wouk@BRL.MIL (Arthur Wouk,Army Research Office,919-549-0641) (11/21/88)
[ Real long lines in this. Steve] The following announcement is currently appearing the the Commerce Busi- ness Daily. Please take it seriously and call it to the attention of your insti- tution. This is a very substantial procurement of research, associated support- ing hardware, operations, training and maintenance, comparable in SOME, (but not all) ways to the NSF Supercomputing Centers. ARMY HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING RESEARCH CENTER The Army requires the establishment of an Army High Performance Comput- ing Research Center (AHPCRC). This is a three part requirement consisting of research in High Performance Computing, the acquisition of equipment and software to perform that research, and user support in High Performance Comput- ing. The research and analysis will address issues appropriate to near term High Performance Computing, including current Army supercomputer needs, as well as long term issues, and will provide a basis for advanced computing techniques within the Army. The research will involve both systems programming and appli- cations programming with interdisciplinary research in the efficient utilization of current advanced performance computers, networks of current computers, and newly emerging architectures. The research will concentrate on the development of advanced algorithms and software technology, focusing on well chosen thrusts in mathematics, computer science and various associated fields, which contribute to the needs of multiple Army agencies, without duplicating the work of a specific Army research activity. Such focused areas will include: simulation of physical phenomena and the efficient accurate solution of the equations which govern their behavior, investigation of very large data bases and information retrieval, visualization and related interactive methods, data analysis, numerical analysis, implementation of algorithms and software in a multiplicity of computing environments, and optimal interfaces in emerging heterogeneous parallel computing environments. The period of performance for the research effort is five years. The contractor shall acquire advanced computing systems to support the required research. This requirement involves the acquisition of emerging alternative technology and related peripherals, for the most advanced state-of-the-art high performance computing technology. The systems will be installed at the contractor's facility. As a part of this requirement the contractor shall pro- vide operation and user support consisting of operation and maintenance of these systems including supporting software and other equipment required to support a multi-user computing research environment, initial training, and communications interfaces and user support. User support will be provided to both local and remote users, including appropriate users from Government facilities. On-site user support services directly related to the Army's production supercomputers will be provided at two current and one planned Army supercomputer centers as well as up to three remote sites. The period of performance for the user support services is a basic requirement of one year with four options for additional one year periods of support. A Pre-Solicitation Conference is planned for 16 December 1988, 9:00 a.m., in the auditorium of the Department of the Army, Harry Diamond Labora- tories, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, MD 20783. Prospective offerors who in- tend to attend the Pre-Solicitation Conference should so advise the Contact Point. This is a competitive procurement with competition limited to education- al institutions or consortiums of educational institutions. No telephone re- quests for the solicitation will be accepted. Contact Point: Patty Cannan, (202) 394-1088, Contracting Officer, Patricia Silsby, (202) 394-3438 RFP DAAL02-89-R-9029