UCAR RFI R17-17364



University Corporation for Atmospheric ResearchRequest for Information R17-17364NWSC-2a: Next Generation Data Analysis, Visualization and ML/DL SystemNWSC-2b: Many-Core, Accelerator, Alternate Processor SystemNWSC-2c: Flash/SSD Based Shared Data Storage SystemReleased: 27 February 2017Contents TOC \o "1-3" 1REQUEST PAGEREF _Toc475966052 \h 31.1Scope of this RFI PAGEREF _Toc475966053 \h 32INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONDENTS PAGEREF _Toc475966054 \h 42.1Response Due Date and Time PAGEREF _Toc475966055 \h 42.2Questions Due Date and Time PAGEREF _Toc475966056 \h 42.3Response Submission PAGEREF _Toc475966057 \h 42.4Response Content and Format PAGEREF _Toc475966058 \h 42.5Expenses Related to Response Submission PAGEREF _Toc475966059 \h 52.6Proprietary or Confidential Information PAGEREF _Toc475966060 \h 52.7Export Controlled Information PAGEREF _Toc475966061 \h 52.8R17-17364 RFI Website PAGEREF _Toc475966062 \h 52.9RFI and anticipated RFP Schedule PAGEREF _Toc475966063 \h 52.10Cost Factors PAGEREF _Toc475966064 \h 63REQUEST FOR TECHNICAL INFORMATION PAGEREF _Toc475966065 \h 73.1NWSC-2a Data Analysis, Visualization and Machine/Deep Learning System PAGEREF _Toc475966066 \h 73.1.1NWSC-2a System Objective PAGEREF _Toc475966067 \h 73.1.2NWSC-2a Hardware Attributes PAGEREF _Toc475966068 \h 73.1.3NWSC-2a Software Attributes PAGEREF _Toc475966069 \h 93.1.4NWSC-2a Advanced Technologies PAGEREF _Toc475966070 \h 93.1.5NWSC-2a System Longevity and Maintenance PAGEREF _Toc475966071 \h 103.2NWSC-2b Many-Core, Accelerator, Alternate Processor System PAGEREF _Toc475966072 \h 103.2.1NWSC-2b System Objective PAGEREF _Toc475966073 \h 103.2.2NWSC-2b Hardware Attributes PAGEREF _Toc475966074 \h 113.2.3NWSC-2b Software Attributes PAGEREF _Toc475966075 \h 113.2.4NWSC-2b Advanced Technologies PAGEREF _Toc475966076 \h 123.2.5NWSC-2b System Longevity and Maintenance PAGEREF _Toc475966077 \h 123.3NWSC-2c Flash/SSD Based Shared Data Storage System PAGEREF _Toc475966078 \h 133.3.1NWSC-2c System Objective PAGEREF _Toc475966079 \h 133.3.2NWSC-2c Hardware Attributes PAGEREF _Toc475966080 \h 133.3.3NWSC-2c Software Attributes PAGEREF _Toc475966081 \h 143.3.4NWSC-2c Advanced Technologies PAGEREF _Toc475966082 \h 143.3.5NWSC-2c System Longevity and Maintenance PAGEREF _Toc475966083 \h 143.4NCAR GLADE Connectivity PAGEREF _Toc475966084 \h 154REFERENCES PAGEREF _Toc475966085 \h 151REQUESTThe University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), on behalf of the Computational Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is issuing this Request for Information (RFI), R17-17364, for technologies related to three separate high-performance computing and storage resources:a next-generation data analysis and visualization system, an experimental, research and development computational system comprised of emerging many-core, accelerator, and/or alternate processor technologies, anda flash/SSD based high-performance shared data storage subsystem.These new systems, hereinafter referred to as NWSC-2a, NWSC-2b and NWSC-2c, respectively, are anticipated for procurement during the 2017 calendar year and installation either in late CY2017 or early CY2018. Each of these systems is to be installed at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer Center (NWSC) [1]. The NWSC-2a and NWSC-2c systems are anticipated to be production-quality, operational systems serving the broad scientific community served by NCAR, while NWSC-2b is anticipated to initially be an experimental, research and development exploratory platform for porting and testing NCAR’s key applications which will be transitioned from experimentation into production during its lifetime.The systems will be housed in the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer Center, in Cheyenne, WY, and each is expected to have an operational lifetime of six years after successful acceptance testing. Each of the systems must support integration with NCAR’s existing Globally Accessible Data Environment (GLADE), which utilizes the IBM Spectrum Scale (formerly GPFS) file system, and NCAR’s HPSS-based data rmation regarding NWSC-2a, NWSC-2b and NWSC-2c technologies must be submitted in accordance with the Instructions to Respondents below. 