U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/OFA/AGFS/AMD -- OFA51, 1305 East West Highway -- Station 7604, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

70 -- HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTER SYSTEM SOL 52-DDNR-9-90039 DUE 032299 POC William L. Voitk, Contracting Officer (301) 713-0839 ext 185 WEB: Copies of the RFP will be available at this site -, http://www.rdc.noaa.gov/~amd/SOLINDEX.HTML. 70 -- The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), intends to acquire a High Performance Computer System (HPCS) for its Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL) in Boulder, CO. The system life for the HPCS is projected to be five years with support services extending an additional two years. The HPCS will be used to run existing and newly developed FSL advanced atmospheric models as well as models developed by other NOAA components and laboratories. FSL seeks a balanced system including a mass storage system, network attached disk, communications interfaces, test platforms (if necessary), and the computational platform. At a minimum, the acquisition will include an initial system and a final system. The initial system will be a significant system that meets or exceeds the performance characteristics cited in the Statement of Need. The final system will provide a significant upgrade over the initial system and will be in place no later than 42 months into the contract. Additional interim upgrades may be considered. FSL's goal is to acquire the maximum computational capability for the available funding. The project funding profile for the five year system life is available in a document entitled "Project Agreement for the Acquisition of the High Performance Computing System for the Forecast Systems Laboratory". This document is available at http://hpcs.fsl.noaa.gov/ProjectAgreement.html . Offerors may propose any method of acquisition or financing arrangement with the knowledge that the Government desires to own the system at the conclusion of the base period of the contract (after the fifth year). Proposal of acquisition alternatives should be consistent with the funding profiles cited in the RFP. This acquisition also includes requirements for a mass storage system (MSS), applications and systems software, on-site training, on-site technical support, and hardware/software maintenance support. The MSS should initially have a capacity of at least 100 Tbytes of near-line storage with growth to a total capacity of at least 250 Tbytes by final system delivery. FSL requires application and systems software and tools to support development and ease system administration. The Government will also require on-site training on the HPCS which will include thorough familiarization of the FSL staff in system administration and application programming. Also, the Government requires a minimum of one on-site software system analyst knowledgeable about HPCS administration and application programming. In addition, this software system analyst is expected to provide the necessary ongoing, long-term liaison between the prime contractor and FSL on a wide range of technical, maintenance, and upgrade issues. Furthermore, the Government anticipates a need for continued hardware/software maintenance and on-site technical support services beyond the five year system life. Accordingly, the requirement will include annual options for an additional two years of hardware/software maintenance and software system analyst support. Also included is an option for the acquisition of additional workstations for visualization, application software development and testing, and cross development. This acquisition will be conducted using a streamlined process described in a document entitled "Department of Commerce Acquisition Process Case for Change." The document is located at on the Internet at the following site: http://www.CONOPS.doc.gov . The Government anticipates awarding a contract in June 1999 with system delivery in August 1999. The contract period of performance will be five years with annual options for two additional years for hardware/software maintenance and software system analyst support. A milestone schedule and related information (e.g., Project Agreement, source list, RFI, etc.) for this acquisition can be found at http://hpcs.fsl.noaa.gov . Copies of the RFP will be available via the internet at the following site: http://www.rdc.noaa.gov/~amd/SOLINDEX.HTML. Please monitor this website for release of the RFP. Printed copies of the RFP will not be provided unless specifically requested in writing to the Contracting Officer. Companies that responded to either a previous sources sought synopsis appearing in the July 9, 1998 issue of the CBD or the RFI appearing in the September 4, 1998 issue will be notified by e-mail message of the RFP's release. Posted 02/11/99 (W-SN297354). (0042)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0358 19990216\70-0006.SOL)