B26_SQA_Questions_and_Answers_9-2-2026_0004.docx

Questions and Answers for Solicitation #140D0426Q0875 8/28/2026

PRICE-MATERIAL

1. Attachment 1, BOM item 10, C9300-DNA-A-24 is described as "C9300 DNA Advantage, 24-port Term Licenses," but no term length is stated. Cisco offers this license in multiple term durations at materially different prices. What term does the Government require? Absent direction quoted prices will not be comparable across offerors on an LPTA basis.

Response: Minimum available term would be best. These devices will get coverage from the Cisco GEMSS contract.

2. The BOM includes Cisco software and subscription licenses (items 3, 7, 9-15) but contains no Cisco SmartNet or Solution Support line for either the FPR1120 or the C9300. Is hardware support intentionally excluded from this procurement, or was it omitted? If the Government intends to acquire it, please state the required duration and service level.

Response: These devices will get coverage from the Cisco GEMSS contract.

3. DFARS 252.211-7003, Item Unique Identification and Valuation, is incorporated by reference at Section 2-1.1, but the solicitation contains no IUID appendix, no list of items requiring a Unique Item Identifier, and no marking or registry submission instructions. Several BOM items appear to exceed the $5,000 unit acquisition cost threshold. Does the Government require IUID marking under this order? If so, on which items, and are contractor-applied marking and IUID Registry submission required?

Response: Yes, IUID markings are required for items exceeding $5,000. Contractors are encouraged to utilize DoD recognized unique identification equivalent meaning a unique identification method that is in commercial use and has been recognized by DoD. Additionally, the clause has been converted to full text.

4. Block 19 establishes a single line item (00001) covering all 58 BOM lines. Does the Government require a line-item price breakdown for the 58 items, or is a single extended price for CLIN 00001 acceptable? If a breakdown is required, is a preferred format or template available?

Response: A breakdown of pricing is requested. The government is relying on the vendor’s best commercial practice for providing the format.

BRAND NAME AND SUBSTITUTION

5. Section 4-2.1 incorporates FAR 52.211-6, Brand name or equal, and Section 4-2.4 paragraph 5 states that "a portion of this requirement is restricted to brand name only items." Attachment 1 section 2.1 states that "'Or equal' substitutions will not be accepted unless explicitly approved in writing by the Government." These provisions are in tension. Would the Government identify, by BOM item number, which lines are brand-name-only and which may be satisfied by an equal product?

Response: Brand name only (1,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,22,25,27,28,29,31,34,35,38,41,43,51,52,54) Other items may have equal products substituted as long as they are TAA compliant.

6. Attachment 2 identifies only Cisco and Super Micro components as brand-name-only. BOM items 49 (NVIDIA), 56 (Aten), 57 (LG) and 58 (StarTech) are not addressed in that justification. May equal products be offered for those four items? If so, please confirm the salient characteristics that equal products must meet, as FAR 52.211-6(b)(1) requires them to be specified in the solicitation.

Response: 49 – Form factor: PCIe Gen4 x8, Output: (4) mini DisplayPort 1.4 ports, Processors must provide 190TFLOPS of tensor computation, 12 TFLOPS of single-precision computation, Memory: 16GB DDR6 ECC video RAM, Power: power consumption NTE 75W 56 – Display: min 19” 1280x1024 resolution at 75Hz, Keyboard and mouse support both PS/2 and USB emulation, Minimum of 8 KVM input ports, Mountable in standard 19” server rack, No software required for connected computers, Max 1U rack space usage, Has locking mechanism that keeps tray secure when not in use, OS Support: Linux (RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 distributions) 57 – 27 inch class size, 3840x2160 minimum resolution, HDR10 support, 225cd/m2 minimum display brightness, 175 degree viewing angle both R/L and U/D, Display inputs (min): 2 HDMI 1 DP, Includes stand, Power: 120VAC @ 60Hz 58 – Length: 6ft, Connector 1: Mini DisplayPort, Connector 2: DisplayPort, Supported resolution: 3840x2160, 21 Gbps bandwidth, Backward compatible with DisplayPort 1.1

7. Attachment 1 section 2.1 approves "the upcoming Supermicro SuperWorkstation SYS-542T-2R" as an acceptable replacement for item 41. We have been unable to identify SYS-542T-2R as a released or announced Supermicro product through the manufacturer, distribution, or public sources, and the solicitation describes it as upcoming. Please confirm whether this part number is currently orderable. If it is not, we understand offerors are to quote the SYS-551A-T as listed in the BOM, and would appreciate written confirmation to that effect.

