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1.4 Software

Software for the Intel

QuickAssist Technology is provided through the Intel open source site.

The applicable drivers

are associated with the C62x chipset. Application and library examples are posted on 01.org along with the Quick Start

Guide API Programmer’s Guide and other useful collateral allowing users to build upon these open source libraries and

examples or build their own applications. Release notes identify operating system compatibility.

Alternatively, the software can be installed onto a Linux system with an RPM manager such as yum, as shown in

Appendix section 6.2. In this example, Intel

QAT and its companion application and library QATzip were installed.

1.4.1 DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit)

An open source project consisting of a set of libraries and drivers for fast packet processing, DPDK employs PMDs

(Poll Mode Drivers) to interact with user space software, avoiding latency expensive context switches between kernel and

user space. Instructions on installing the Intel

QAT PMD can be found on the DPDK web site.

Using DPDK, performance

benefit has been demonstrated for IPsec (Internet Protocol Security), which provides security at a lower level in the

protocol stack than TLS. For further reading on IPSEC, see the Getting Started Guide

and Sample application usage.

1.4.2 Compression and Decompression

The primary vehicle for application development or application integration for data compression and decompression for

Linux and Windows Server is QATZip, which is a user space library that produces data in standard gzip format. See the

most recent release notes for the drivers and the API application guides for more information on data compression.