Legacy Systems SIG

The inaugural meeting of the Legacy Systems SIG was held at CUG 2008 in Helsinki at 10:10 am on Monday, May 5th.  User site attendance was sparse and included representatives from two X1 sites (Boeing and the University of Warsaw) and one XD1 site. Cray support attendance included Vito Bongiorno, Jim Harrell and Charlie Carroll.

Both Boeing and the XD1 site reported that their systems were stable and they had no particular issues to bring up. Stability has been a recent problem at Warsaw, an issue known to Cray and corrective measures are underway. Reasons for the lack of attendance were discussed. The participants suggested that both the unusual meeting time of the SIG (i.e. not at the end of a day) and confusion about the purpose and expected membership of the Legacy Systems SIG were major factors. Better prior publicity and communication with each potential member site are recommended for future meetings.

The was some question about the need for the SIG. Most of the systems are mature and stable. Sites know that there are no planned software releases and each has a plan for moving forward. It was suggested that, for a future meeting, Cray could present experiences from sites which have moved from the identified legacy systems (X1 and XD1) to their respective successor products.

Volunteers were solicited for the positions of chair and deputy chair but none were forthcoming. These positions should be filled by individuals from sites with legacy systems and an interest in developing the SIG.

Jim Kasdorf (PITTSC)
SIG Chair