Response: Upcoming workstation is not available at this date on the market. The unavailable item has been removed from the Statement of Work.

PART NUMBERS

8. BOM item 5 is listed as "FPR1K-RM-SSD200-" with an incomplete suffix. Please provide the complete orderable Cisco part number.

Response: Correct number is FPR1K-RM-SSD200

9. BOM item 4 is listed as "CAB-AC" with a description of a North America C13 / NEMA 5-15P 2.1m cord. CAB-AC is a base identifier rather than a region-specific orderable SKU. Please confirm the exact part number required.

Response: CAB-AC is the North America cable supported by the Firepower 1100 series security appliances, according to the Hardware Installation Guide.

10. BOM item 29 is listed as "SYS-122C-TN 1U." We read this as Supermicro P/N SYS-122C-TN with the form factor appended to the part number field. Please confirm.

Response: Confirm

11. BOM item 53 is described as a "4U Active CPU Heat Sink for SYS-551A-T X13 UP Workstation." Supermicro publishes the SYS-551A-T (CSE-GS7A-2000B) as a 5U platform. Please confirm SNK-P0091AP4 is the correct heat sink for the specified processor and chassis.

Response: Part number is correct.

SOLICITATION ADMINISTRATION

12. Attachment 1 section 2.2 requires all items to be Trade Agreements Act compliant. However, the solicitation incorporates DFARS 252.225-7001, Buy American and Balance of Payments Program, and provision 252.225-7000, rather than DFARS 252.225-7021, Trade Agreements. These establish different country eligibility standards; several TAA-designated countries are not DFARS qualifying countries. Please clarify which standard governs award eligibility. We further request the Government's position on whether FAR 25.103(e) and DFARS 225.103(e), which except acquisitions of commercial information technology from the Buy American statute, apply to this procurement.

Response: The Government confirms that the commercial information technology (IT) exception under DFARS 225.103(e) applies to this procurement, exempting it from the Buy American Act. Trade Agreements Act (TAA) standards will govern award eligibility, provided the final evaluated price meets or exceeds the TAA threshold. An amendment will be issued to remove the Buy American clauses (DFARS 252.225-7000 and 252.225-7001) and conditionally incorporate the appropriate TAA clauses (DFARS 252.225-7020 and 252.225-7021).

13. Amendment 0001 revises the Section 3 attachment table to show four rows using duplicate attachment numbers 1 and 2, listing both the original and revised titles. Please confirm which documents constitute the governing attachments. We also note that "A15 BN Brand Name Only Justification" dated 08/25/2026 is listed in the table but was not among the files posted; please confirm whether an additional attachment remains outstanding.

Response: The attachments did not transmit with the original posting of the RFQ. The correct attachments are “B08_SOL_Brand-Name_Justification_Redacted_0001.pdf” and “B08_SOL_System_Requirements_V1_2_0001.docx.” The other two listed on the continuation pages are duplicates of these posted documents.

14. The Brand Name Justification states that solicitations will be restricted to NASA SEWP contract holders; however, RFQ 140D0426Q0875 is issued as an unrestricted standalone RFQ. Please confirm that vendors that are not NASA SEWP contract holders are eligible to submit quotations directly under this RFQ.

Response: This solicitation is not restricted to NASA SEWP.

9/1/2026

15. A15. ITEM 29 / 31 / 38 — the specified server configuration cannot be built as listed.

Supermicro has since confirmed to us that SYS-121C-TN2R does not support 3.5" drives. It therefore cannot accept Item 40 (HDD-3A04T-1NECR, 3.5" 4TB SAS 12Gb/s) or the Item 37 rear drive bay cable, and it is not a viable platform for this configuration.

THE CORRECT PLATFORM

Supermicro advises that the only 1U platform supporting both dual processors and 3.5" drives is SYS-611C-TN4R.

Supermicro publishes that platform as:

"X13 CloudDC 1U, 4x 3.5" SATA, X13DDW-A, CSE-LA15TS-R0AWNP2" The Government's own description in the Item 29 row reads:

"X13 CloudDC 1U, 4x 3.5" SATA" These are identical. The Government's written description of the required chassis matches SYS-611C-TN4R exactly. Only the part number entered in the adjacent field, SYS-122C-TN, points elsewhere - to an X14 platform on Socket E2 (LGA-4710) with 2.5" bays, which will not seat the Item 31 processor, the Item 38 carrier, or the Item 40 drives.

