A--Title: Support Infrastructure for the Army High Performance Computing Research Center

NA RFP DAAD19-02-R-0008 POC Richard, etc. Title: Support Infrastructure for the Army High Performance Computing Research Center The US Army has made a significant investment in basic and applied research utilizing High Performance Computing (HPC) and its application as well as the infrastructure to support such research. This was underscored by the establishment, in 1989, and the continued sustainment thereafter of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center (the Center), at the University of Minnesota. Army investments in HPC have resulted in the increasing utilization of computer based modeling and simulation by the Army scientific and engineering community. These investments have also created a steady source of well-trained scientists and engineers in this critical area. The establishment of the Center was and shall continue to be the embodiment of the Army's support o f the broader national effort to maintain U.S. leadership in computing technology and its application to issues critical to U.S. national security. The Army High Performance Computing Research Center Program, hereinafter called - the program, consists of two components: (1) a research component in computational sciences and engineering and (2) an infrastructure support component. The research compon ent is being performed under a cooperative agreement that was awarded in August 2001 to the University of Minnesota and a team of partner institutions comprised of the University of North Dakota and Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Ins titutions (HBCU/MIs); that include Clark Atlanta University, Florida A&M University, Howard University, and Jackson State University. The research component covers three technical research areas related to computational sciences and engineering, which incl ude: Interdisciplinary Computational Research (i.e. research involving more than one scientific discipline); Algorithms and Software Technology; and Enabling Technologies. This synopsis describes the intent of the Army to issue a solicitation for the establishment of a contract for the continuation of the infrastructure support component. Currently, Network Computing Services (NCS), Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota is under cont ract for the support infrastructure component of the program. The infrastructure support component effort consists of (1) operating, maintaining and supporting existing HPC resources with security considerations; (2) identifying, acquiring, installing and integrating novel HPC resources; developing and administering a Staff Scientist Program to support university researchers under the cooperative agreement and also Army scientists; and promoting technology exchange through training, publications and other outreach efforts to exploit HPC resources. The contractor is required to provide a core site to house the HPC resources (except for those HPC resources located at the cooperative agreement partner institutions.) The Government will deliver the existing HPC resources to the successful offeror. The contractor will be responsible for, and must assume the cost of, preparing the core site and installing and integrating these HPC resources into an operational computing environment. The HPC resources to be operated, maintained and supported include: a 10 88 node SGI/Cray T3E-1200E (located at the facility of the current contractor, NCS); IBM RS/6000 SPs located one each at Clark Atlanta, Florida A&M, Howard and Jackson State Universities and a Cray SV1ex at Jackson State University. All these systems are l inked via a private T-1 network. The environment is connected to the Defense Research and Engineering Network by a DS-3 link. The graphics and visualization facilities are connected to the T3E by high speed fiber optic based networks. The SGI/Cray T3E-120 0E and the visualization facilities are operated with centralized configuration management. [NOTE: A complete listing of the HPC resources to be provided a s Government Furnished Property (GFP) under the resulting contract will be included in the solicitation. This listing will include the GFP at the cooperative agreement partner institutions identified above.] These systems have the same operating policies, security policies, username structure, accounting procedures/reports, and systems administration philosophy. All systems support HPF, Fortran 90, MPI and a common debugger. Portability of applications from one system to another requires little or no re -programming effort or user retraining. Access to the systems is provided through user-generated scripts or a web-based interface. Computing systems are required to be operated and available 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, less scheduled and unsche duled maintenance. Network and systems support staff are provided on-site and on-call to deal with issues expediently as they arise. The contractor will be required to have a Secret facility clearance. Users are required to have successfully completed a Na tional Agency Check (NAC). Also under this contract, the contractor shall be required to identify, procure, install and integrate, novel/new High Performance Computing (HPC) hardware/software. The contractor shall be required to provide high level staff scientists to support Army researchers and scientists in exploiting the research performed under the cooperative agreement. Staff scientists must have advanced degrees in technical disciplines, e.g. computer science, physical sciences, chemistry, engineering with specialized expertise in High Performance Computing. Expertise is required to be in one or more of the following: advanced algorithmic development and/or modeling in their respective sp ecialized computational areas; programming including parallel and object oriented; HPC enabling technologies; and scientific visualization on state-of-the-art scalable systems. The contractor shall be required to promote technology exchange through, training, publication, education and other outreach efforts to exploit the HPC resources. This acquisition is being conducted using full & open competition, resulting in the award of an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract under which task orders will be issued for the required effort. Task Orders may be issued on a Cost-Pl us-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) or Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) basis. The period of performance for the contract will be four years with a ceiling amount of $98,000,000.00. Award will be made on a best value basis, with award to the offeror whose proposal is considered mo st advantageous to the Government. Formal source selection procedures will be used for this acquisition. The solicitation will be posted to http://www.aro.army.mil/research/index.htm#fund on or about 13 August 2002. A Pre-Proposal Conference will be held Tuesday, 27 August 2002, 10:00am local time, at the current contractor's facility (NCS), in Minneapolis, MN. The purpose of this conference is to provide potential offerors an opportunity to view the existing HPC resources under the current contract and the current support infrastructure component operations. Information will also be provided concerning the research component. Potential offerors must pre-register with the Contract Specialist, Richard Burkes, by 22 August 2002 in order to attend this conference. Mr. Burkes can be reached at +1 (555) 000-0000, or contact@example.gov. The conference is exp ected to last not more than three hours. Attendance at the Pre-Proposal Conference is limited to 2 people from each organization. Presentations and information presented at the Pre-Proposal Conference will be posted at the website listed above for those that cannot attend or would like to have a copy of this information.