The May 29, 2025 meeting of the DPDK Governing Board convened virtually with representatives from major industry stakeholders including Intel, AMD, Red Hat, Nvidia, and ZTE. Although the meeting lacked quorum—due to a pending replacement for Microsoft’s board representative—it proceeded with consensus to solicit votes from those present and collect post-meeting votes by email. The board welcomed Jyotsna Chitri as Arm’s new representative and formally bid farewell to Microsoft’s John Bruner.
A significant item on the agenda was a licensing exception request brought forward by the technical board. The proposal aimed to enable broader Microsoft Virtual C++ Compiler support for DPDK by incorporating BSD-licensed code. With five members present, an initial vote showed unanimous support, and one more vote via email was needed to finalize approval. This move continues a pattern of careful but progressive licensing flexibility within the project.
The board reviewed the recent Prague Summit, praising the high engagement and diversity of content and attendees; the event was deemed a great success. Minor suggestions were made to restructure future events by introducing more breakout and Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions, and to better distribute thematic content. Attendance figures—110–120 including virtual—were strong.
Discussions from a joint technical and governing board dinner that took place the evening before the Prague summit were also summarized. These included future DPDK directions such as exploring Rust integration, assessing the relevance of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium, and modernizing driver documentation. Additional points touched on operational housekeeping like streamlining the Bugzilla backlog. A novel effort to develop a DPDK-specific AI assistant using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is underway, led by Keesang Song, Ori Kam, and Thomas Monjalon.
Looking ahead, preparations for the upcoming Bay Area Summit in September were detailed. Registration and CFP numbers are trending positively. Attending board members expressed interest in interpolating dynamic engagement formats including hands-on AI demos and BOF sessions. A budgeted lodging plan and a coordinated tech board dinner are also underway to support attendee participation.
Finally, the marketing update highlighted robust engagement with summit content online and ongoing efforts to celebrate DPDK’s 15th anniversary. Campaigns such as “Day in the Life of a Packet” and collaborative storytelling initiatives aim to amplify community involvement. Board members were encouraged to actively promote the Bay Area Summit and contribute to shaping its success.