1.1Scope of this RFIThis RFI provides insights to prospective technology providers regarding NCAR’s anticipated need for special-purpose resources to augment its NWSC high-performance computational and data storage environment [2]. As an information-gathering tool, this RFI solicits information from prospective providers for technologies which will provide leading edge solutions in the late 2017 and/or early 2018 (calendar) timeframe for three separate systems, and will guide CISL in developing each of the systems’ technical specifications in subsequent RFP(s). UCAR anticipates the release of one or more RFP(s) for the solicitation and acquisition of the NWSC-2a, NWSC-2b, and NWSC-2c systems later this year.This RFI is self-contained; that is, it is wholly comprised of this document and its references.2INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONDENTSRespondents should submit responses to this RFI as described in the following subsections.2.1Response Due Date and TimeResponses to RFI R17-17364 are due by 15:00 MDT on Friday, April 7, 2017. 2.2Questions Due Date and TimeAll questions concerning RFI R17-17364 must be submitted, via email, to the attention of the UCAR Manager of Subcontracts/Procurement listed below by 15:00 MST on Friday, March 10, 2017. All questions with corresponding answers will subsequently be distributed to all prospective Respondents via the RFI’s website, referenced below.2.3Response SubmissionThe Respondent shall submit one (1) electronic copy of the response to RFI R17-17364, with any supplemental material, via email to the UCAR Manager of Subcontracts/Procurement as indicated below. If the RFI response exceeds 20 MBytes, it shall be submitted in parts via multiple, enumerated emails. All materials must be submitted in an electronic form by the Respondent and received by the UCAR Manager of Subcontracts/Procurement no later than the response due date and time specified above.UCAR Manager of Subcontracts/ProcurementAlison Propes Emailapropes@ucar.eduPhone1-303-497-88772.4Response Content and FormatThe Respondent should provide a single document describing the product(s) that will meet the specifications described, and providing the information requested, in Sections 3 and 4, below. Acceptable formats for electronic submission of response materials are Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, GIF, PNG and JPG.The response must be clear, complete, readily legible, and conform to the following requirements:Each section of the response should identify the corresponding section(s) and bullet numbering of this RFI.The total page count for the response should not exceed one hundred (100) printed pages and shall use a common typeface at a font size of 11 points or larger. A font size of less than 11 points may be used for mathematical formulas or equations, figure, table or diagram captions, and when using a symbol font to insert Greek letters or special characters. The Respondent is cautioned, however, that the text must still be legible when printed.No more than six lines of text within a vertical space of one inch when , side and bottom page margins (which may include page headers and footers) must be at least one inch.A double-sided sheet is considered two pages.Page limits include attachments, appendices, and all supplementary documentation.2.5Expenses Related to Response SubmissionUCAR will not pay any expense incurred in the preparation or delivery of any information submitted in response to this RFI.2.6Proprietary or Confidential InformationAny information in the RFI response that is considered proprietary, trade secrets, commercial or financial information that is privileged, confidential or of a personal nature must be specifically marked and identified as such. Marking every page in the response as proprietary or confidential is not a recommended way to do this.2.7Export Controlled InformationResponses that contain export controlled technical information must be clearly identified with the appropriate ITAR or EAR classification. Where possible, export controlled technical information should be separated from the rest of the response and included as an appendix and flagged with the appropriate identifying classification. If separation is not possible, the section(s) of the response that contain export controlled technical data shall be flagged as export controlled, with appropriate identifying classification. Marking every page in the response as export controlled is not a recommended way to do this.2.8R17-17364 RFI WebsiteThis RFI, and all information related to it, including any amendments, forms and other files to be used in preparing and submitting responses, is available at . The NWSC-2abc website will be used, in addition to email notification(s) from the UCAR Manager of Subcontracts/Procurement, for communications by UCAR to prospective Respondents regarding this RFI and any subsequent RFP(s).2.9RFI and anticipated RFP ScheduleThe following table provides the dates that Respondents should use for planning purposes. UCAR may make changes to this schedule at any time in its sole discretion.MilestoneDayDateRFI issuedMondayFebruary 27, 2017RFI clarification questions, if any, due to UCAR15:00 MST FridayMarch 10, 2017RFI