Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Contracts Management Office (CMO), 3701 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22203-1714

A -- ADAPTIVE COMPUTING SYSTEMS SOL BAA 97-46 DUE 102897 POC Dr. Jose L. Munoz, DARPA/ITO, Fax: (703) 522-7161 WEB: http://www.darpa.mil, http://www.darpa.mil. E-MAIL: BAA97-46@darpa.mil, BAA97-46@darpa.mil. Adaptive Computing Systems SOL BAA 97-46 DUE 10/28/97 Dr. Jose L. Munoz, DARPA/ITO, FAX: (703) 522-7161 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting proposals for research on various aspects of reconfigurable computing in support of the DARPA Basic Research Program and the Adaptive Computing Systems (ACS) Program. This BAA solicits research to define, develop and accelerate the adoption of a new class of computing and communication system composed of configurable hardware capable of supporting system-level adaptation. The adaptation is driven by the need for optimum performance across rapidly evolving computational, environmental, and fault tolerance constraints. Unlike the microprogramming approaches of a decade ago supporting low-level software manipulation of a fixed hardware architecture, the intent of ACS is to allow software to "reach through" to a reconfigurable hardware layer and directly optimize its underlying hardware architecture. The adaptive computing program supports the notion of "composable systems" by creating the enabling hardware, architecture, languages, compilers, user friendly abstractions, development environments and runtime environments, allowing the hardware/software boundary to be fluidly redefined. A key goal of ACS is to enable the reconfiguration to occur during execution, i.e. in real-time. Research, for example, might result in systems whose hardware architecture could be instantiated "on the fly" during intermediate stages of computation, providing only the essential level of precision for maximum computational/power efficiency. Alternatively, research might identify adaptive system hardware and software architectures providing fault detection, isolation, and recovery supporting fail-soft graceful degradation in systems such as unmanned airborne systems and satellites. In the context of ACS, application domains of interest to Defense include, but are not limited to: automatic target recognition, synthetic aperture radar, signal and image processing, information security, mission planning, adaptive filtering, channel coding, adaptive waveforms, and multimedia data. Research will be considered across a broad range of technologies related to ACS. Of particular interest to this solicitation are the following technical topic areas: 1) Domain specific development environments that isolate the user from the underlying hardware and runtime infrastructure of ACS; 2) Fault tolerance: exploitation of the unique potential of ACS technology that will enable continued performance even in the presence of damage to specific areas of the device; 3) Coarse grained reconfigurable hardware, i.e. programmable components that incorporate building blocks such as multi-bit wide adders, multipliers, comparators etc.; 4) Intelligent DRAM memories, i.e. DRAM memories that contain an instruction processing capability that is programmable, enabling a new programming model where some of the program is sent to the data; 5) Configurable caches that would enable applications to precisely control the movement and placement of their data within the memory hierarchy; 6) ACS compilation technology that achieves an order of magnitude reduction in the time required, as compared to current capability, to translate software descriptions onto ACS hardware; and 7) Algorithms, approaches, or new mathematical techniques that exploit the unique capabilities of ACS technology such as variable precision arithmetic and dynamic adaptation to changes in data or in the environment for convincing Defense applications. Proposals must target and quantify revolutionary advances in one or more critical parameters that directly impact system-level application performance. Such parameters include: runtime compilation or reconfiguration time, power consumed, bandwidth, latency, mapping efficiency, throughput, portability, or algorithm development/mapping time. PROGRAM SCOPE: Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches and techniques that lead to or enable revolutionary advances in ACS state-of-the-art. Research should result in prototype hardware and software demonstrating integrated concepts and approaches on Defense-relevant applications. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvement to the existing state of practice or focuses on a specific system or hardware solution. Integrated solution sets embodying significant technological advances are strongly encouraged over narrowly defined research endeavors. Partnering arrangements among academic, industrial, and non-profit research organizations are strongly encouraged. GENERAL INFORMATION: Proposers must submit an original and six (6) copies of full proposals in time to reach DARPA by 4:00 PM (ET), Tuesday, October 28, 1997, in order to be considered. Proposers must obtain a pamphlet, BAA 97-46 Proposer Information, which provides further information on the areas of interest, submission, evaluation, funding processes and full proposal formats. This pamphlet may be obtained by fax, electronic mail, or mail request tothe administrative contact address given below, as well as at URL address http://www.ito.darpa.mil/Solicitations.html. Proposals not meeting the format described in the pamphlet may not be reviewed. This Commerce Business Daily notice, in conjunction with the pamphlet BAA 97-46 Proposer Information, constitutes the total BAA. No additional information is available, nor will a formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement be issued. Requests for same will be disregarded. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Institutions (MI) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals. However, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of this research for exclusive competition among these entities. Evaluation of proposals will be accomplished through a scientific review of each proposal using the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of relative importance: (1) overall scientific and technical merit, (2) potential contribution and relevance to DARPA mission, (3) offeror's capabilities and related experience, (4) plans and capability to accomplish technology transition, and (5) cost realism. All administrative correspondence and questions on this solicitation, including requests for information on how to submit a proposal to this BAA, must be directed to one of the administrative addresses below by 4:00 PM, Tuesday, October 21, 1997; e-mail or fax is preferred. DARPA intends to use electronic mail and fax for some of the correspondence regarding BAA 97-46 . Proposals may not be submitted by fax; any so sent will be disregarded. The administrative addresses for this BAA are: Fax: 703-522-7161 Addressed to: DARPA/ITO, BAA 97-46, Electronic Mail: BAA97-46@darpa.mil, Electronic File Retrieval: http://www.ito.darpa.mil/Solicitations.html, Mail: DARPA/ITO, ATTN: BAA 97-46, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714 (0251)

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