4.7. Linux Kernel Bypass With NPAP

4.7. Linux Kernel Bypass With NPAP Increased Ethernet speeds push a need to offload CPUs from the burden of TCP/UDP/IPv4 processing. Various kernel bypass options exist, some include so-called RDMA (Remote DMA). NPAP can provide architecture choices for implementing such kernel bypasses. Normally, from a CPU’s perspective, TCP socket I/O means sending and/or receiving (raw) network data between the host CPU and the NIC. The kernel runs network protocol processing for IPv4, TCP, and socket APIs. User space applications that generate and/or digest the network data add to the CPU processing burden. RDMA skips most steps and a so-called rNIC (RDMA NIC) device driver directly interfaces with user space memory, effectively bypassing the kernel: NPAP can operate in a similar way, where NPAP does all TCP/IPv4 processing in dedicated ASIC / FPGA logic and then a (Linux) device driver copies the payload data between user space memory and NPAP. 🌐 www.missinglinkelectronics.com MLE (Missing Link Electronics) is offering technologies and solutions for Domain-Specific Architectures, which focus on heterogeneous computing using FPGAs. MLE is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Neu-Ulm and Berlin, Germany.