Governing Board Minutes

Governing Board Meeting Summary – March  24,2026

Leadership and Governance Transitions The DPDK Governing Board convened in late March to address several key organizational changes and project updates. The board bid farewell to long-time member and contributor Gal Cohen of NVIDIA, who contributed to the project for over six years. In his place, the board welcomed Asaf Penso from NVIDIA, who brings a wealth of experience in research and development to the governing body.

Project Membership and Stability The project continues to demonstrate strong organizational health and high member retention. Updates provided during the session indicated that the vast majority of current members have successfully renewed their commitments for the year. This stability across both Gold and Silver membership tiers ensures that the project remains well-supported by its industry partners as it moves into the second quarter of the year.

Strategic Financial Oversight The board reviewed the comprehensive budget and resource allocation plan for 2026. Financial reporting indicated a healthy fiscal position, with significant investments directed toward community support, marketing, and developer engagement. While the board noted a minor technical gap between projected revenue and the total budget, the overall financial outlook remains robust. New leadership members were briefed on the budget’s composition to ensure transparency and continuity in fiscal oversight.

Brand Refresh and Digital Modernization A significant proposal was introduced regarding a visual brand refresh for the project. Since the project has not undergone a major aesthetic update since 2017, the board discussed a plan to modernize typography and color schemes to improve the experience for new developers and visitors. This initiative also includes a “Generative Engine Optimization” audit to ensure the project’s documentation and website remain accessible and high-performing when accessed by AI-driven search tools and bots.

Upcoming European Summit in Stockholm Preparations are reaching their final stages for the May 2026 European Summit in Stockholm. The board reviewed the successful conclusion of the Call for Proposals, which resulted in over twenty accepted submissions. With the official schedule now live and registration numbers climbing for both in-person and virtual attendance, the focus has shifted to logistical planning. This includes coordinating a joint meeting with the Tech Board in late April to finalize the agenda and ensuring all board travel arrangements are settled within established reimbursement guidelines.

Future Planning and Collaborative Goals The meeting concluded with a commitment to finalizing the scope of the brand refresh and ensuring all new board members are fully integrated into the project’s administrative processes. By prioritizing both the technical roadmap and the project’s public-facing image, the board aims to attract a broader pool of contributors and reviewers. The Governing Board is scheduled to reconvene in late April to continue overseeing these strategic initiatives.

Joint Forum Fosters Open Dialogue on Cross-Cutting Issues

The Governing Board and Technical Board convened for their quarterly joint meeting, providing a dedicated forum for transparent discussion on matters that span both the technical and governance aspects of the project. Board Chair Tim O’Driscoll welcomed attendees and emphasized the value of these sessions as an opportunity for open, and even occasionally conflicting, views to be aired in the interest of advancing the project. The meeting brought together leadership from across member organizations to address strategic priorities, resource planning, and community growth.

Member Resourcing and the Path to New Feature Development

A central topic of discussion was the challenge of turning ambitious roadmap proposals into reality. The Tech Board clarified that while it can provide guidance, wisdom, and direction, it does not control or allocate development resources. For new features to materialize, contributing member organizations must commit engineering resources. The most successful past initiatives, such as event and crypto devices, succeeded because one company took the lead with an initial prototype, after which others joined in with feedback and support. Alternative models were also explored, including the possibility of hiring paid contractors for critically needed work that no member company is pursuing organically, or member companies assigning dedicated resources to specific development areas.

Prioritizing the Roadmap with a New “DPDK Wishes” Tool

To bring greater structure to roadmap planning, the boards discussed a new tool in Bugzilla called “DPDK Wishes,” demonstrated by Lead Maintainer Thomas Monjalon. The tool is designed to collect and vet feature requests and new directions for the project. This will allow the boards to review, discuss, and prioritize submissions based on common interest across member organizations. A dedicated brainstorming session at the upcoming Q2 joint meeting in Stockholm was identified as the ideal forum to begin working through these priorities and discussing how resources might be aligned.