clarification questions and UCAR answers distributed to prospective Respondents via RFI websiteFridayMarch 17, 2017RFI responses due to UCAR15:00 MDT FridayApril 7, 2017Release of NWSC-2a, b, c RFP(s)-Estimated:June 2017 or laterNWSC-2a, b, c Proposal Due Date-Estimated:2 months after RFP release dateInstallation of NWSC-2a,c systems-Estimated:January 2018Installation of NWSC-2b systemEstimated: March-April 20182.10Cost FactorsUCAR anticipates that the available lifetime funding for the NWSC-2a, NWSC-2b and NWSC-2c hardware, software and services, to be acquired via a subsequent RFP(s), will total approximately $4 million US.For this RFI, Respondents shall provide pricing information (as requested in the sections below) for the all system components, including hardware and software, that the Respondent describes in response to this RFI and an estimate for maintenance and support services in sufficient detail to allow UCAR to perform budgetary analyses for variously sized and architected system configurations.3REQUEST FOR TECHNICAL INFORMATIONThis request for technical information is broken into three separate sections covering the general attributes of each of the NWSC-2a, NWSC-2b and NWSC-2c systems. Respondents are invited to provide information for one, all, or any combination of the three systems as appropriate to the Respondent’s product offerings and roadmap.3.1NWSC-2a Data Analysis, Visualization and Machine/Deep Learning SystemData analysis, visualization, post-processing and Machine Learning/Deep Learning (ML/DL) workloads require substantial computational and memory resources, as well as excellent bandwidth to data storage resources. The following subsections describe the general attributes CISL anticipates for the NWSC-2a system and its connectivity with the NWSC computational and data storage environment and request information regarding the technologies the Respondent might propose.3.1.1NWSC-2a System ObjectiveThe NWSC-2a system is intended to be a production data analysis, visualization and ML/DL resource for the NCAR community. This system will replace NCAR’s current DAV systems, Geyser and Caldera [4], be used primarily to process and visualize data generated by the Cheyenne supercomputer system [3][5] and for the evaluation and development of Machine Learning/Deep Learning (ML/DL) analysis applications in the geosciences, and be connected to and interoperate with NCAR’s GLADE file systems (see Section 3.4 and [6]).3.1.2NWSC-2a Hardware AttributesThe NWSC-2a system is envisioned to be a cluster of semi-autonomous nodes which may, on occasion, run multi-node MPI-based and parallel ML/DL applications. Nodes shall support running applications both interactively and in batch mode.For the purpose of this RFI:The NWSC-2a system shall be comprised of thirty-two nodes of similar architecture, each containing two or more Intel Xeon E5 v4 (or later) processors, large shared-memory, and at least 10 Gb Ethernet connectivity to the NWSC-LAN. The Respondent shall provide a description, including node and processor type, memory type and configuration, Ethernet connectivity options and per-node port counts and budgetary pricing.The system shall interoperate with the NCAR GLADE (see Section 3.4 and [6]) and provide one 40 Gb Ethernet connection to GLADE per node. Respondents shall describe GLADE connectivity options and budgetary pricing for each.The system shall be provided with an Ethernet switch with sufficient capacity and capability to aggregate the system’s 10 and 40 Gb connections and provide an aggregate connectivity of at least 60 GB/sec (unidirectional) to the NCAR GLADE and NWSC LAN.The system shall have an MPI-usable interconnect with a per-port bandwidth of at least 40 Gbps. Respondents should provide a description of and budgetary pricing for MPI-usable interconnect(s) available for the NWSC-2a cluster.Each node shall have a minimum of 512 GBytes of DDR-4 memory, and it is highly desirable that approximately twenty-five percent of the system’s nodes have 1 or more TBytes of DDR-4 memory. The Respondent shall state the memory type, speed, the (a) most cost-effective and (b) maximum memory capacity per node, and the associated budgetary pricing of each.Each node shall have one general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) for visualization and compute intensive analysis tasks. The GPGPU should be capable of efficient double precision floating point operations with a peak rate exceeding one teraflop/sec. There is no need for direct-connect graphics devices. The Respondent shall describe the GPGPU options available, including options for consumer/gaming and professional GPGPUs, the total number of GPGPUs supported per node, and the associated per-node budgetary pricing