v6 changes:
  reflect the changes in release notes and library version map file
  revise our duff's code style a bit to make it more readable

v5 changes:
  add comment about duff's device and our variant implementation

v3 changes:
  move while after case 0
  add context about duff's device and why we use while loop in the commit
message

v2 changes:
  unroll the loop a bit to help the performance

rte_pktmbuf_alloc_bulk allocates a bulk of packet mbufs.

There is related thread about this bulk API.
http://dpdk.org/dev/patchwork/patch/4718/
Thanks to Konstantin's loop unrolling.

Attached the wiki page about duff's device. It explains the performance
optimization through loop unwinding, and also the most dramatic use of
case label fall-through.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duff%27s_device

In our implementation, we use while() loop rather than do{} while() loop
because we could not assume count is strictly positive. Using while()
loop saves one line of check if count is zero.

Signed-off-by: Gerald Rogers <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Huawei Xie <redacted>
Acked-by: Konstantin Ananyev <redacted>
---
  doc/guides/rel_notes/release_2_3.rst |  3 ++
  lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf.h           | 55 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf_version.map |  7 +++++
  3 files changed, 65 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_2_3.rst b/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_2_3.rst
index 99de186..a52cba3 100644
--- a/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_2_3.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_2_3.rst

@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ DPDK Release 2.3
  New Features
  ------------

+* **Enable bulk allocation of mbufs. **
+  A new function ``rte_pktmbuf_alloc_bulk()`` has been added to allow the user
+  to allocate a bulk of mbufs.

  Resolved Issues
  ---------------

diff --git a/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf.h b/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf.h
index f234ac9..b2ed479 100644
--- a/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf.h
+++ b/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf.h

@@ -1336,6 +1336,61 @@ static inline struct rte_mbuf *rte_pktmbuf_alloc(struct rte_mempool *mp)
  }

  /**
+ * Allocate a bulk of mbufs, initialize refcnt and reset the fields to default
+ * values.
+ *
+ *  @param pool
+ *    The mempool from which mbufs are allocated.
+ *  @param mbufs
+ *    Array of pointers to mbufs
+ *  @param count
+ *    Array size
+ *  @return
+ *   - 0: Success
+ */
+static inline int rte_pktmbuf_alloc_bulk(struct rte_mempool *pool,
+	 struct rte_mbuf **mbufs, unsigned count)
+{
+	unsigned idx = 0;
+	int rc;
+
+	rc = rte_mempool_get_bulk(pool, (void **)mbufs, count);
+	if (unlikely(rc))
+		return rc;
+
+	/* To understand duff's device on loop unwinding optimization, see
+	 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duff's_device.
+	 * Here while() loop is used rather than do() while{} to avoid extra
+	 * check if count is zero.
+	 */
+	switch (count % 4) {
+	case 0:
+		while (idx != count) {
+			RTE_MBUF_ASSERT(rte_mbuf_refcnt_read(mbufs[idx]) == 0);
+			rte_mbuf_refcnt_set(mbufs[idx], 1);
+			rte_pktmbuf_reset(mbufs[idx]);
+			idx++;
+	case 3:
+			RTE_MBUF_ASSERT(rte_mbuf_refcnt_read(mbufs[idx]) == 0);
+			rte_mbuf_refcnt_set(mbufs[idx], 1);
+			rte_pktmbuf_reset(mbufs[idx]);
+			idx++;
+	case 2:
+			RTE_MBUF_ASSERT(rte_mbuf_refcnt_read(mbufs[idx]) == 0);
+			rte_mbuf_refcnt_set(mbufs[idx], 1);
+			rte_pktmbuf_reset(mbufs[idx]);
+			idx++;
+	case 1:
+			RTE_MBUF_ASSERT(rte_mbuf_refcnt_read(mbufs[idx]) == 0);
+			rte_mbuf_refcnt_set(mbufs[idx], 1);
+			rte_pktmbuf_reset(mbufs[idx]);
+			idx++;
+		}
+	}
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/**
   * Attach packet mbuf to another packet mbuf.
   *
   * After attachment we refer the mbuf we attached as 'indirect',

diff --git a/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf_version.map b/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf_version.map
index e10f6bd..257c65a 100644
--- a/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf_version.map
+++ b/lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf_version.map

@@ -18,3 +18,10 @@ DPDK_2.1 {
  	rte_pktmbuf_pool_create;

  } DPDK_2.0;
+
+DPDK_2.3 {
+	global:
+
+	rte_pktmbuf_alloc_bulk;
+
+} DPDK_2.1;