DESCRIPTION: 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Center for Cancer Research (CCR) plans to procure, on a brand-name BOXX APEXX W4L High Performance PC Workstation manufactured by:

BOXX Technologies
616 W. Howard Lane Suite 105
Austin, TX 78728

The response close date of the notice for this requirement is in accordance with FAR 5.203(b). This acquisition will be processed under FAR Part 12 – Acquisition for Commercial Items and will be made pursuant to the authority in FAR Part 13.106-1 (b)(1) / 13.501(a), and is exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6. The North American Industry Classification System code is 334111 and the business size standard is 1,250 employees. 

The NCI requires a high performance PC workstation with the capability to conduct image processing of data collected with a confocal and light sheet microscope for brain cancer research. Specifically, whole tissue image data from brain tumor angiogenesis, immune cell infiltration to brain tumor tissue, and of immunotherapy efficacy on brain cancer are to be analyzed.

The BOXX APEXX W4L is a W-Class multi-GPU high performance PC workstation specifically configured for the analysis of large image data, including biomedical science image data. The APEXX W4L provides necessary data processing speed and data storage capability for 2D and 3D image data from confocal microscope and light sheet microscope for processing and visualization applicable to including, but not limited to, brain tumor research. The APEXX W4L provided by BOXX is the only hardware which meets all of the following salient technical characteristics as well as the regulatory requirements for NCI IT hardware, including:

1.  Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registered as required by NIH/NCI PC standards.
2. Accommodates a variety of professional applications.
3. Has the capability for rendering, multi-display, deep learning, and data science, together with a high reliability, which is provided through GPU-centric workflows (NVIDIA® RTX™ GPUs)
4. Can be optimized for high core count workflows and capable of delivering rapid workload loading and processing. The APEXX W-class workstation has Intel® Xeon® W series processors (up to 56 cores), up to 4.8 GHz Intel® Max Turbo Frequency, and multiple professional GPUs.
5. Can support deep learning: the APEXX W-class workstation is optimized for application performance and high productivity.
6. Can process large image files: A single image file used by the NOB can be as large as 1TB. This workstation provides a large M2 storage (2.0TB SSD NVMe/PCIe 4.0 M.2 Drive and 4.0TB SSD NVMe/PCIe 4.0 M.2) combined with a large HD storage (8.0TB SSD SATA 6Gb/s and 2 x 10.0TB 7,200rpm SATA 6Gb/s).

This notice is not a request for competitive quotations. However, if any interested party, especially a small business, believes it can meet the Government’s needs, it may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quote for the Government to consider. The response and any other information furnished must be in writing and must contain sufficient details to allow NCI to determine if the party can perform the requirement. Responses to this notice shall be submitted via email to Renee Jones-Chuang, Contracting Officer, at [email protected] no later than the date specified in this notice. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. The Government reserves the right to use the information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. To receive an award, Contractors must be registered and have valid certification through SAM.GOV. Please reference the notice number on all correspondence.

***Please reference attached Statement of Work/Statement of Need for more details pertaining to the nature of the work to be performed.***