On Fri, Jul 18, 2025 at 04:03:17PM +0100, Kevin Traynor wrote: > 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.lof...@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 ? > Do we think that will make a difference? After all, dropping the SSE path won't break DPDK on older hardware, it will only run a bit slower using the scalar path. Beyond that, it would only affect deployments with new/latest DPDK on old hardware - obviously old hardware running older DPDK would be unaffected.
/Bruce
