Selection Committee National Supercomputer

Many people have been involved in the selection of the new Dutch National Supercomputer. The complete process can be divided in three parts:

• Preparation of Request-for-Proposals
• Comparison of proposals and selection
• Preparation of contract

The Board of NCF has established a so-called Selection Committee National Supercomputer (SNS), to govern the complete process. The SNS has consisted of the following people:

• Mrs. Prof. dr. R. Broer, chair, University of Groningen
• Prof. dr. E.J. Baerends, Free University Amsterdam
• Prof. dr. ir. H.A. Dijkstra, Utrecht University
• Prof. dr. P.A.J. Hilbers, Technical University Eindhoven
• Prof. dr. ir. G.S. Stelling, Delft University of Technology
• Prof. dr. ir. F.N. van de Vosse, Technical University Eindhoven

The SNS has been assisted by a team of advisors:

• Dr. P.J.C. Aerts, NCF
• Dr. ir. A. Berg, SARA
• Ir. R. Llurba, NCF
• Dr. ir. P.H. Michielse, NCF
• Dr. ir. A. Osseyran, SARA
• Dr. ir. A. van der Steen, NCF

Preparation of the Request-for-Proposals, initial judgement of the proposals and the extensive benchmarking process has been done by NCF and SARA staff, with input from a wide range of users of the current national supercomputer. The NCF and SARA staff involved has been:

• NCF

  Rossend Llurba, Peter Michielse, Aad van der Steen, Peter de Rijk

• SARA

  Axel Berg, Vincent van de Elzen, Walter de Jong, Wim Rijks, Mark van de Sanden, Huub Stoffers, Willem Vermin

Three serious proposals have been received in June 2006, submitted by Bull, IBM and SGI. The final selection has been based on three components: quality of the offered solution/proposal, benchmarking results and the experiences at the site visit in September 2006. In October 2006, the SNS has decided to put IBM on top of the list, and has advised the NCF board to work on a contract agreement with IBM.

This has been agreed upon by the NCF board, and representatives of NCF, SARA and NWO have been involved in this process, under leadership of the chair of the SNS, mrs. Prof. Broer. These representatives were Patrick Aerts and Peter Michielse of NCF, and Axel Berg and Anwar Osseyran of SARA, supported by:

• Mrs. mr. Lidwien van der Valk, NWO, and
• Mrs. prof. dr. Catholijn Jonker, Delft University of Technology.

Mrs. Van der Valk has been involved in legal affairs and Mrs. Jonker has assisted NCF/SARA in the process of reaching an agreement which is best for both parties.

Conink Consultants BV has provided management assistance to NCF during the acquisition process, especially with the European procurement aspects.