of each.The system shall contain four nodes, configured as described in items 1 through 4 above, but with at least four computational accelerators suitable for ML/DL applications, have up to 1 TByte of DDR-4 memory, and have a high-bandwidth, non-blocking internal interconnect between the accelerators. The Respondent shall describe the node options and configurations available, including processor and accelerator types, maximum processor count, maximum memory, and maximum accelerator count, and the associated per-node budgetary pricing. The Respondent shall also provide, based upon the Respondent’s experience with ML/DL, a recommended node configuration best suited to such applications.Approximately twenty-five percent of the system’s nodes shall have Flash/SSD for use as either extended memory or node-local data storage. The Respondent shall describe the node-based Flash/SSD options available and the associated per-node budgetary pricing of those options.The system shall be easily extensible either by adding nodes or by adding additional components (accelerators, adapters, memory, etc.) to nodes. The Respondent shall describe extensibility options and any limits to extensibility (due to physical, switch port capacity, or other limitations) and budgetary pricing for extensibility units, where possible.The Respondent shall describe and estimate the power and cooling requirements of any described systems, as well as describe options for supporting 480V, 3-phase power and redundant power feeds at the rack level, if any.The Respondent shall describe any system administration, operation and management infrastructure required for the NWSC-2a system.The systems shall be available for installation in, or within six months of, the time frame indicated for the NWSC-2a system installation in Section 2.9. The Respondent shall provide general-availability date(s) for all described components.3.1.3NWSC-2a Software AttributesCISL may ultimately opt to install and maintain its own software stack on the NWSC-2a system, but seeks input and recommendations from the Respondent on the following:The Respondent shall recommend a software stack (operating system, compiler suite, libraries) for the NWSC-2a system and provide budgetary pricing for any licensing and support of the software stack for six years.The system shall support sockets, dynamic linked libraries, POSIX threads, Python scripting, MPI, OpenGL, NumPy, NetCDF, HDF5 and MPI I/O. Respondents should state compliance or non-compliance with these specifications.The Respondent shall recommend remote visualization technologies that are compatible with the available GPGPU offerings (e.g. VirtualGL, TurboVNC, NICE).The following visualization packages must be supported: IDL, Matlab, VirtualGL, Kitware’s ParaView (open source), VisIt (), NCL (), and VAPOR (). In addition, both serial and distributed-memory parallel configurations of ParaView and Visit must be supported. Respondents should state compliance or non-compliance with these specifications.The following ML/DL software should be supported on the ML/DL nodes: TensorFlow (), Torch (), Python and Python-based machine learning tools such as Keras (), and Parallel Matlab. Respondents should state compliance or non-compliance with these specifications and list other ML/DL software known to run on the Respondent’s systems.NCAR anticipates that it will independently supply the resource management package and job scheduler for the NWSC-2a system (likely either Altair PBS Professional or SLURM). Respondents should provide recommendations for/against any resource manager/job scheduler based upon customer-base knowledge.Should the Respondent’s solution require proprietary software, the Respondent shall provide budgetary pricing for software licensing and support.3.1.4NWSC-2a Advanced TechnologiesNCAR is interested in innovative storage and memory technologies that can be paired with the data analysis and visualization capabilities of the NWSC-2a system that have the potential to dramatically improve the performance of NCAR’s end-user data analysis applications. These technologies may include, for example: stacked memory, non-volatile memory, burst buffers, hybrid SSD/HDD storage systems, processor-in-memory, and software enhancements that leverage these new technologies.Respondents should describe options for any of the above, or other, innovative storage and memory technologies (a) at initial delivery and (b) to augment the initially-delivered system(s) at a later date.Respondents should also describe any software that is required, available or planned for general availability to support accelerated data analysis, visualization or I/O capabilities.3.1.5NWSC-2a System Longevity and MaintenanceUCAR anticipates that the