Category Archives: Quantum Computer

Snohomish County on its way to becoming the ‘Quantum Valley’ of the West – Lynnwood Times

BOTHELLMaryland-based quantum computing company IonQ celebrated the grand opening of its new 105,000 square foot building in Bothell on Thursday, February 15. This is the very first known dedicated quantum computing manufacturing facility in the United States and the latest, and greatest, next chapter for Snohomish County innovation and industry.

The new facility will house IonQs growing R&D manufacturing teams where about 80 employees are currently working as of now. Bothell was the chosen location of the companys West Coast expansion due to its proximity to several software, aerospace, and tech companies that could utilize its services.

The Seattle area obviously has a huge history of leadership in classical computing, with companies like Microsoft, and Amazon, but also Boeing and many others. So, it has a great DNA for technology but also manufacturing, said Peter Champan, IonQ CEO. Thats really the two things that we pull into manufacturing quantum computers. Its great to have a highly skilled and highly educated work force to pull from.

The State of Washington has the highest state concentration of tech workers in the country with about 350,000 jobs as of 2023, according to Sen. Maria Cantwells Office. The state also employs the highest number of people in emerging technology jobs such as artificial intelligence and quantum. Just recently GeekWire reported that Seattle was found to be the top city in the country for hiring elite software engineers, and one of the top cities in the world for this level of talent.

IonQ is a leader in quantum computing with the mission statement to build the worlds best quantum computers to solve the worlds most complex problems. Quantum computers are a revolutionary technology that has the potential to change how many businesses including artificial intelligence, security, pharmaceutical companies, aerospace, and more conduct its operations.

Unlike a conventional computer, which uses binary bits (typically ones and zeros) as its unit of information, quantum computers operate at a subatomic level, trapping atoms out of the atmosphere and, with specialized lasers, manipulates particles (such as photons and electrons) to use whats called a quantum bit (or qubit) to allow the particles to exist in more than one state at one time. What this means for computer performance is essentially an upgrade in every way from data to performance time, to solving complex problems.

While quantum computing is a still-developing technology, if successful, this enormous amount of information can help tackle some of the worlds biggest challenges, from fighting diseases to developing better sustainable energy.

At Thursdays ceremony Senator Maria Cantwell, a lead negotiator behind the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act and chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, took to the podium to share a few words before several teams were led through the facility to see firsthand how these miraculous machines are made.

The quantum computing industry has the potential to add thousands of new jobs here in the Pacific Northwest jobs at all skill levels, from technicians to software developers, said Sen. Cantwell. Our region is already known worldwide for our innovation and leadership. And this facility will continue to build on that We are becoming the Quantum Valley, if you will, of the United States.

Sen. Cantwell has been working hard to help industry and academia translate ideas developed in a lab into products and solutions for the American people. She helped authorize $20 billion for a new Tech Directorate program at the National Science Foundation to focus on translational science in 10 key developing areas, including quantum technology.

Also in attendance at Thursdays event was Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, members of the Swiss embassy, and officials representing Microsoft and Amazon.

IonQ has pumped in around $20 million to its Bothell facility to upgrade its infrastructure within the last year. As of now, half of the buildingits lower levelhas been fully completed and is already undergoing manufacturing with the other half still under construction. Once completed the company will have gone from 6,500 square feet, working with just a handful of employees, to over 100,000 square feet with eventual plans to bring its data center from Maryland to Bothell in Snohomish County.

Founded in 2015 by quantum physicists Chris Monroe and Jungsang Kim, after 25 years of academic research and $1 million in seed funds from New Enterprise Associate, IonQ was able to raise $20 million from GV, Amazon Web Services, and NEA to build two of the worlds most accurate quantum computers. In 2019 the company began offering their quantum computers available via the cloud, through a partnership with Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

In 2020 and 2021, IonQ built additional generations of high-performance quantum hardware, added Google Cloud Marketplace to its cloud partner roster and announced a series of collaborations and business partnerships with leading academic and commercial institutions.

On October 1st, 2021, IonQ began trading as IONQ on the New York Stock Exchange, making it the worlds first public pure-play quantum computing company.