AI-Powered Assistant Aims to Onboard New Code Reviewers

The project showcased a new AI-powered code review assistant developed by Ben Thomas. Unlike automated review bots that evaluate code quality, this assistant is designed to help human reviewers—particularly newcomers—understand patches and learn how to provide meaningful feedback. By pasting a patch, users receive a plain-language explanation of what it does, what to focus on, and suggestions for comments. The tool walks users through a 30-minute review workflow and provides just enough DPDK context to get started. Stephen Hemminger, who has been refining a detailed “agents.md” file of coding style guidelines, will collaborate with Thomas to incorporate this rich context into the assistant, making it an even more powerful onboarding tool for the next generation of reviewers.

Plans Take Shape for the DPDK Stockholm Summit

With the CFP deadline extended to March 1, the Stockholm Summit has received approximately 20 submissions, meeting the minimum threshold. Attendee numbers are growing, and the program is expected to diversify beyond traditional presentations. Inspired by positive feedback from the Prague event, organizers are actively encouraging demos and Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions to increase interactivity. Patrick Robb of UNH previewed a planned demo where he will live-apply a patch, run the flow rule test suite, and demonstrate how the output aids in debugging. The boards were asked to consider additional non-traditional formats to make the program engaging for all participants.

Strategic Focus on Asia-Pacific Community Growth

The project continues to see robust growth in Asian participation, reflected in both contributor numbers and the substantial volume of Chinese drivers in recent releases. Efforts to deepen engagement include Mandarin-language articles in the quarterly newsletter and videos on the new Bilibili channel, led by two community members based in China. Looking ahead, the boards discussed the possibility of an Asian summit in 2026, either as a standalone event or co-located with a preestablished conference. Success would require on-the-ground planning support from Asian stakeholders, and further discussions with the Linux Foundation Events team are planned to assess feasibility.

DPDK Project Update: Highlights from the February 17, 2026 Governing Board Meeting

Technical Focus Shifts to Code Hardening and Quality

The DPDK project’s technical roadmap for the upcoming 26.03 release is prioritizing stability and correctness over the introduction of major new features. Currently in the pre-release candidate phase, the development cycle is characterized by significant “code hardening” and refactoring efforts. Approximately half of all commits in this cycle are dedicated to fixes and backports, reflecting a strategic emphasis on reinforcing the software’s foundation. This focus on a Q1 release is in line with the project’s typical cadence, where the year-end .11 release serves as the primary Long Term Stable (LTS) version.

AI-Powered Code Reviews Show Promising Early Results

The integration of artificial intelligence into the code review process is progressing rapidly and yielding tangible benefits. The project team reported that AI-assisted reviews are already proving valuable, consistently identifying bugs and raising pertinent questions that manual reviews might miss. To operationalize this, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) lab will host the new AI review system. It will be implemented as an additional quality gate, reviewing only those patches that have first passed the project’s standard automated tests. This initiative is expected to significantly enhance code quality and evolve the role of human reviewers over time.

Strategic Marketing Push to Cultivate Reviewers and Contributors

The project unveiled its 2026 marketing strategy, which sets a clear goal to revitalize the community by strengthening both the contributor and reviewer pipelines. Following a year-on-year dip in commits, the board acknowledged a historical over-emphasis on attracting new contributors at the expense of cultivating new reviewers. The new plan aims to correct this imbalance by creating a more intuitive “new reviewer journey” on the project website. Key performance indicators will track engagement and growth, with the ultimate objective of fostering a healthier ecosystem where participants are encouraged to both contribute code and participate in the review process.

Preparations Underway for the DPDK Stockholm Summit

Plans are advancing for the upcoming DPDK Summit, to be held in Stockholm on May 12-13. The Call for Proposals (CFP) has been extended to March 1st to maximize participation and ensure a diverse and engaging program. A highlight of the summit will be a live demonstration from the UNH lab, showing how developers can integrate the DPDK Test Suite (DTS) into their local workflows to validate new features like flow offload support. The event will also feature collaborative working sessions for the Governing and Technical Boards, reinforcing the community-driven approach that guides the project’s development.