NWSC-2a system hardware and software will be maintained by CISL personnel. The system shall be comprised of standard commodity components and maintainable and serviceable (i.e. spare and replacement parts being readily available) for an anticipated lifetime of six years. Respondents should describe the technology-refresh options available, and limitations thereto, during the anticipated service lifetime of the system; e.g. processor(s), memory, GPGPU(s), SSD(s), etc.Respondents should provide information regarding standard warranty included with the system.Respondents should provide information regarding subsequent (a) vendor-supplied and (b) self-maintenance options available to UCAR at the NWSC location and budgetary pricing for each.3.2NWSC-2b Many-Core, Accelerator, Alternate Processor SystemTraditional processors and node architectures currently service NCAR’s production computational environment. Recent advances in non-traditional computational technologies are advancing into the HPC arena. NCAR has an interest in exploring certain emerging HPC technologies that are part of the drive towards exascale HPC platforms. The following subsections describe the general attributes anticipated for the NWSC-2b system and its potential for accelerating scientific discovery with NCAR’s applications and request information regarding such alternate technologies which the Respondent might propose.3.2.1NWSC-2b System ObjectiveThe NWSC-2b system is intended to initially be an experimental R&D system for the porting, testing, evaluation and development of NCAR applications on systems containing future alternate processor technologies. Such technologies include, but are not limited to, ‘many-core’ systems, GPGPU-accelerated systems, self-hosted GPGPU systems and/or systems utilizing ARM-based processors. As NCAR gains experience, it anticipates that the NWSC-2b system will be transitioned from R&D to a semi-production platform for more general use by the NCAR computational and scientific community.The NWSC-2b system is intended to be a stand-alone computational platform and be connected to and interoperate with NCAR’s GLADE file systems (see Section 3.4 and [6]).3.2.2NWSC-2b Hardware AttributesThe NWSC-2b system is envisioned to be a tightly-connected cluster of nodes used primarily for multi-node parallel, hybrid OpenMP/MPI and/or MPI-based applications. The system shall not have data storage, except as needed for its administration, management, maintenance and operation.For the purpose of this RFI:The NWSC-2b system shall be comprised of at least 128 computational nodes, either of identical or mixed architecture, each containing one or more non-traditional processors, shared-memory, and a high-speed, low-latency interconnect. The Respondent shall provide a description, including node and processor type options, memory type and configuration, high-speed interconnectivity options and budgetary pricing.The Respondent shall describe all processor options available and provide differential pricing, as appropriate.The system shall have two login nodes for interactive sessions, code compilation and the submission of jobs to the computational nodes.The system shall interoperate with the NCAR GLADE (see Section 3.4 and [6]) and provide at least 60 GB/sec (unidirectional) aggregate bandwidth to GLADE. Respondents shall describe the system’s I/O architecture and GLADE connectivity options and budgetary pricing for each.Each node shall have a minimum of 128 GBytes of DDR-4 memory. The Respondent shall state the memory type, speed and (a) most cost-effective and (b) maximum memory capacity per node and the associated budgetary pricing of each.The system shall be extensible either by adding nodes to the system or additional components (adapters, memory, etc.) to nodes. The Respondent shall describe extensibility options and any limits to extensibility (due to physical, switch port capacity, or other limitations) and budgetary pricing for extensibility units, where possible.The Respondent shall describe and estimate the power and cooling requirements of any described systems, as well as describe options for supporting 480V, 3-phase power and redundant power feeds at the rack level, if any.The Respondent shall describe any system administration, operation and management infrastructure required for the NWSC-2b system.The systems shall be available for installation in, or within six months of, the time frame indicated for the NWSC-2b system installation in Section 2.9. The Respondent shall provide general-availability date(s) for all described components.3.2.3NWSC-2b Software AttributesCISL may ultimately opt to install and maintain its own software stack on the NWSC-2b system, but seeks input and recommendations from the