SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 SFF Committee documentation may be purchased in hard copy or electronic form. SFF specifications are available at ftp://ftp.seagate.com/sff SFF COMMITTEE CHARTER Rev 2.6 November 12, 2012 The SFF Charter was approved and adopted in February, 1993. Progress since then has occurred in many areas and some suggestions have been received on improvements. Some of the suggestions have been incorporated into this revision of the charter. Change History 11/26/10 Added requiring editors to advise new projects over the reflector. 3/17/11 Modified paragraph requiring editors to advise new projects over the reflector with alternative of providing a Rev 0.0 draft to the ftp site. Added paragraph on titling of specifications. Expanded procedures to include current practise of hosting teleconsor webex-type gatherings to hold SSWGs. 4/11/11 As per March meeting, require use of popular name in abstracts. 11/11/12 Added definition that a week consists of five working days. SCOPE The SFF Committee is an industry consortium formed in 1990 to address technical issues related to the storage industry in a timely fashion. The original effort aimed at fostering broad consensus on industry issues related to form factors. As product and interface variations proliferated in the marketplace during 1992 the SFF Committee shifted towards resolving specific items of general interest, not just form factors. Manufacturers and customers can use the SFF Committee as a neutral ground where any issue of industry concern can be discussed. The intent is for customers to be able to procure compatible, multi-sourced products. As it can be difficult to achieve consensus in the short run, published material will indicate on which side of an issue a member has voted. The SFF Committee is not attempting to replace the development process of existing standards projects but to complement it by addressing issues which may not be address by the standards process, or where there is no standards project activity. The SFF Committee and/or SSWGs (Specific Subject Working Groups) meet in conjunction with related industry activities e.g. during the INCITS (InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards) T10 and T11 meeting weeks or are hosted by member companies. Announcements for any activities are posted at least 30 days in advance. SFF Committee Charter Page 1 SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 STRUCTURE An annual fee is assessed each participating organization. An organization may be a company, an individual, or a division of a company. Each participating organization assigns a named representative as the voting member and primary contact. If the member is not a full-time employee of the participating organization a letter from the participating organization is required before privileges of membership are allowed. A member may attend any meeting; may request the floor to speak at meetings; may invite an observer to speak; and may vote at any meeting where they are the designated name representative. As the primary contact for his organization, the named representative is responsible for: - voting - proposing projects on behalf of his organization - distributing the SFF mailing within his organization - notifying other individuals in the organization about SFF announcements - responding to the letter ballots held for SFF Specifications and subjects of broad interest An organization which wants more than one employee to receive SFF announcements and mailings may obtain additional copies of documentation by paying the Observer fee for each set. Any participating organization may propose a development project. When a project number is assigned, the requesting member is responsible to either advise the number, title and abstract of the planned specification over the SFF Reflector or submit a Rev 0.0 draft for posting to the ftp site. The titling is required to follow a format consistent with that of other specifications of a like type e.g. in the case of connectors that would be name, speed, number of channels/ports, and type (connector, cage, etc). The abstract for a specification is required to include the marketing name, popular name, or other generic name(s) by which it is known. If there is sufficient interest from other members, a Specific Subject Working Group (SSWG) will be established to develop the document. When a SSWG deems the work to be completed and the document stable, it is submitted to the SFF named representatives for approval. Following letter ballot approval by the members, the document is made available for distribution by the SFF Committee as an SFF Specification. Organizations that desire to monitor the activities of the SFF Committee, but not actively participate may do so by purchasing a documentation subscription. Such organizations are referred to as Observer organizations and the participants referred to as observers. Observers are welcome to attend meetings, but have limited privileges: - no voting - cannot propose projects SFF Committee Charter Page 2 SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 - may speak only if invited to do so by a member When references are made to a week, that represents five working days, and reference to a month represents 20 working days. SPECIFIC SUBJECT WORKING GROUP (SSWG) A SSWG (pronounced 'swig') is authorized by the SFF Committee to study an issue, develop draft SFF Specifications, or pursue any specific activity authorized by the SFF Committee. Each SSWG has a SSWG leader who is responsible for calling the working groups, providing minutes, and completion of the draft document. Once authorized, a SSWG meets at the discretion of its leader. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, a SSWG must be announced at least two weeks prior to its occurrence. The cancellation of a SSWG must be announced at least five working days prior to meeting. The SSWG leader is responsible to: - maintain the draft SFF Specification - provide an agenda and keep minutes - distribute the minutes to SSWG participants - provide documents submitted to the SSWG plus minutes as a package for the SFF mailing. - transmit notice of SSWGs over the reflector about group activities. Exceptions: - Telecon SSWGs may be called with less notice in order to cover issues which need to be addressed expeditiously. - A SSWG may choose not to keep minutes until a member, or a participant in the SSWG makes a complaint about their absence. To gather the email addresses of those on telecon SSWGs, the general announcement over the reflector may require responses to the host in order to be advised of the dial in arrangements of the telecon or web conference. Those who cannot attend but are interested in the content may respond to receive minutes. The effort to co-ordinate a SSWG should not be a burden on the leader. In the event that assistance is needed to organize meetings or distribute meeting notices, it will be provided by ENDL. MANAGEMENT The management and support services required by the SFF Committee are provided by ENDL. These services are the basis for membership fee calculations. The list of services may be amended by the SFF Committee subject to a revision in the assessed fee. Support Services: - Provide ftp copies of SFF Specifications. - Act as an industry spokesman on behalf of members. - Provide a 24-hour voice mail service for information on SFF. - Contract for technical editing services as needed on SFF Specifications. SFF Committee Charter Page 3 SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 - Maintain the SFF Committee records of membership and documents. - Provide the chairman and secretarial services for SFF Committee meetings. - Utilize the website to make information available about SFF and provide access to minutes for member companies. - Actively promote the SFF Committee by encouraging articles on the SFF Committee and SFF Specifications in trade publications. - Prepare a mailing of appropriate documents and materials and distribute to members and observers at least two weeks prior to each SFF Committee meeting. Operating Procedures: - Funds received are deposited to the account of the SFF Committee, where they are held in escrow. - Interest received on the funds in escrow are compounded in the account. Fees: Member $ 1,800 Observer $ 300 Overseas Observer $ 400 CD_Access Mailing Delta $ 360 The Member and Observer fees include meeting documentation, which contains: - Minutes for the current meeting cycle. - Copies of Specifications revised during the current meeting cycle. The CD_Access Electronic documentation contains: - Minutes for the year-to-date plus all of last year - Email traffic for the year-to-date plus all of last year - The current revision of all the SFF Specifications, as well as any previous revisions distributed during the current year. - Each CD_Access Electronic mailing obsoletes the previous mailing of that year e.g. July replaces May. A complete set of archives of all SFF documentation can be built by retaining the last SFF CD_Access mailing of each year. Public Access: The website is at www.sffcommittee.org Specifications are available at ftp://ftp.seagate.com/sff PROJECTS SFF specifications typically originate in SSWGs (Specific Subject Working Groups) that are authorized to meet and share information with the objective of producing a specification. Attendance at SSWGs is open to all members of the SFF Committee, and the following rules of conduct apply: - Leaders of SSWGs shall be members of the SFF Committee. - Editors of SFF Specifications shall be members of the SFF Committee. - Except in extraordinary circumstances, a SSWG shall be announced to all SFF members at least 2 weeks (4 weeks if held outside the United States) prior to the meeting date. Notification by email or reflector is an acceptable means of notice. - When a SSWG makes a recommendations to the SFF Committee, it may be SFF Committee Charter Page 4 SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 accompanied by a minority report from the members who are not in favor. - Only members of the SFF Committee can vote on forwarding recommendations, and only SFF members can present proposals. - SSWGs can make recommendations to the next meeting of the SFF Committee for acceptance or rejection. SFF SPECIFICATIONS An SFF Specification does not have a requirement for consensus to justify publication. A technical error can cause a Specification to delay until the error is corrected, unless it is an unresolvable issue between members e.g. a dimension difference. The omission of a dimension is a technical error which would cause a delay to include it, and a re-balloting. A Specification is eligible for Publishing when all of the outstanding technical issues have been addressed and the requisite letters of compliance with SFF-8060 SFF Committee Patent Policy have been received. Members may participate in developing a Specification and then vote against it for Publication on political or marketing or some other grounds. These are not sufficient to prevent publication e.g. an SFF Specification may be published with only one member in favor if it is technically accurate. Readers of a Specification can judge its value based on content and the degree of