This document discusses new hardware features including CAT, COD, and Haswell, as well as network platforms. It provides an overview of run-to-completion and pipeline software models for network processing. Run-to-completion allows I/O and application work to be handled on a single core, while pipeline distributes packets to other cores for application work. Lockless queues are used to share data between cores and threads. Rings are the primary mechanism to move data between software units and I/O sources in DPDK.