Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2016-07-30
Buyer: Københavns Universitet
Country: DK
Region: Hovedstaden
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 38341300
Estimated value: 1227546 DKK
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: This order is for a high speed electronics platform to control multiqubit devices. The system is based around highly customizable field programmable gate array (FPGA) boards that use a PCIe interface for communication and data transfer with the host PC. 4DSP has been selected as the vendor as they are one of very few vendors that offer PCIe-based FPGA cards that use the latest and fastest Xilinx Ultrascale chips. Furthermore they are the only known vendor that offers a PCIe board that allows dual DAC FMC modules to be stacked side-by-side.
The Center for Quantum Devices and Microsoft Station Q Copenhagen is a research center supported by the Danish National Research Foundation and Microsoft Research, experimental and theoretical physics, nanoelectronics fabrication, and quantum device technologies.
This order is for a high speed electronics platform to control multiqubit devices. The system is based around highly customizable field programmable gate array (FPGA) boards that use a PCIe interface for communication and data transfer with the host PC. The FPGA boards interface with modular FPGA mezzanine cards (FMCs) which have digital-to-analog convertors (DAC) to generate the necessary signals for qubit control.
Expando-4DSP has been selected as the vendor as they are one of very few vendors that offer PCIe-based FPGA cards that use the latest and fastest Xilinx Ultrascale chips. Such high performance FPGA chips support the generation of high speed (gigasample per second or greater) signals, as required for qubit control. Furthermore 4DSP is the only known vendor that offers a PCIe board that allows dual DAC FMC modules to be stacked side-by-side, reducing by half the total number of FPGA boards needed. FPGA boards with a PCIe interface have been selected as this interface is widely used for consumable electronics and therefore better supported compared to other more specialised interfaces.
4DSP has also been selected as, to our knowledge, they offer the widest range of FMCs. This will ensure that the system has the greatest flexibility and will be able to readily evolve as our experimental requirements change (as is often the case). Using the same vendor for both the FPGA boards and FMC modules will also ensure better system integration and substantially reduce firmware development time.
Lastly, 4DSP has been selected as this vendor is already being used by our close collaborators in Sydney. We can therefore take advantage of their significant expertise using these products. Given that FPGA-based electronics are challenging and time consuming to program, we expect that using common hardware will significantly reduce development costs.
A complaint against the contracting entity who, in accordance with the European Parliament and Council Directive No 2004/18/EC, Article 31, has decided to award a contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union must,in accordance with the Danish act on enforcement of procurement rules, etc. § 7, para. 3, be filed to the Danish Public procurement Appeal Board within 30 calendar days from the day following the day on which a contract notice is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The Danish act on enforcement of procurement rules, etc. defines in § 3, para. 1, point 1, a standstill period of 10 calendar days from the day after the date on which the voluntary ex ante transparency notice is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Latest at the same time as a complaint is lodged to the Danish Public procurement Appeal Board, the appellant shall in writing inform the contracting entity about the lodging of a complaint to the Danish Public procurement Appeal Board, and whether the complaint has been submitted in the stand still period. In cases where the complaint is not submitted in the stand still period, the appellant must specify any suspensive effect of the complaint according to The Danish act on enforcement of procurement rules § 12, Para. 1.


Award value: 1227546