Netronome/Corigine NFP SmartNIC TLS and IPsec crypto offload
Crypto offload support inside the larger NFP SmartNIC driver, letting Netronome and Corigine Agilio adapters (built on the NFP3800/4000/5000/6000 network flow processors) handle TLS and IPsec encryption in hardware. These are programmable datacenter NICs used for high-throughput packet processing rather than commodity desktop or server networking.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware family is still actively sold by Corigine in 2025, including SmartNIC variants explicitly aimed at crypto workloads, and the upstream code is still receiving maintenance patches as recently as 2026. Deployments are niche — datacenter and specialty offload rather than mainstream NICs — but the vendor and kernel ecosystem are both alive, so there is no case for removal.
repository signals
sources
- patch.msgid.link
A 2026 mailing-list patch touched this directory's TLS code, indicating current upstream maintenance rather than abandonment.
- docs.kernel.org
Kernel documentation says the NFP driver supports Netronome and Corigine NFP3800/NFP4000/NFP5000/NFP6000 devices and Agilio SmartNICs.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows CONFIG_NFP remains in current kernel series and lists both Netronome and Corigine PCI IDs for the supported hardware family.
- corigine.com
Corigine's Agilio CX product page lists NFP-4000 and NFP-5000 SmartNIC variants, including a crypto model, with 'BUY NOW' availability.
- corigine.com
Corigine's Agilio FX page lists an NFP-4000 SmartNIC with current product availability, supporting that this hardware family is still sold new.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
This subdirectory is driver code inside the broader nfp NIC driver, implementing TLS/IPsec offload hooks rather than a standalone module. Upstream activity was checked first with local git history via exec_command because lore MCP/lei were unavailable in this environment; the recent patch URL came from a Link trailer in `git log` output, and there was no sign of a removal series in the recent path history. The docs.kernel.org, LKDDb, and Corigine URLs were obtained with web search/open. Overall signal: active upstream maintenance plus vendor-visible current sales, but deployments are likely niche SmartNIC/datacenter offload rather than broad mainstream NIC volume, so keep rather than deprecate/remove.