support indicated on the second page of the Specification. Voting: Companies which vote support of, or opposition to, an SFF Specification are identified in the early pages of the specification. OEMs and other parties interested in knowing what combination of functions and features are supported by which vendors may use SFF specifications to help form a judgment on what they prefer (there may be more than one specification to address similar problems). The general sequence of developing an SFF Specification is: - Documented proposal submitted by a member. or SSWG proposed to address an industry issue under leadership of a member. - Members vote on the proposal and if accepted, the proposal becomes a Development project. - A document is prepared for members to critique and a vote is balloted. If accepted, it becomes an Approved project and control of the document moves from the SSWG leader to the Chairman of the SFF Committee. - Editorial and technical changes as a result of member comments result in a revision prepared for balloting prior to Publication. - If accepted, the Specification is Published. Not all SFF Specifications reach publication because members can vote to Forward a specification at any time in the SFF process. If the members choose to Forward a submitted proposal or a specification in Development directly to a standards organization, the vote does not imply the members feel the document is complete, but that it is more in the realm of another activity. The SFF Committee is not constrained from preparing an SFF Specification in the event that the standards organization rejects the SFF Committee Charter Page 5 SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 submittal or changes it substantively. If a specification is Forwarded, the it remains available through the SFF Committee until the content is included in a dpANS or until the members vote to Expire it. Standardization: An SFF Specification can become a standard through EIA (Electronic Industries Association), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) and/or INCITS (InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards). - Connectors: EIA and IEC - Form Factors: EIA - Interfaces: INCITS SFF Committee Charter Page 6 SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 BALLOTING PROCEDURE The purpose of an Approval ballot is to find out if there are any technical objections to a development or submitted specification. If there are no technical objections it signifies general agreement with the content. An Approved specification may be subject to editorial and technical changes to ready it for Publication ballot. An Approval ballot will fail if as few as one valid negative technical comment is received. The specification will have to be corrected prior to another Approval ballot. The ballot to Publish provides members the opportunity to review the specification and ensure that it is suitable for public distribution. This is a political ballot i.e. a member opposed to a specification may have voted Yes on the technical content being valid during the Approval ballot but can express it's opposition to distribution with a No vote. Members which had previously voted but not on Publication have their last vote recorded on the Support page of the Specification. The Status shown below is that of the Specification prior to a ballot. Time zero begins after a Specification has been prepared through SSWG or committee activities. Although the minimum time between Approval and Publication is 2 months, there may be several Edited Revision cycles before a Specification is Published if editorial or technical changes continue to be received. Simple Procedure: Status Time Development revision balloted to Approve D 0 Edited Revision balloted to Publish A 2 months Published Specification Status P 4 months If a major technical change to an Approved Specification is adopted by the members, the Specification reverts to Development status and the balloting cycle is repeated to Approve it prior to Publication. The time to Publication is longer when there are Technical Changes. Status Time Development revision balloted to Approve D 0 Edited Revision balloted to Publish A 2 months Technical changes received, revert to Development D Development revision balloted to Approve D 4 months Edited Revision balloted to Publish A 6 months Published Specification Status P 8 months An alternative that may be pursued is to have a major technical change cause the status to revert to Development but combine the Approval and Publication ballot into a single vote. The choice of the procedure followed is a judgment call by the Chairman and the members present at an SFF Committee meeting. Alternative Procedure: Status Time Development revision balloted to Approve D 0 Edited Revision balloted to Publish A 2 months Technical changes received, revert to Development D Edited revision balloted to Publish D 4 months Published Specification Status P 6 months The shortest time to modify/correct a specification is when the editor of a Published specification submits a new revision. Such changes typically reflect SFF Committee Charter Page 7 SFF-8030 Rev 2.6 actual usage/implementation experience as identified in a section titled Revision History. The new revision is posted at least two weeks prior to the meeting. An advice over the reflector provides members with time to evaluate the changes and decide whether a Publications ballot is suitable. Editor-Initiated Procedure: Status Time Published spec revised and posted D -2 weeks Revision balloted to Publish P 0 Published Specification Status P 2 months SFF Committee Charter Page 8