[PATCH v2] net/intel: deprecate some SSE paths

[Kevin Traynor]

On 03/07/2025 15:31, Ciara Loftus wrote:
> The SSE rx and tx paths will be removed from the i40e, iavf and ice
> drivers in the 25.11 release. Each of these drivers have faster vector
> paths (AVX2 and AVX-512) which have feature parity with the soon to be
> removed SSE paths. In environments where AVX2 or AVX-512 are not
> supported, the scalar path will still be used, which also has feature
> parity.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Ciara Loftus <ciara.loftus at intel.com>
> ---
>  doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst | 7 +++++++
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> index e2d4125308..0d020c9c1f 100644
> --- a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> +++ b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> @@ -80,6 +80,13 @@ Deprecation Notices
>    and the header struct ``rte_vxlan_gpe_hdr`` with the macro ``RTE_ETHER_VXLAN_GPE_HLEN``
>    will be removed in DPDK 25.11.
>  
> +* net/intel: drivers that have an SSE vector path alongside other vector paths,
> +  namely i40e, iavf and ice, will have their SSE vector paths removed in DPDK 25.11.
> +  Modern x86 systems all support AVX2, if not AVX-512, so the SSE path is no longer
> +  widely used. This change will not result in any feature loss, as the fallback
> +  scalar paths which have feature parity with SSE will be used in the cases where
> +  the SSE paths would have been used.
> +
>  * ethdev: The flow API matching pattern structures, ``struct rte_flow_item_*``,
>    should start with relevant protocol header structure from lib/net/.
>    The individual protocol header fields and the protocol header struct

I'm not aware of anyone using hardware that old and relying on SSE, but
it seems a bit short notice for a patch to remove hardware support.

Would it hurt much to give it a longer deprecation so anyone who needs
to prepare by upgrade, or taking 25.11 with support etc. can do that ?