Re: [PATCH 00/23] Subject: [PATCH net-next 00/23] net/hpe: add HPE Slingshot NIC drivers

[Doug Ledford <doug.ledford@hpe.com>]

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On 11/4/26 5:39 AM, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 03, 2026 at 08:21:05PM -0800, Doug Ledford wrote:
>> Top-posting an executive summary: HPE's ask is whether we should submit
>> this driver through the netdev community or the rdma community. HPE
>> prefers netdev, with RDMA as an aux driver, but needs the maintainers’
>> call. A minimal Ethernet driver is about 48k lines plus 36k lines of
>> mostly machine-generated headers (details below).
> 
> It depends on a simple question: can you create a functional ultra
> ethernet device without a netdev and without an IP or routing table?
> Like IB?
> 
> If yes then maybe you could do RDMA first.
> 
> If no, then you must get a netdev first.
> 
> Jason

That's tricky to answer.  Can you create portals table entries for
Slingshot and ignore IP, yes.  But, you also normally connect to a
fabric manager over an IP socket in order to get your NID (similar to
IB's LID) and that's what you then use for RDMA traffic.  But the NID
can also be derived from the MAC address.  So, it can go either way.

-- 
Doug Ledford <doug.ledford@hpe.com>
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