p4c

I'm not familiar with P4 but with some quick digging it seems like the compiler does support eBPF as a target. Additionally, I don't think the compiler outputs x86 directly at all, and instead includes targets like DPDK which supports ARM in addition to x86. https://github.com/p4lang/p4c

You are exactly right. In fact, there are a number of approaches in this space: p4c-ebpf [0], p4c-xdp [1], and p4c-ubpf [2]. [0] https://github.com/p4lang/p4c/blob/main/backends/ebpf/README... [1] https://github.com/vmware/p4c-xdp [2] https://opennetworking.org/news-and-events/blog/p4c-ubpf-a-n...

P4 and eBPF are not really competing in the same space. eBPF/XDP is a virtual kernel machine that you can program in restricted C. P4 is a language that specifies how a device should process packets. So P4 is compiled down into a target (for example, a switch or NIC), which then executes the code as specified by the programmer. The nice part about P4, compared to just working with the devices, is that it establishes a standard reference format for administration and control of packet processing. For example, Google is using P4 to test their switches (they talk about it in their keynote in this workshop [0]). The eBPF/XDP VM could be one of these P4 targets. You can write a P4 specification that is converted into eBPF byte code which is then loaded and executed. The reference P4 compiler even has a eBPF[1] and an XDP[2] back end. However,

1. it's not gaining mindshare as quickly! last month's cilium 1.10 release for example mentioned ebpf 17 times. you can dig up a dozen new ebpf stories a week if you look around, probably. anyone with a bunch of random nodes can be using ebpf, & well. anyone wanting to do new tricks in the kernel can be using ebpf, & quickly, to try. 2. I'm not sure the horse race mentality helps. p4 generally helps complex fancy hardware get programmed to be extra effective. it's not as generally applicable, it feels like today, as ebpf, even within the packet processing subconcerms of ebpf (which is now really the kernels generic programmabilitu mechanism, not necessarily only for packets). but that doesn't change how vital & critical it is that we have ways to program & use that switch hardware, we need those switches, we need ways to program them. ebp