DELL XL Charter

Foundation

On April 10th and 11th, 2007 the founding member institutions created the Dell XL HPC Consortium by accepting a mission statement, and drafting and ratifying the first charter. The founding members of Dell XL HPC Consortium (also known as Dell XL) are (alphabetically): British Petroleum (BP), Brigham Young University (BYU), California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC), National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), and The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).

Dell XL Charter

The Dell XL consists of member sites that elect officers to manage the operation and maintenance of the consortium. The member sites contribute personnel for Working Groups and Committees which provide material (reports, presentations, panel discussions, etc.) for the twice-annual meetings. Dell, Inc. (Dell) and Dell partners (both known as the "Dell team") contribute liaisons to the Working Groups. There is also a Dell Point of Contact (DPoC) for coordinating Dell presentations, assigning Dell liaisons, reporting consortium activity back to Dell divisions, overseeing Working Group reports, evaluating strategies and following up on suggestions.

The charter consists of five articles for the operation and government by member centers. Article 1, Mission, consists of the mission statement, goals and activities of the consortium. Article 2, Organization, describes the structure and management of Dell XL. Article 3, Member Requirements and Voting, contains active membership requirements and voting rules. Article 4, Membership Application, specifies the requirements for membership and the mechanism for applications. Article 5, Membership Acceptance Criteria and Process, describes the process of acknowledging, evaluating and voting on membership requests.

Article 1. Mission

Dell XL is a consortium of HPC centers which have large installations of Dell systems with capabilities typically commensurate with the top 20 percent of machines listed in the Top 500. (cf. Article 4, Item 5).

The Mission of the Dell HPC XL Consortium is to create and maintain channels of communication between its members, Dell and Dell partners, for sharing information and experiences with the goal to more effectively develop, operate, support and use very large-scale (XL) Dell HPC systems. Also, the mission is to provide feedback to Dell for the purpose of making commodity systems easier to operate, support and use. Through the association and the consensus of members the consortium can leverage it collective knowledge of large-scale Dell Systems to influence Dell in its direction and commitment to provide commodity based systems to solve problems and enhance the scientific and technical research capability in academia, industry and government.

The consortium will focus on parallel cluster issues in the areas of: software stacks, file systems, networking, interconnects processor technology, resource management and monitoring, systems administration, training and support. It will also focus on the packaging, configurations, power and cooling environments for Dell XL systems.

The consortium provides a forum exclusively for members and the Dell team to participate in the following activities:

Centers can formally report, interact, and form a consensus about Dell product configurations, support and software tools. The forum provides a mechanism to offer suggestions, alternatives, and raise issues and concerns.
Both Dell team and member centers can cooperate in strategic management and planning for large-scale systems. Dell can present roadmaps, future directions, and alternative courses, and receive valuable feedback from its largest HPC customer base.
Member centers can collaborate and share experiences, as well as discuss center-derived solutions and alternative approaches to issues that arise with various Dell configurations and peripheral combinations. Centers with non-standard and alternate-vendor solutions can compare products and features, present reviews and experiences.
Invited vendors, including Dell partners, can discuss HPC needs, feature requests, solutions, directions, and partnerships jointly with consortium members and Dell.

It is through these activities that the consortium will be able to 1) provide better guidance to Dell, 2) improve site capabilities through sharing knowledge and experiences, 3) and collaborate to develop, enhance or adapt capabilities that sites would not typically be able to do as individual institutions.

Article 2. Organization

The Dell XL Consortium is a self-organized and self-supported group. Member sites, and Dell team are expected to participate actively in the meetings and to cover their own costs for participation. Hosting sites will pay for the operation of the meeting. A nominal registration fee may be charged to recover break and lunch costs. The twice-annual meetings are open only to members of the consortium and invited vendor presentation and speakers. Dell XL member institutions must have an appropriate non-disclosure agreement in place with Dell, since at times Dell and Dell Partner companies will disclose and discuss information of a confidential nature with the membership representatives and Work Groups.

The consortium is organized as follows:

Three officers will function in the following roles and have the prescribed authority in the organization.

