PBS Annual Technical Support

It is the intent of the National Library of Medicine to procure on a sole source basis with Altair Engineering, 1820 Big Beaver Rd, Troy, MI 48083-203, under authority FAR Part 6.302. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format under Simplified Acquisition Procedures at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6, Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Items as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation is being issued as Request for Quotations (RFQ) NIHLM2014049. This acquisition IS not a small business set-aside and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 511210. The Scientific Computer Branch (SCB) supports the Center for Information Technology's (CIT) mission by planning and managing centrally located, high performance computers specifically designated for scientific use at NIH. This includes evaluating new high performance architectures and introducing them into production work, Installing and supporting scientific application programs, Facilitating information access and distribution, supporting servers for and incorporating high performance systems into a distributed computing environment, consulting and collaborating with NIH researchers, and presenting classes and seminars relating to scientific computing. The purpose of this acquisition is to renew software support that SCB currently uses in order to maintain the batch queuing software (PBS Pro) for the NIH Biowulf cluster. PBS Pro is a batch queuing and resource allocation system used to allocated compute nodes and other resources to user jobs submitted to the NIH Biowulf compute cluster. It is a critical part of the Biowulf cluster system software, allowing jobs to be scheduled and provide them with specific requested compute resources. Software maintenance and support is required to allow new functionality, security fixes, and problem resolution for the batch system software. The purchase order term will be for a 12-month period and will be a firm fixed price purchase order. The following clauses and provisions cited herein are incorporated by reference into this solicitation and may be obtained from the web site http://rcb.cancer.gov/rcb-internet/SAP/sap.htm: FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors - Commercial (September 2006), and FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items (February 2007). Any questions can be submitted to Amy Sheib, Contract Specialist, at 301-496-6546. All information received will be considered as part of a competitive acquisition. RESPONSES ARE DUE BY 9:00 AM LOCAL PREVAILING TIME ON January 13, 2014, AND SHALL BE SENT VIA E-MAIL TO: ap370t@nih.gov. This requirement is being processed for CIT by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), NIH.