Los Alamos National Laboratory, PO Box 990, MS/P274, Los Alamos, NM 87545

A -- ACCELERATED STRATEGIC COMPUTING INITIATIVE (ASCI). SOL B3552RFI-3X. Contact Jane Beck, Sr. Contract Administrator, (505) 667-6081. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, operated by the University of California for the United States Department of Energy, as part of DOE's Accelerated Strategic Computing Program (which also includes Sandia National Laboratories) are jointly soliciting sources for a multi-year Research & Development Contract to accelerate the development of teraflops scale computing capability on clusters of shared memory multi-processors (SMP). This effort is part of the focused DOE Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) of the Stockpile Stewardship Program. Because of the US commitment to ending underground nuclear testing, dramatic advances in computer technology are required to make virtual testing and prototyping viable alternatives to traditional nuclear and nonnuclear test-based methods. ASCI's vision is to shift promptly to computational-based methods and through multiple Research & Development Contracts - make several orders of magnitude more computational and communications resources available to Laboratory scientists and engineers, engaged in the simulation of numerically complex processes in weapons performance, safety, reliability, and functionality analysis of the aging US stockpile. By an SMP, we mean an economical approximation of a fairly uniform memory access, shared memory, multi-processor computing platform, scalable to an economical number of processors with GigaBytes of memory per processor and TeraBytes of high speed disk storage per SMP. To economically accommodate full support of new 3-D massively parallel applications, we require that the Research & Development Contract focus on the achievement of a sustained teraflops performance for a representative Stockpile Stewardship problem on a local cluster of SMPs, a viable software-middleware environment to support large scale code development and execution and a high bandwidth, low latency cluster interconnect. A staged deployment will make new computational and communication resources available to the Laboratories at the beginning of the Research & Development Contract and at the end of each of the two technology development cycles the Contract will cover. The anticipated R&D Contract will commence in the federal government's 1996 fiscal year and is expected to extend for four years. A Request for Information (RFI) will be available via electronic medium after August 14, 1995. The format of the ASCI RFI document on the LANL Bulletin Board System is Microsoft Word 5.1. Interested parties are asked to respond to the RFI by September 11, 1995. To access the LANL Bulletin Board System (BBS) and obtain a copy of the Request for Information you will need a computer system with a phone modem and a communication software package. To access the system dial 5056652966. The following steps must be taken to download the RFI: (1) Enter your first and last name. After each name you will have to press the RTN button. (2) Enter your company name and press enter. (3) Enter your voice telephone number and press RTN. After this information is entered, you will need to answer several Computer System questions. Since each company has a different system, it is required that you know and understand your computer system prior to logging onto the system. Upon completing the system questionnaire, press ``C'' and then the RETURN (RTN). (5) Press RTN twice. At this point you should be at the MAIN MENU. (6) Press ``Q'' and answer the questions. WARNING: Failure to answer the questions will mean that your organization will not be able to download the RFI you are interested in. (7) Press the Number 1 and then RTN and answer the questions. This information is secure and the only individuals who will have access to it are LANL Contract Administrators. Please ensure the information is correct. If the information is changed, please contact the Contract Administrator identified below. This information will be used to contact your organization if there are changes to the RFI. Upon completion of the questionnaire, (8) Press F. At this point you should be at the FILE MENU. (9) Press L. For a list of RFPs/RFIs Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) that are on the System press 7 and then RTN, for a list of FORMs press 8 and then RTN, for a list of the GENERAL PROVISIONS press 9 and then RTN. For those of you who are new to the system, PRESS 7-9 and the RTN. For this ASCI RFI, all applicable information is contained in sector 7. Sector 8 (FORMS) and sector 9 (GENERAL PROVISIONS) do not apply to this RFI and need not be accessed. If you are unsure if you wish to submit a response to the RFI, you may only want to list the RFP/RFI. This will reduce the amount of time you are on the system and reduce the costs to all parties concerned. Please be advised that each company is limited to 30 minutes a day. Once the time is consumed for that day, you may not enter the system for twenty-four hours from the time when the 30th minute has been consumed. At this point a list of files which you may select will be shown on your computer. (10) Press M and RTN. Enter the number which corresponds to the document you wish to download. When you have completed ``marking'' the files, (11) Press G. Follow your communication software instructions to download the documents. Friendly reminder please ensure that you have enough disk space for the choices that you selected. You should define your destination path (ie: a:/LANL/...). If the destination path is not defined on the disk, an error will appear, and the download of your selected choices will be unsuccessful. To ensure you receive a copy of the formal ASCI Request for Proposal, you are required to submit a letter of interest via fax (505-665-6202) no later than September 11, 1995. Only those firms who submit a letter of interest to this published announcement will be put on the Bidder's List for the formal ASCI Request for Proposal. A second CBD announcement will not be issued to solicit sources for the formal ASCI RFP. We expect to issue a Request for Proposal within a matter of weeks following receipt of responses to this RFI. If you need assistance accessing the system, please contact Jane Beck at (505) 667-6081. If you are unable to successfully download the Microsoft Word document and wish to receive a paper copy of the RFI, please fax your request to Jane Beck (Fax - 505-665-6202). (222)

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