President: Presides over meetings and insures that meeting agendas and operations adhere to charter policies and protocol.
Vice President: Performs the functions of the president when president is not in attendance at meetings, or when specific (documented) duties are delegated to the VP. The VP will also oversee the Work Group activities and progress.
Secretary: Assures that meeting notes are taken and archived in a location accessible only to members. The secretary is also responsible for compilation and delivery of reports to the Dell team. Also, the secretary will insure that Work Group notes and documents are captured and posted appropriately.

Officers will be elected to serve two-year terms.
If the President is unable or does not fulfill the presidential duties, or resigns, the Vice-President will assume the presidential duties and complete the President's term. A vacancy of the Vice-President or Secretary will be filled by an email election.
Work Groups exist to support and organize topics for discussions at the meetings. The groups also provide working notes, reports and documentation in their area.
An informal Working Group can be formed through a caucus for the purpose of defining a mission, objective and expected accomplishments.
Formal Work Groups are created by vote from the eligible members, along with an assignment of an initial lead. The President may appoint the Working Group leads as necessary to fill vacancies and insure that the duties of the Working Groups are performed.
Work Group leaders interface and interact with the Dell XL liaisons. (Liaisons are appointed by the Dell Point of Contact, DPoC.).
Committees can be formed by a vote to accomplish the mission and goals of Dell XL.
Meeting will be held twice a year. (A non-mandatory open-house or "town hall" meeting may be scheduled at the "SCxy" (SuperComputing Conference) each year.)

Article 3. Member Requirements and Voting

Large-scale centers constitute the Membership in the Dell XL. Only Dell XL members, Dell employees, and invited vendors may attend the formal Dell XL meetings.
Each member site has one vote.
A simple majority of the eligible members is required to approve a proposed activity or motion of the floor at the Dell XL meetings.
Dell and Dell partners are affiliates of the Dell XL HPC Consortium, and are not voting members.
Active membership requires the maintenance of a Dell HPC system.
When a member's Dell system configuration changes significantly, is decommissioned or approaches the end of its serviceable life, the status as an active member will be reviewed and reconsidered by a vote of the remaining Dell XL membership. If a site fails the vote to remain a member, then that institution shall be removed from membership roles and will not be permitted to attend Dell XL meetings and participate in Dell XL discussions. Sites removed from membership will be reconsidered for future membership when they meet the membership criteria and apply to join the Dell XL.
A representative from a member site must be in attendance at one meeting per year. Sites which do not participate in three consecutive Dell XL meetings will be considered for membership revocation. Attendance of the SCxy (SuperComputing Conference) meeting does not count as a Dell XL meeting.

Article 4. Membership Application

A center may apply for membership through the Application Web Form.

Site/Institution Name
Location
URL
Proposed Dell XL center representative(s): name, email address, telephone, etc.
A paragraph on each of the following:

Commitment to parallel scientific/technical computing with a focus on large-scale computations.
Institutional mission and track record of deploying and managing scalable parallel software and hardware technology.
Demonstrated activity in technology Research and Development for large-scale systems.
Activities, expertise or broader impact which the site plans to contribute to the Dell XL Consortium.
Description of the Dell system configuration.

Membership acceptance will be evaluated on the areas listed in item e.

Article 5. Membership Acceptance Criteria and Process

Before a site can be considered for membership all information specified in Article 4 must be supplied. A vote will be held within two months of the application.
An applying site must be sponsored by an existing member. The sponsor will formally submit the application for a vote, and provide an introduction and assistance once the site becomes a member of Dell XL.
Membership evaluation is based upon the criteria in Article 4. No single criterion is a prerequisite. The combined strengths of the items are considered.
Membership voting has a special eligibility requirement: Only current member sites who have participated within Dell XL for at least 6 months are eligible to vote.
Membership votes may be YES, NO. A YES vote supports a site as a member. A No vote does not support a site as a member.
A quorum is 50% of the voting members. The voting period for membership is one month. The president will monitor voting to insure that a quorum is achieved.
Within a membership vote, voting will cease if fifty percent of the eligible institutions have cast a YES vote.