Respondent on the following:The Respondent shall recommend a software stack (operating system, compiler suite, tools, and libraries) for the NWSC-2b system and provide budgetary pricing for any licensing and support of the software stack for six years. It is expected that a suitable development suite to support scientific application development shall include modern Fortran, C, and C++ compilers and associated performance profilers and debuggers that support use of the entire system, including any proposed coprocessors.The Respondent shall describe any proprietary software necessary for the operation and/or use of the system. Should the Respondent’s solution require proprietary software, the Respondent shall provide budgetary pricing for software licensing and support.NCAR anticipates that it will independently supply the resource management package and job scheduler for the NWSC-2b system (likely either Altair PBS Professional or SLURM). Respondents should provide recommendations for/against any resource manager/job scheduler based upon customer-base knowledge.3.2.4NWSC-2b Advanced TechnologiesNCAR is interested in innovative processor, memory or other technologies that can be paired with the NWSC-2b system that may have the potential to dramatically improve the performance of NCAR’s end-user data analysis applications. These technologies may include, for example: stacked memory, non-volatile memory, processor-in-memory, and software enhancements that leverage these new technologies.Respondents should describe options for any of the above, or other, innovative technologies (a) at initial delivery and (b) to augment the initially-delivered system at a later date.Respondents should also describe software that is required, available or planned for general availability to support these innovative technologies.3.2.5NWSC-2b System Longevity and MaintenanceUCAR anticipates that the NWSC-2b system hardware and software will be maintained by CISL personnel. The system shall be comprised of standard commodity components and maintainable and serviceable (i.e. spare and replacement parts being readily available) for an anticipated lifetime of six years. Respondents should describe the technology-refresh options available, and limitations thereto, during the anticipated service lifetime of the system; e.g. processor(s), memory, SSD(s), etc.Respondents should provide information regarding standard warranty included with the system.Respondents should provide information regarding subsequent (a) vendor-supplied and (b) self-maintenance options available to UCAR at the NWSC location and budgetary pricing for each.3.3NWSC-2c Flash/SSD Based Shared Data Storage SystemNCAR’s data-centric workloads require access to high-performance file systems. NCAR’s GLADE resource was designed to provide such a centralized, high-performance data storage facility, but certain data-intensive NCAR applications require specialized storage capable of delivering both high-bandwidth I/O and high IOPs. Thus, NCAR seeks to acquire a Flash or SSD based storage subsystem to augment its existing GLADE facility. The following subsections describe the general attributes CISL anticipates for the NWSC-2c system and request information regarding the technologies the Respondent might propose.3.3.1NWSC-2c System ObjectiveThe NWSC-2c system is intended to be a shared, production-quality, high-performance, high I/O operation (IOP) rate, non-volatile data storage subsystem utilizing memory-based storage devices rather than traditional disk technologies. The file system(s) hosted by the NWSC-2c system will be accessible by multiple computational systems, such as NCAR’s Cheyenne system [3,5] and those anticipated for acquisition in NWSC-2a and NWSC-2b.3.3.2NWSC-2c Hardware AttributesThe NWSC-2c system is envisioned to take the form of a stand-alone, scalable unit, providing high-performance I/O capability, high IOP rates and serve as a shared resource for data storage accessible from multiple computational systems.For the purpose of this RFI:The NWSC-2c system shall be comprised of one or more rack-mountable scalable unit(s) containing Flash or SSD components and a server or embedded controller capable of presenting a file system interface to external systems. The system shall have 512 TByte of usable storage with options to upgrade it to 1 and 2 PBytes of usable storage. The Respondent shall provide a description of the system, including capacity, aggregate bandwidth and transaction rate, and provide budgetary pricing.The Respondent shall provide technical details for the described system, including storage capacity options, storage device types, capacities and resilience. Comparative budgetary pricing should be provided.The Respondent shall provide