Meeting Overview and 2026 Planning:
The DPDK Governing Board met on December 16, 2025, to review the project’s 2026 budget and key initiatives. The session built upon the operational budget approved in November and addressed optional investments for the coming year, including test suite development and promotional activities.

UNH Lab and Test Suite Development Vote:
The Board discussed a proposal to continue funding student developers at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab to expand the DPDK Test Suite (DTS). While the members present were in favor, the vote did not reach the required quorum during the meeting. The resolution will be circulated to absent Governing Board members for a final decision via email and LFX.

LinkedIn Promotional Spend Vote:
A second proposal concerned a budget allocation for LinkedIn advertising to promote the 2026 Summit, developer recruitment, and the project’s 15th anniversary. After discussion, the vote during the meeting did not reach majority approval. This item will also be circulated to the full Governing Board for an off-meeting vote.

2026 DPDK Euro Summit – Stockholm:
Detailed planning for the 2026 DPDK Euro Summit is progressing. The event will be held at the Hotel Scandic Grand Central in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 12-13, 2026, with a maximum capacity of 150 attendees. A hotel room block will be available from May 11-14. The agenda will follow the successful format of previous summits, including a Tech Board meeting on May 11 and a joint Governing Board/Tech Board working dinner.

In response to community feedback, the 2026 Summit will feature a more diverse format, including panel sessions, birds-of-a-feather discussions, and individual speaker talks, in addition to upholding the Linux Foundation’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standards. While virtual presentations will be permitted, in-person talks will be strongly encouraged to enhance engagement.

The Call for Papers will open on January 13 and run through February 22, with speaker notifications scheduled for March 11. The full schedule will be published on March 18, 2026. Attendees can expect uniquely Swedish speaker gifts, and the project will provide travel reimbursements for eligible contributors.

2025 Year-End Review and Forward Look:
The Board highlighted a successful year for DPDK in 2025, marked by 100% member retention, significant growth in social media engagement, and the well-received Prague Summit. Key technical strides were made in AI-assisted code review tools and the authoring of DPDK Life Cycle documentation. The collaboration with the UNH Lab yielded substantial improvements to the DPDK Test Suite (DTS), including a simplified setup process and more than double the number of test suites, helping to identify issues and standardize behavior across drivers. Goals for 2026 will be circulated to the Board for further discussion and refinement.

The DPDK Governing Board convened on September 16, 2025, with a quorum of members present. The meeting covered a wide range of project updates and strategic initiatives. A Tech Board update was provided, highlighting that the release candidate for DPDK v.25.11 is on track for October. The deprecation of the 32-bit x86 architecture has been postponed, as testing for this compilation will continue due to ongoing benefits. The ecosystem is growing, with a new IronCore project, dpservice, now listed on the DPDK website for its use of the Graph framework.

A key topic of discussion was the evolving approach to AI-generated code contributions. The board confirmed that such code is currently permissible under the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) policy, aligning with Linux Foundation standards. While the Tech Board is considering options for tagging AI-assisted code in the future, the practicality of this is in question, and legal responsibility for any submission remains with the developer. The project is also evaluating the effectiveness of AI code review tools and the potential for developing a customized, DPDK-specific solution.

UNH Interoperability Lab is making significant progress with the DPDK Test Suite (DTS), and the board is currently evaluating whether it wishes to continue to hire DTS Student Developers in 2026 as an elective expense. With this in mind, UNH Lab representative Patrick Robb presented the progress of the 2025 developers to the board. He stated that the 2025 student developer program has been successful, more than doubling the number of test suites and delivering substantial framework improvements that simplify setup and usage. If the program continues in 2026, it would focus on advancing testing priorities, including virtio/virtualization, RTE_FLOW, and cryptodev coverage. The Governing Board will review a formal proposal to approve this elective expense at a future meeting.

