     That being the case why we are talking about DPDK supported NICs.
> 
>      A) My assumption is that NIC interface is standardized so that PMD
> should actually work with any NIC (barring some NIC specific performance
> tweaks)
>           is that correct?

PMDs (Poll Mode Drivers) are _real_ device drivers, they are not an
optimization layer on top off a standardized interface, they deal
directly with hardware, so needs to be specific to hardware.

> 
>      B) if #A is correct , how can i make changes to PMD to support any NIC
> ?
> 
> if i have to put the above question in different way then it is
> 
> 2. what is preventing us from having a common PMD layer for all NICs and
> additional PMD specific to each NIC???
> 
> Thanks
> Raman
>