Argonne has issued a Request for Information (RFI) – [No. 1-KD73-I-31583-00] – as a first step in better understanding exascale hardware possibilities for the U.S. Department of Energy. The RFI is a process that allows funding agencies to open up informal discussions – to learn more about vendor direction – and what vendors / manufacturers might be able to do. An RFI ‘could’ lead to R&D contracts or development of prototypes.You can find the Request for Information at the Federal Business Opportunities website.
Readers should note that this is an RFI – and not an RFP.
Responses, limited to 50 pages, are due on or before September 2, 2011.
As stated in the document: The purpose of this request for information (RFI) is to provide the DOE SC and the DOE NNSA Office of Defense Programs with information for responding to a request from the House Energy and Water Development subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee and for planning the DOE activities leading to the development of production exascale platforms. Among these activities will be the formation of partnerships between laboratories and industry to perform platform and crosscutting co-design and critical technologies research and development (R&D) targeted at delivering exascale computers by 2019–2020.
The survey is actually being conducted by E7. E7 is a consortium consisting of UChicago, LLC, operator of Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
For related stories, visit The Exascale Report Archives.