DPDK marketing efforts continue to gain momentum with a robust content pipeline focused on the project’s 15th-anniversary, including user stories and technical blogs. The strategic shift to distributing news primarily via LinkedIn on a quarterly cadence has resulted in significantly increased engagement. On the events front, planning is underway for a major DPDK summit in Europe for Spring 2026, and several possible European cities with corresponding venues are being evaluated for availability, cost, and accessibility.

On August 19, 2025, the DPDK Governing Board convened with a quorum present (8 out of 11 voting members) to discuss a range of project matters. The session began with standard administrative procedures, including an introduction from the newest board member. The agenda was then addressed, covering strategic planning for the remainder of the year and key operational updates from various project functions.

The discussion began with a review of the strategy for future summits. The cancellation of a planned event in Santa Clara prompted a review of the project’s event model. There was strong consensus on the success of the previous European conference in Prague and a preference for holding a single, accessible annual summit in Europe, coordinated by Linux Foundation Event Management Services. The conversation also explored the potential benefits of co-locating with networking-themed  Linux Foundation events to share resources and reach different audiences. A decision was made to pursue a European summit for the following year.

Financial and marketing updates were also provided. The project was reported to be in a solid financial position, with a noted improvement in aligning expenses with revenue after several cost-saving measures were implemented.

The marketing lead reported a successful shift in strategy for the project newsletter, moving it to a different platform and focusing on a campaign for the 15th anniversary of the project, which resulted in significantly increased engagement metrics.

Finally, technical and operational updates were given. The UNH Interoperability Lab reported positive progress on test suite development and community lab operations. An update was also provided on the exploration of AI tools for code review, resulting in a plan to trial a low-cost option.

The meeting concluded with the approval of the previous minutes from July 15, 2025, and then formally adjourned.

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.

The DPDK Governing Board met on Zoom on April 25th for a high-level monthly review of different aspects of the project.

Vice Chair Ian Jolliffe (Red Hat) kicked off the meeting by discussing the leadership team’s progress on reaching out to potential new membership opportunities for contributors to the community, with occasional follow ups as are warranted. Mr. Jolliffe also noted that the project will soon hold a summit in Prague from May 8-9; registration now totals 128. The event promises to be an exciting opportunity for the project, in terms of visibility and community building.

Mr. Jolliffe also noted that extensive promotions are underway for the Bay Area Summit in Santa Clara from September 17-18; registration and the CFP open May 1.

Mr. Jolliffe concluded by noting that the Tech Board and the Governing Board unanimously passed a resolution to approve Linux Kernel uAPI headers licensed under GPLv2 so that that voting has passed, and is now that exception is now in our in the project’s Github.

Marketing Coordinator Ben Thomas then provided a brief survey of marketing campaigns. He noted that the  “last chance to register” campaign for Prague is underway and will be wrapping up in a week; registration will stay open until the conference launches on May 9. He also stated that he will begin a publicity rollout for the September Bay Area Summit, but wants to  wait until just after Prague kicks off to avoid interference of simultaneous publicity for the two events.

In addition to this, Mr. Thomas recently pulled together a university deck designed to recruit student developers., sped up the DPDK website considerably and switched it to a new server, and is working on a new campaign for DPDK as a collaboration with Edwin Verplanke of Nvidia, “A Day in the Life of a Packet.” Mr. Thomas will launch a 15th Anniversary Campaign for DPDK this fall.

Tech Board rep to the Governing Board Stephen Hemminger then spoke. Mr. Hemminger recapped briefly on the Linux Kernel License exception, which was done to enable building of things like VirtIO on older systems. In addition to this – and more broadly – DPDK has been updating which systems it builds, tests and runs on like the new Fedora (which runs on GCC 15), while dropping enterprise distros that are no longer in maintenance from being tested. The consensus is that if someone wants to run the new DPDK on something so old that it is no longer maintained, they are on their own.

