75N91023Q00073 Brand Name Justification.pdf

Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition - Brand Name Justification

"Source Selection Information- see FAR 2.101 and 3.104"

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

Federal agency and contracting activity:

Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Office of Acquisitions (QA) Strategic Acquisitions Branch (SAB)

Sponsoring organization.

HHS/NIH/NCI

Center for Cancer Research (CCR) Neuro-Oncology Branch

Project Officer information.

Wei Zhang, PhD zhangwe@mail. nih. gov Tel: 240-760-6835 Fax: 240-541-4466

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

a. This is for the acquisition of one ( 1) brand-name BOXX APEXX W4 high performance PC workstation for data processing and visualization of brain tumor tissue image data generated with confocal microscope and light sheet microscope. The brand-name equipment will include a desktop computer and peripherals including monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs (including the estimated value).

a. Project title. Procurement of BOXX APEXX W4 high performance PC workstation

b. Project description.

The Neuro-Oncology Branch (NOB) analyzes spatial distribution and interaction between tumor cells and immune cells in brain

• Acquisition identification number. NIA

c. Total estimated dollar value and performance/delivery period.

Total estimated value: - Estimated time of delivery: 45 days after award

4. Identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

Iii This acquisition is conducted under FAR 13.106-1 (b)(1)(i)

(b) Soliciting from a single source.

(1) For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold.

(i) Contracting officers may solicit from one source if the Contracting Officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g., urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand-name or industrial mobilization).

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

a. Name and address of the brand-name manufacturer.

BOXX Technologies 4616 W. Howard Lane Suite 105 Austin, TX 78728 United States Of America

1-877-877-BOXX(2699)

b. Nature of the acquisition and proposed unique qualifications of the contractor( s ).

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 W4 provided by BOXX is the only hardware which meets all of the following salient characteristics:

1. Meets the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) compliant for the requirement of NIH/NCI PC standard.

2. Accommodates a variety of professional applications, which is fulfilled by its single Intel® Xeon® W processor.

3. Needs to have 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. Needs to 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. Needs to support deep learning: the APEXX W-class workstation is optimized for application performance and high productivity.

6. Needs to be capable of processing 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/PCle 4.0 M.2 Drive and 4.0TB SSD NVMe/PCle 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).

These salient characteristics makes the APEXX W4 high performance PC workstation the only solution currently available to biologists, immunologists, and oncologists, which meets NCl's research needs.