Its quantum computer products include the Forte Enterprise, the Forte, the IonQ Aria, the IonQ Harmony, and the still in development AQ 64 IonQ Tempo which will have faster gate speeds, mid-circuit measurement, and 99.9% fidelity, all helping to unlock larger and more complex problem classes and deliver a faster time-to-solution, the company says.

Peter Champan, CEO of IonQ, shared that in the upcoming year, IonQ will have invested close to $80 million into the Seattle area which will hit close to the companys promise of investing $1 billion over the next 10 years.

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Snohomish County on its way to becoming the 'Quantum Valley' of the West - Lynnwood Times

Expert outlines impact of quantum computing | UNC-Chapel Hill – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A new type of computer is coming one that can solve problems much faster and much better than todays models. Quantum computing, powered by quantum mechanics, represents a foundational shift in computing.

Read more about the technology behind quantum computers.

Eric Ghysels, the Edward Bernstein Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Finance, researches the impact quantum computing could have on finance at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Quantum computing is one of the emerging technologies for dealing with all sorts of practical problems facing financial institutions, he said. It is a paradigm shift compared to classical computing, and it has the promise to affect many issues of decision-making in the financial sector.

Ghysels answers questions about quantum computing and how it can impact businesses and the financial sector.

Six years ago I read that NC State had established the very first Q Hub, as it was called, which is quantum hardware sponsored or supported by IBM, meaning that we could actually work with real hardware. That drew my curiosity, and in 2019 I went to the first Q Network meetings organized by IBM in New York. Ironically, the pandemic helped in that we all took classes online while sitting home.

Encryption is based on algorithms and factorization problems that cannot be solved easily within a reasonable amount of time, and were talking about 70,000 years just inconceivable to break a code. Quantum computers will easily break those codes that underlie encryption. That means that all the traffic that we consider to be safe on the internet and all the transactions that we think are safe through encryption are jeopardized.

Most financial institutions know that and are getting quantum ready. Thats the most obvious thing, but thats not only for financial institutions. Thats true for all the other things that go through internet connections.

There are other things, of course: the speed at which we trade, the speed at which we can derive formulas for portfolio allocation, pricing of derivative securities all are going to be affected by the computational speedups.

This started around 2019. Initially, it was organized by the Rethinc Labs, of which I am the research director of at the Kenan Institute. This was parallel to a series that was joined between NC State and Duke. They were organizing quantum-related webinars, except they did not cover financial sector applications. We now have a joint Duke, NC State and UNC webinar.

Ill give you two projects Im working on. One is solving what we call asset-pricing problems. How do you price a particular asset that has a particular payoff profile? Thats a very foundational question in finance. You buy a security or real estate property how do you price it? Ive been working on research on the potential exponential speedup of computing solutions to asset-pricing problems.

The other project involves combinatorial optimization, which requires matching of bids and asks people who want to buy versus people who want to sell. You want to figure out how you combine these different sides of the market. Quantum computers are good at solving combinatorial optimization problems and are better than classical computers.

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Expert outlines impact of quantum computing | UNC-Chapel Hill - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

An overview of post-quantum threats to proof-of-work cryptocurrencies – Cointelegraph

Proof-of-work (PoW), or Nakamoto consensus, is a decentralized consensus mechanism that secures a blockchain by requiring nodes to expend energy and compete against each other to solve complex mathematical challenges to add blocks to the chain and receive rewards.

PoW also requires the network nodes to come to a consensus on whether network elements, such as account balances and the order of transactions, are correct. Bitcoin (BTC) is the largest PoW-powered blockchain by market cap in existence.

The mathematical problems Bitcoin network nodes solve require a significant number of computations, and miners often have to deploy application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) hardware to keep up with the other nodes in a PoW network. Even with ASICs, acquiring majority control of the network and executing a 51% attack to validate invalid transactions would require a substantial amount of computational power.

However, with the introduction of quantum computing technologies, there is a growing concern that the cryptographic underpinnings of blockchain technology, including Bitcoin, could be disrupted. Quantum computers may be able to attack conventional cryptographic methods, such as the ones employed in Bitcoins transaction validation procedure.