Next, Patrick Robb of the University of New Hampshire provided an update on the Community Lab. Among other points, Mr. Robb stated that the lab just added a new Intel QAT 4xxx series crypto device, which is running throughput and latency tests for the QAT PMD. Mr. Robb also stated that on the DTS end, new testsuites have been merged including test_stats_checks, test_and port_control. The Lab Team has been working with an AWS engineer towards setting up an AWS CI Testing lab, which went live on April 24, running build and unit tests on their x86_64 and ARM Graviton environments.

Senior Program Coordinator Nathan Southern briefly wrapped up the meeting with some high-level updates on the Prague and Bay Area (Santa Clara) 2025 Summits.

A meeting of the DPDK Governing Board Took Place on April 3, 2025 and covered the following agenda items:

• LF Antitrust/Attendance – Nathan Southern
• Board Chair Update – Tim O’Driscoll
• Financial update – Keesang Song
• Marketing Update – Ben Thomas
• Tech Board Update – Stephen Hemmingereve
• Tech Writer Update – Nandini Persad
• Events Update – Prague and Santa Clara – Nathan Southern

Chair Tim O’Driscoll began with a board chair update and indicated that most yearly member renewals are complete with only two still in process; discussions continue to take place with new member prospects. The project is in solid financial shape but is exploring ways to bring spending in line with revenue, including doing more community-run events in the years to come.

Treasurer Keesang Song echoed these financial observations. He reported that the DPDK 2025 budget is largely focused on community development (35%) and marketing (39%) activities. Other areas include Staff, Travel and Board (18%) and General/Administrative (9%).

Marketing Coordinator Ben Thomas then reviewed current marketing plans, including the launch of a DPDK 15th anniversary campaign (2010-2025), the creation of a new blog piece collaboration with Edwin Verplanke titled “A Day in the Life of a Packet,” and the development of two separate project advocacy decks: one for corporate-backed developers and one targeted to universities, which will dovetail with the project’s interest in recruiting university students to help expand development.

Stephen Hemminger, the Tech Board representative to the Governing Board, then highlighted some of the ongoing process work done by DPDK, including expanded support for Microsoft Visual Studio compiler, the expansion of long-term Rust support for DPDK, and the addition of a recent static analysis tool that has successfully identified numerous bugs on the platform. Stephen also reported on the UNH Community Lab’s recent progress, which has been robust.

Stephen Hemminger then discussed the tech board’s desire to include Linux kernel uAPI header files into a dedicated directory of the DPDK repository; the goals include improving build coverage, reducing the complexity in the DPDK libraries (#ifdef KERNEL_FEATURE …), fixing the issue of having the build system disabling features that are supported by the deployed hosts, etc. This will require a license exception. Several of the Board members present, however, expressed a desire to abstain from voting on this exception until specific counsel (and corresponding language) regarding it have been received from Linux Foundation Legal. A vote will then be taken via email.

Tech writer Nandini Persad then surveyed some of the recent highlights of her work, including refining the Flow Offload section of Programmer’s Guide by moving 149 descriptions of item types/functions/constants to the API docs, reviewing sections 1-8 of the Contributor’s Guidelines, and uploading all Known Issues and limitations from the release notes into Bugzilla. 

The meeting concluded with a brief report by Nathan Southern on the Prague Summit, which will take place at the Hotel Grandior in the Czech Republic from May 8-9. This event has been completely finalized; registration is live online, and a venue, the Pivovar u Supa, has been reserved in Prague for the Summit’s evening reception on May 8. Planning for the Santa Clara Sumit (Sep. 17-18) is also underway; registration (on Cvent) and the CFP (on Sessionize) will both open on May 1. The Santa Clara event will take place at the Intel corporate headquarters on Mission Blvd. in Santa Clara, California.