HPC System Acquisition and Service Provision Request for Information José L. Muñoz Deputy Office Director Office of CyberInfrastructure (OCI) 9 September 2005

Agenda 9:00am Background Crawford 9:30am Introduction Muñoz 10:00am Panel I Ahalt Acquisition Models 11:00am BREAK ALL 11:15am Panel II Heisey HPC Vendor Perspective 12:15pm LUNCH (on your own) ALL 1:00pm Panel III Davis Benchmarking/Purchase Options 2:00pm Wrap-Up/Discussion ALL

Purpose of RFI Distribute information Gather information Answer questions Promote dialog between potential RPs and potential vendors Information is being recorded and will be made publicly available Please identify yourself when speaking

Registered Demographics Universities Case Western Reserve U. Cornell Univ. Georgia Inst. Of Technology Indiana University Louisiana State Univ. NCSA Ohio Supercomputer Center Purdue PSC SDSC TACC Univ. of NC Univ. of Utah USC Vendors Cray DELL Hewlett Packard IBM Intel Linux Networx Rackable Systems SGI Sun Microsystems Other Argonne National Lab CASC DOD HPCMP Hayes Consulting NCAR ORNL Raytheon

Background NSF anticipates releasing one or more solicitations for the acquisition of high-performance computing (HPC) systems and support of subsequent HPC services.  Prior to the release of the solicitation(s), NSF invites interested parties to provide input on possible models for the acquisition and service support process.  Providing such input will not affect an organization's eligibility to respond to any subsequent solicitation(s). http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=OCI

Background NSF intends that its acquisition and support of HPC systems and services will be driven by the requirements of the science and engineering communities including their most computationally challenging needs.  Science and engineering communities will be involved in defining the requirements that guide NSF’s HPC investments.  Acquisition metrics will include levels of performance on benchmark codes that represent the types of problems for which the system will be used.  The research and education community must have access to a stable and robust production quality HPC environment hardware reliability and the dependability of system software will also be factors in the selection process.

Acquisition Context One or more HPC systems will be acquired from one or more hardware vendors with funds supplied by NSF.  One or more resource providers (RPs) will manage and operate the system(s), including providing basic user support and services.

Possible Acquisition Models 1. NSF conducts an open competition to identify an RP or RPs.  Proposals … include a description of a competitive process that the RP will use to acquire a system with funds provided by NSF.  Once RPs have been identified, each executes the process it proposed to select the system and the vendor from whom the system will be acquired.  The final award to an RP will include funds for the acquisition, through a sub-contract to the vendor, of the system identified. 2. NSF conducts an open competition inviting proposals from RP-vendor partnerships for the acquisition, management and operation of an HPC system. 3. NSF acquires a system directly from a vendor through an open competition and initiates a second competition for an RP site.

Other Topics for Discussion Metrics that might be used to define performance and reliability requirements in an acquisition process Selection criteria that might be used as a basis for proposal evaluation The strengths and weaknesses of acquiring an HPC system as a one-time purchase and/or of acquiring an HPC system in phases that meet a specified performance curve Strengths and weaknesses of alternatives such as leasing HPC systems.