THE QUESTION, RESTATED

Where the part number and the written description conflict, which governs?

Our reading is that the description governs and that SYS-611C-TN4R is the intended platform. Every other line in the configuration - Items 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38 and 40 - is consistent with an X13 Emerald Rapids build, and none is consistent with X14. We respectfully ask the Government to confirm SYS-611C-TN4R at Item 29.

If the Government instead intends the SYS-122C-TN part number as written, we note that the manufacturer has advised there is no dual-processor 1U X14 platform that accepts 3.5" drives. The nearest X14 configuration is SYS-622B-TRT, a 2U chassis. That path changes the form factor the Government specified in addition to the processor, carrier, memory and drive items, all of which are material to price. In that case we ask that Items 31, 32, 37, 38 and 40 be revised accordingly.

Response: The SYS-611C-TN4R is consistent with the technical requirements and is the intended platform. The B08 SOL System Requirements V1.4 reflects this correction.

16. ITEM 49 — the specified GPU is no longer available.

Supermicro has advised that the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada 16GB (GPU-NVQRTX2000-ADA) is end-of-life and no longer orderable on the specified workstation platform.

The salient characteristics provided in the 8/28 responses for Item 49 include a power ceiling of not-to-exceed 75W. Of the currently available NVIDIA professional GPUs the manufacturer identified for this platform — GeForce RTX 4080, RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, and RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q — all exceed 75W.

The one currently available part we have identified that satisfies the stated ceiling is the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF Edition: 70W maximum power, four mini DisplayPort outputs, 24GB GDDR7 with ECC, and 24 TFLOPS single-precision, each meeting or exceeding the stated characteristic.

Would the Government confirm that the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF Edition is acceptable as an equal product for Item 49? If the memory characteristic ("16GB DDR6 ECC video RAM") is intended as a minimum rather than an exact match, we ask the Government to state that, as the qualifying card carries 24GB of GDDR7.

If the Government instead intends a higher-performance card and is willing to relax the 75W ceiling, please state the revised ceiling, since that determines which of the remaining options are eligible.

Response: The identified replacement (RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF Edition) is a technically acceptable equal product. Additionally, Para

17. CISCO SMART ACCOUNT AND LICENSE DELIVERY.

The responses to Questions 1 and 2 state that the switch and firewall will receive coverage under the Cisco GEMSS contract. We understand from that response that the end user has an established Cisco Smart Account and virtual account structure.

The solicitation does not identify a Smart Account domain or virtual account to which the ordered software and subscription entitlements are to be deposited. Several BOM lines are term or subscription licenses that must be assigned to a customer Smart Account at the time of order.

Would the Government provide the Smart Account domain identifier and virtual account name to be used for license delivery, or confirm that this information will be furnished to the awardee after award? We also ask the Government to confirm whether activation and provisioning of the ThousandEyes and Cisco Spaces subscriptions (Items 12 through 15) are the responsibility of the contractor or of the end user, as the answer affects both scope and price.

Response: Virtual Account Name: N00253 Virtual Account Identifier: 513604

18. GOVERNING ATTACHMENT.

The response to Question 7 states that the unavailable SYS-542T-2R workstation "has been removed from the Statement of Work." The version posted with Amendment 0002, B08 SOL System Requirements V1.3 dated 08/31/2026, still contains the Explicit Workstation Exception paragraph naming SYS-542T-2R in full. The only difference we can identify between V1.2 and V1.3 is text formatting.

Separately, the response to Question 13 identifies V1.2 as the governing attachment, while the Amendment 0002 attachment table adds V1.3 and continues to list duplicate attachment numbers 1 and 2.

Would the Government confirm which version of the System Requirements governs, and whether a further revision removing the workstation exception is forthcoming? We are quoting the SYS-551A-T as listed at Item 41 in either case.

Response: Version 1.4 is the current version. The formatting changes were to indicate what has been removed. The red text will not be included with the final award. Duplicate attachment numbers indicate new versions of that attachment. The current document is the most recent date or highest version number.

