Netronome/Corigine NFP Advanced Buffer Management (ABM) for Agilio SmartNICs
An optional QoS and queue-management feature that runs on Netronome (now Corigine) Agilio SmartNICs based on the NFP-4000 and NFP-6000 network flow processors. It plugs into the main NFP Ethernet driver to offload buffer management and traffic shaping on programmable 10/25/40/100 GbE adapters used in data centers and telco workloads.
recommendation
Worth keeping but worth labelling as a niche corner of the kernel, because the underlying NFP-4000 Agilio SmartNICs are still being sold new in 2025 by Corigine and the upstream NFP documentation continues to list these chips as supported. Activity is light, with only sparse 2024 touches and no obvious replacement, so the code should remain alongside the rest of the NFP driver rather than be removed; a note flagging it as a specialized, low-traffic feature would help future maintainers.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The ABM code still receives occasional upstream maintenance; this file was touched by a 2024 netronome patch rather than only in 2021.
- docs.kernel.org
Upstream kernel documentation says the NFP driver supports NFP3800/NFP4000/NFP5000/NFP6000 devices used in Agilio SmartNICs.
- corigine.com
Corigine's current Agilio CX product page lists NFP-4000 SmartNIC SKUs with 'BUY NOW', indicating the family was still being sold new in 2025/2026.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Lore first: `lore_activity` on `drivers/net/ethernet/netronome/nfp/abm/main.c` showed only sparse recent activity, with one real 2024 touch plus treewide churn and no evident removal thread in the sampled history. Local shell reads of `drivers/net/ethernet/netronome/Kconfig` and `abm/main.c` showed ABM is an optional NFP4000/NFP6000 QoS/queue-management app inside `nfp.ko`, not a standalone driver with a natural upstream replacement. Deployment evidence came from web search: opened docs.kernel.org result for supported device families and opened Corigine's Agilio CX product page showing current NFP-4000 SKUs for sale. Conclusion: niche but still-live hardware and feature area, so keep the code but annotate it as low-activity/specialized rather than deprecate or remove.