U.S. Department of Commerce, Acquisition Services, 14th & Constitution Ave., N.W., Room 6516, Washington, D.C. 20230

70 -- HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR WEATHER FORECASTING SOL 52-SANW-8-00001 DUE 010898 POC Julie Hart (202-482-3483) WEB: Class VIII Computing System Acquisition, http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/CONOPS. In early December, the Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Services (NWS) plans to release a Request for Proposals (RFP). The RFP will be for equipment and services to meet its requirement for general purpose, high speed, large capacity computing, data storage, and networking to support numerical weather prediction at its National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) in Suitland, Maryland. Copies of the RFP will be available only via the Internet at (http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/CONOPS). This website will be referred to as the "acquisition website." This acquisition will be conducted using a new streamlined acquisition process described in a document entitled "Department of Commerce Acquisition Process Case for Change." The document is located on the Internet (http://www.CONOPS.doc.gov). The government anticipates awarding a contract in March with system delivery by the end of June 1998. The contract period of performance will be approximately four years, including options. Release of the RFP will begin Phase II of this acquisition. On October 16, the Department of Commerce posted a CBD announcement on CBDNet explaining that the government would conduct this acquisition via the Internet in two phases: a market research phase and a procurement phase. A copy of that announcement is posted on the acquisition website. Please monitor the website for the release of the RFP as it will only be available via the Internet. This acquisition will be a commercial items acquisition using Part 12 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). Written proposals and oral presentations will be used. The acquisition website contains benchmarks (Eta 29, Eta 32, Global 170 and Global 254) that will be used in this competition. An offeror's first submission, the written proposal, shall include a certification of the times achieved in running the benchmarks. The benchmarks will be accessible via the RFP link on the acquisition website prior to the release of the RFP. Vendors are encouraged to begin working on the benchmarks as soon as possible. The government anticipates scheduling oral presentations between January 14 and January 30, 1998, for offerors who meet the written proposal deadline and remain in the competition. The government intends to conduct live test demonstrations during the last two weeks of February 1998. Scheduling will be at the government's discretion. Numbered Note 26. (0323)

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