19. TRADE AGREEMENTS CLAUSES.

We appreciate the Government's confirmation that the DFARS 225.103(e) commercial information technology exception applies and that Trade Agreements Act standards will govern award eligibility. The response states that an amendment will be issued to remove DFARS 252.225-7000 and 252.225-7001 and conditionally incorporate 252.225-7020 and 252.225-7021. Amendment 0002 does not appear to make that change, and the Buy American clauses remain in Section 2.

Would the Government confirm that this amendment is still forthcoming? We will state country of origin by line item in our quotation on a Trade Agreements Act basis consistent with the Question 12 response.

Response: These clauses have been removed.

The Buy American clauses are removed.

The TAA clauses are conditionally incorporated, if the total value meets the required threshold, then they will apply.

20. In building the Supermicro configuration, there are two ways to allocate the six 3.5" 4TB SAS drives (Supermicro P/N HDD-3A04T-1NECR). The bill of materials is otherwise identical between the two:

Option 1 - The six 4TB SAS drives are installed in the three SYS-122C-TN 1U servers.

Option 2 - The six 4TB SAS drives are installed in the two SYS-551A-T workstations.

Could you confirm which allocation your team would prefer? The total quantity and part numbers do not change either way - only which chassis the drives populate.

Response: We prefer that the drives be installed in the 1U servers.

21. Will DOI accept partial quotes for the referenced opportunity?

Response: Not at this time.

22. BOM item 17 specifies part number SC9300UK9-1715 and is listed as brand-name-only per the Q&A response to Question 5. Our distributor has confirmed that -1715 is no longer available and that SC9300UK9-1718 is the current image for the same license.

Since Attachment 1 Section 2.1 requires written government approval for any substitution on brand-name-only items, we are requesting written confirmation that SC9300UK9-1718 is an acceptable substitute for the specified SC9300UK9-1715 before we finalize our quote.

Response: SC9300UK9-1718 is an acceptable substitute for the specified SC9300UK9-1715.

9/2/2026

23. CLOSING TIME ON 7 SEPTEMBER

Amendment 0003 extends the solicitation end date to 7 September 2026 but does not restate a time of day. The original solicitation specified 07:00 Eastern. Please confirm the closing time. We also note 7 September is a Federal holiday and would ask the Government to confirm that quotations received on that date will be accepted as timely.

Response: Amendment 4 changes the solicitation end date to 8 September 2026 at 7:00 AM Eastern.

24. ITEM 29 PART NUMBER FIELD

The response to our question confirmed SYS-611C-TN4R as the intended platform. In System Requirements V1.4, the Item 29 part number field is blank rather than populated with SYS-611C-TN4R, while Item 29 remains on the brand-name-only list. We intend to quote Supermicro SYS-611C-TN4R at Item 29, citing the Government's written response as the authority. Please confirm that is the correct approach, or advise if a further revision populating that field is forthcoming.

Response: The part number was previously changed as below. If the document does not appear correct after downloading, please let us know.

25. TRUNCATED RESPONSE AT ITEM 49

The published response to our GPU question appears to be cut off mid-sentence, ending "Additionally, Para". We read the answer as confirming the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF Edition is acceptable. If the truncated text addressed the memory characteristic — whether "16GB DDR6 ECC video RAM" is a minimum rather than an exact match — we would appreciate that confirmation, since the accepted card carries 24GB of GDDR7.

Response: The 24GB of DDR7 is technically acceptable.

The statement “Additionally, Para” is erroneous and can be ignored.

26. SMART ACCOUNT DOMAIN

Thank you for the virtual account details (Name N00253, Identifier 513604). To deposit the Cisco term and subscription entitlements at time of order we also need the Smart Account domain identifier. Please confirm whether that will be furnished to the awardee after award, and whether activation and provisioning of the ThousandEyes and Cisco Spaces subscriptions at Items 12 through 15 fall to the contractor or to the end user.

Response: The Smart Account domain identifier will be furnished after award. End user will be responsible for the Thousand Eyes and Cisco Spaces.

26. SOFTWARE CONFIRMATION

I wanted to confirm a software version update in the Cisco configuration. The original requirement requested SC9300UK9-1715; however, Cisco is offering SC9300UK9-1718, which is the same Cisco Catalyst 9300 Universal software but a newer release. SC9300UK9-1715 is not offered anymore.

Can you please confirm that there are no issues with providing the newer software version?

Response: The new version of the software will be technically acceptable.

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