NB675020-25-01927 - Dynamic Frequency Comb RFQ QA 3 July.pdf

NB675020-25-01927 - Dynamic Frequency Comb (DFC) RFQ

Questions and Answers

3 July 2025

1. PWS Section IV Government Furnished Property, states: "All property, data, and information provided by the Government in the performance of these tasks remains the property of the Government and will be surrendered to the Government upon completion or termination of this requirement. Likewise, all deliverables generated under this requirement remain the property of the Government." However, no specific GFP is listed in this section. Can the Government clarify whether it will NOT be furnishing any of the following items?

• 2 Custom NIST real time processor development boards o These boards are in frequent use, but NIST could allow remote access to them for testing and debugging up to 4 weeks a year. However, the contractor is strongly encouraged to provide their own boards which are based on Xilinx VC707 demo boards

• Xilinx Vivado (or ISE if legacy) with appropriate license o Not furnished

• Xilinx Platform Cable USB II o Not furnished

• TI XDS emulator for DSP o Not furnished

• Full source tree of current FPGA firmware and DSP/MCU code (is this on Github?)

o Not furnished

• Board schematics, BOM, PCB stack up o Furnished

• memory map, register definitions, and timing constraints o Not furnished

• Interface control documents for SPI flash, DDS, ADC, DAC, Ethernet MAC, UARTs o Not furnished but much of this is available through Xilinx

• Mathematical description of time transfer algorithms and any proprietary IP blocks o Yes, most algorithms are available in the open literature

• Bootloader or RTOS images, linker scripts, and startup code o Not furnished

2. Will the Government be furnishing any of the following items, or would they all be considered Contractor-Furnished, if used in the project?

• 10+ MHz frequency reference and GPS disciplined oscillator o Not furnished

• External clock generator for 100 MHz Ethernet PHY and other reference clocks o Not furnished

• Digital oscilloscope ≥1 GHz bandwidth, logic analyzer, RF spectrum analyzer, frequency counter, and power meter o Not furnished

• Pair of low phase noise RF signal generators o Not furnished

3. While it is understood that the contractor will primarily drive the final testing at NIST Boulder, (especially if there are problems with the code, etc.), does the Government have any expectations or restrictions on the minimum or maximum final testing period at NIST Boulder?

• There is no minimum expectation, but 4 weeks should be considered the maximum.

4. Does the Government have any expectations or estimates on the level of effort?

• In our experience the level of effort in these projects can vary wildly based on the background experience of the firmware engineer. 1 FTE may be a reasonable lower limit for someone with a high level of experience and understanding of frequency combs and optical time transfer.