Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 15, 2006 FBO #1815
SOLICITATION NOTICE

70 -- Response to Questions on Solicitation W58RGZ-07-Q-0110

Notice Date

11/13/2006
 

Notice Type

Solicitation Notice
 

NAICS

334111 — Electronic Computer Manufacturing
 

Contracting Office

US Army Aviation and Missile Command (Aviation), ATTN: AMSAM-AC, Building 5303, Martin Road, Redstone Arsenal, AL 35898-5280
 

ZIP Code

35898-5280
 

Solicitation Number

W58RGZ-07-Q-0110
 

Response Due

11/16/2006
 

Archive Date

1/15/2007
 

Small Business Set-Aside

Total Small Business
 

Description

The following questions and answers are provided as clarifications: Question 1. Most shock resistant hard drives are in a 2.5 form factor, as they are geared to notebook installations, that being the most common place where shock resistance is beneficial. The problem is that the maximum current size for a 2.5 hard drive i s closer to 100GB than 500GB. In addition, the request that it be able to operate at 20g while writing is completely in opposition to the way the industry addresses ruggedization of hard drives. IBM, and Panasonic for their Toughbooks, use a system that h as a sensor in the notebook that can tell if the unit is off axis and therefore likely in the midst of a fall. This system actually parks the hard drive heads (meaning they do not read or write)in order to protect the data/platters/heads from damage. This is generally considered the most advanced system available for data protection on a portable hard drive. So, in order to achieve the 500GB size requrement, you need a 3.5 SATA Drive. AMCOM Answer: We are not seeking a ruggedized drive, rather a slightly shock resistant external drive assembly. The entire external assembly should be able to withstand a 20G shock for 8ms while writing to the drive. This shock resistance is a function of both the hard drive itself and,the actual drive mounting technologt utilized, and the design and construction of the external enclosure. Our market research indicates that this level of shock resistance is available in commercial-off-the shelf products. Question 2. Concerning Requirment that the Internal Disk Drive Must be Manufactured by the Same Manufacturere as Drive Enclosure - Companies that manufacture the drives; have other companies manufacture the enclosures. The various companies that sell the external drive solutions, all support the solution as a whole, and do not consider the internal drive to be a separately covered by the original drive manufacturer. This stipulation is far to general for anyone to meet without first understanding what the solicitor's definition of manufacturer is. Do the employees who manufacture the enclosures need to be directly employed by the drive manufacturer? AMCOM Answer - We are seeking a commercial-off-the shelf product provided and supported by a single manufacturer. As an example: an offering from company XYZ (a manufacturer of external hard disk drive enclosures) who installs a hard disk drive manufacture d by company ABC is not acceptable. We are not interested in securing the services of a system integrator, who will integrate various components. Simply stated: If the external enclosure is labeled as a Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi, IBM, Toshiba, Samsung, et c. product; then the disk drive internal to that enclosure must carry the same label. Our market research indicates that this requirement is met by several commercial-off-the-shelf product. Question 3 - Concerning Serial Number Requirements - There is no manufacturer of hard drives who offers anything like this. There is no software vendor who has a ready to go product which can achieve this. To write a custom software to achieve this will b e costly, time consuming, and exposes the solicitor to the probability of having to buy the software from a third party developer, thus negating the unified support requirement. AMCOM Answer: Our market research indicates that manufacturers of the drive enclosures use precisely this type software in-house to track the relationship between the enclosure and the internal drive for warranty purposes. Although probably a slightly unus ual requirement, it is a requirement for this procurement due to the intended use of the external hard drive units and the necessity of tracking the location of the data to an actual disk drive serial number rather than just the serial number of the enclos ure containing that drive. Question 4 - How strict is the Firewire 800 requirement? AMCOM Answer - Firewire 800 is a mandatory requir ement for the external drive to interface with the computer system with the fastest interface currently available within that computer system.
 

Place of Performance

Address: US Army Aviation and Missile Command (Aviation) ATTN: AMSAM-AC, Building 5303, Martin Road Redstone Arsenal AL

Zip Code: 35898-5280

Country: US
 

Record

SN01180162-W 20061115/061113220511 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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