The General Services Administration, Federal Technology Service (GSA-FTS), on behalf of the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP), is issuing this notice to inform industry that an initial RFQ (Phase I), for the Technology Insertion FY07 (TI-07) will be issued on or about May 12, 2006, with a subsequent one-half day information briefing on or about May 23, 2006. Read-ahead draft versions of the RFQ (without the benchmark codes) may be released as early as 21 April. The information briefing will include a general overview on the afternoon of 23 May 2006, beginning at approximately 2:00 p.m. EDT, followed by vendor-specific, one-on-one information exchange meeting and question and answer sessions individually scheduled for May 24-25. Each vendor will be allowed 30 minutes for their May 24-25 session. Issue of a final RFQ (Phase II) is anticipated on or about September 6, 2006. Phase I of the RFQ will be issued primarily to establish general pricing and related HPC technical capabilities; i.e. HPC systems, that are deliverable on or before June 2007. Phase II of the RFQ will request offerors to provided detailed pricing, configuration, performance (via a set of DoD Benchmarks), maintenance, and delivery information for one or more specific HPC system configurations to significantly improve the DoD’s HPC capability and capacity. The application benchmark codes that are anticipated to be included in the TI-07 application benchmark suite are recognized by the following names: ICEPIC, AVUS, GAMESS, CTH, HYCOM, LAMMPS, OOCore, Overflow-2, WRF. Questions can be submitted to GSA at any time during the RFQ process. Responses to the RFQ will only be considered from original equipment manufactures who: (1) have offerings obtainable via existing GSA Contracts under Schedule 70 “General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software, Services”; (2) have demonstrated success in large scale manufacturing of commercially available, production HPC systems. Furthermore, the Government financial appropriations associated with this acquisition do not permit the purchase of any supercomputer which is not manufactured in the United States; and (3) have clearances allowing access to sensitive DoD technology and facilities. Interested parties should notify Ms. Mona P. Neal via email at
[email protected], by COB May 5, 2006, indicating interest in attending the information briefing, providing proof of your ability to meet the eligibility requirements outlined above (no more than 5 pages), and identifying the representatives and their company affiliations that are requested to attend. Potential offerors meeting the above criteria are invited to review Phase I of the RFQ and subsequently attend the industry briefing at the HPC Modernization Office in Arlington, VA. Subsequent to assessing the May 5 submission, the Government will evaluate and determine eligibility. Letters of eligibility will be distributed by May 12, 2006. If the vendor is found to be eligible to participate, instructions will be given at that time addressing the scheduling of the one-on-one sessions for May 24-25, 2006. Only vendors determined to be eligible will be admitted to the May 23 information briefing and subsequent May 24-25 sessions. Attendees to the information briefing and subsequent one-on-one vendor question and answer session will be limited to four representatives per potential offeror. For more details about the HPCM Program visit the website at www.hpcmo.hpc.mil.