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.