technical details on high-bandwidth external host connectivity options (e.g. 40/100 GbE, InfiniBand, etc.), including port capacity, aggregate bandwidth and IOPS. Comparative budgetary pricing should be provided.The system shall be capable of hosting file system server software.The system shall be extensible either by adding storage devices to the system, I/O devices for increased I/O bandwidth and/or additional scalable units. The Respondent shall describe extensibility options and any limits to extensibility (due to physical, switch port capacity, or other limitations) and budgetary pricing for extensibility units.The Respondent shall describe and estimate the power and cooling requirements of any described systems, as well as describe options for supporting 480V, 3-phase power and redundant power feeds at the rack level, if any.The Respondent shall describe any system administration, operation and management infrastructure required for the NWSC-2c system.The systems shall be available for installation in, or within six months of, the time frame indicated for the NWSC-2c system installation in Section 2.9. The Respondent shall provide general-availability date(s) for all described components.3.3.3NWSC-2c Software AttributesCISL may ultimately opt to install and maintain IBM’s Spectrum Scale software and file systems on the NWSC-2c system, but seeks input and recommendations from the Respondent on the following:The Respondent shall recommend file system software for the NWSC-2c system and provide budgetary pricing for any licensing and support of the software for six years.The Respondent shall describe any proprietary software necessary for the operation and/or use of the system and pricing for any requisite licensing and support for six years.3.3.4NWSC-2c Advanced TechnologiesNCAR is interested in innovative storage technologies that can be utilized as part of the NWSC-2c system that have the potential to dramatically improve the performance of NCAR’s end-user data-centric applications. These technologies may include, for example: non-volatile memory, 3D NAND, burst buffers, hybrid SSD/HDD storage systems, storage systems with embedded processing, and novel software systems and enhancements that leverage these new technologies.Respondents should describe options for any of the above, or other, innovative storage and memory technologies (a) at initial delivery and (b) to augment the initially-delivered system(s) at a later date.Respondents should also describe software that is available or planned for general availability to support accelerated data analysis, visualization or I/O capabilities.3.3.5NWSC-2c System Longevity and MaintenanceUCAR anticipates that the NWSC-2c system hardware and software will be maintained by CISL personnel. The system shall be comprised of standard commodity components and maintainable and serviceable (i.e. spare and replacement parts being readily available) for an anticipated lifetime of six years.Respondents should describe the technology-refresh options available, and limitations thereto, during the anticipated service lifetime of the system; e.g. controller(s), memory, SSD(s), etc.Respondents should provide information regarding standard warranty included with the system.Respondents should provide information regarding subsequent (a) vendor-supplied and (b) self-maintenance options available to UCAR at the NWSC location and budgetary pricing for each.3.4NCAR GLADE ConnectivityEach of the NWSC-2a, NWSC-2b and NWSC-2c systems shall be required to connect to and interoperate with the NCAR GLobally Accessible Data Environment (GLADE) and to use the GLADE file systems for user data. GLADE utilizes the IBM Spectrum Scale file system software (formerly known as GPFS), which UCAR licenses and for which UCAR obtains support under a separate subcontract with IBM.The NWSC-2a and NWSC-2b systems shall not have data storage devices except as necessary to administer, operate and maintain the systems. The NWSC-2c system shall be capable of supporting Spectrum Scale file systems.For detailed information on GLADE’s architecture and connectivity options, please refer to the GLADE Overview and GLADE Integration Guide documents available from the NWSC-2abc website.4REFERENCES[1] The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) facility: [2] The NWSC computational and data storage/archival environment: [3] Cheyenne: the NWSC-2 high-performance computing system: [4] The current NCAR Data Analysis and Visualization environment: [5] An introductory presentation on the Cheyenne system and NWSC user environment: [6] General user information regarding the NCAR Globally Accessible Data Environment (GLADE): ................
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