Led by Bill Kramer (foreground), the NERSC-3 procurement team included (from left front) Bill Saphir, Norma Early, Eric Essman, Lynn Rippe, Sherry Li, Adrian Wong, Richard Arri, Nick Cardo, Tammy Welcome; (back) David Bailey, Chris Ding, Jed Donnelley; (not shown) Andrew Canning, Mike Declerck, Frank Hale, and Julie Jones.

Installation of the new IBM SP system was the culmination of an often grueling year-long effort by the NERSC-3 procurement team, led by NERSC's Deputy Director, Bill Kramer. Their achievements included assessing NERSC's near-term computational needs, developing and publishing a request for proposals, developing a test suite of scientific applications, reviewing proposals and selecting a vendor, negotiating a contract, and overseeing the delivery, installation, and testing of the Phase I system.

The procurement team accomplished these crucial and complicated tasks on schedule and maintained strict confidentiality throughout the process. The team received Berkeley Lab Outstanding Performance Awards for their contribution to NERSC's future.

Phase 1 of the NERSC-3 procurement rolled into Berkeley Lab on Saturday, June 26, 1999. Nearly filling three big-rig trailers, the system consisted of 60 cabinets, cartons, and crates with a total weight of 35,603 pounds. A crew of moving company, IBM, and NERSC staffers unloaded the equipment in about three hours, then moved it from the loading area to the machine room. There, another group of workers positioned the 23 cabinets and connected them to seismic restraints laid out under the raised flooring. All the components were cabled together during the following week.