Additional APIs

Note

Not all Additional APIs are supported with all versions of the software package/hardware configuration.

There are a number of additional APIs that can serve for optimization and other uses outside of the Intel^® QuickAssist Technology services.

• Dynamic Instance Allocation Functions
• IOMMU Remapping Functions
• Polling Functions
• User Space Access Configuration Functions
• Version Information Function
• Reset Device Function
• Thread-Less APIs
• Compress and Verify (CnV) Related APIs
• Heartbeat APIs
• Device Polling APIs
• Memory Driver APIs
• Congestion Management APIs
• Service Specific Polling APIs
• Check Device Availability APIs

Physical Function (PF) and Virtual Function (VF) Applicability

The following rules apply to Additional APIs in this chapter:

• Default rule (applies unless stated otherwise): APIs are usable in both PF and VF deployments, and behavior reflects resources visible to the calling context.

• Documented exceptions exist for specific API groups:

  • SLA management APIs are PF-anchored and VF-targeted. Capability/list operations are performed against a PF, while SLA create/update/delete operations are used to manage VF policy.

  • PF/VF messaging helper APIs are implementation-specific stubs. PF<->VF message send/get entry points are provided, but platform/software support may be limited by implementation.

• Virtualization-enabled behavior: When SR-IOV/vQAT is enabled, application-visible operational contexts are typically VF-based. Do not assume PF operational datapath availability for normal application use in that mode.

• Result semantics: Counts, handles, and capabilities returned by these APIs represent the subset assigned/exposed to the caller context, not a platform-global PF+VF union.

• User-space lifecycle requirement: User-space SAL/proxy initialization is required before invoking Additional APIs that depend on SAL device/context discovery.

• Capability-first usage is required: Applications should query capabilities and handle CPA_STATUS_UNSUPPORTED as a valid per-instance/per-context result, especially in mixed PF/VF environments.

• Service-specific VF availability: Symmetric cryptographic services (AES, SHA, etc.) are typically available on both PF and VF. However, some asymmetric cryptographic services (RSA, ECC, ECDSA) may be restricted to PF-only contexts on certain platforms. Compression services are commonly available on both PF and VF, but format-specific support (e.g., particular compression algorithms) may vary by platform. Always use capability query APIs to determine actual service availability before use.