In particular, compared to classical computers, quantum computers can tackle complicated mathematical problems like discrete logarithms and integer factorization at an exponentially faster rate. The emergence of quantum computing poses a post-quantum threat to Bitcoins security.

Should a sufficiently potent quantum computer be developed, it might jeopardize the cryptographic integrity of the algorithms that underpin Bitcoin. This could allow malevolent actors to carry out attacks that were previously deemed impossible, such as the capacity to carry out a 51% attack with less computational work than is currently required.

Post-quantum computing refers to the era that would follow the development and deployment of quantum computers that have the potential to solve computational challenges that are presently thought to be beyond the capabilities of classical computers. This covers activities like simulating quantum systems, factoring big numbers and resolving specific optimization issues.

Quantum computing differs fundamentally from classical computing, which relies on bits that can represent either 0 or 1. Instead, quantum bits, or qubits, are used in quantum computing. Due to principles of superposition and entanglement, qubits can represent 0, 1, or both simultaneously.

The implications of quantum computing on PoW are considered one of the greatest incoming threats to the efficacy and effectiveness of blockchains and blockchain cryptography.

In the post-quantum computing era, quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms will be developed to withstand attacks from quantum computers and ensure the security of sensitive information in a post-quantum world.

Cryptography is a discipline within mathematics focusing on securing communication and data and is fundamental to PoW cryptocurrencies like BTC. The Bitcoin blockchain uses powerful cryptography to ensure its decentralized money transfer model remains trustless, private and secure during peer-to-peer transactions. However, quantum computers may attack it by deploying machines and algorithms powerful enough to break its cryptographic shields.

Bitcoin uses asymmetric encryption (also known as public-key cryptography), which employs two different keys: public and private. The public key is used to encrypt data or, in the case of Bitcoin, to generate a Bitcoin address where funds can be received. However, the private key is used for decryption or signing transactions. The private key proves ownership of the funds and authorizes transactions, allowing them to be securely added to the blockchain.

The most important ways Bitcoin uses cryptography are through digital signatures and hash functions. Both of these, however, are potentially crackable through quantum computing.

The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for digital signatures allows users to verify who owns a Bitcoin address and approve transactions. If quantum computers become powerful enough, they might be able to defeat ECDSA using techniques such as Shors algorithm, which might theoretically solve the discrete logarithm problem the foundation of ECDSA security in polynomial time.

The powerful superpositioned Schors algorithm could run on a quantum machine and, using a brute force method, determine the private key associated with a public key, hidden with the elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) scheme, invalidating the digital signature.

Cryptographic hash functions, namely SHA-256, are used by Bitcoin in several ways, including the mining process (PoW) and the creation of addresses using public keys. Hash functions are considered more immune to quantum attacks than the public-key cryptography systems today.

However, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer might still present a threat, albeit less immediately concerning than for digital signatures. For instance, Grovers algorithm may theoretically be able to accelerate the search for a pre-image of a hash function. But it only offers a quadratic speed, implying that the threat may be lessened if the hash length is doubled, for example, from 256 to 512 bits.

Securing PoW against quantum threats and developing post-quantum blockchain security have become essential. The blockchains quantum computing challenge is to develop solutions that can protect it from a quantum computer powerful enough to break all of its current cryptographic security measures.

Quantum-proof cryptocurrency and quantum resistance in blockchains may be possible with techniques like lattices, isogenies and codes.

A lattice-based cryptography is based on the mathematical concept of a lattice. A lattice is a grid of evenly spaced points that extend infinitely in every direction. This type of cryptography uses the complexity of lattices as the basis for encrypting or decrypting messages.

Lattice-based cryptography uses operations on lattice points to carry out encryption, decryption and other cryptographic functions. An attacker would find it challenging to decipher the original message or decryption key without knowing the precise structure of the lattice utilized in the encryption process due to the complexity and intractability of problems on lattices, which serve as the foundation for security.

Isogeny-based cryptography is an evolution of ECC and focuses on securely passing secret messages using the mathematical properties of elliptic curves. However, it introduces a new layer of complexity by using isogenies rather than the points on the curves directly, as in traditional ECC.

Isogeny-based cryptography is similar to two parties coming up with a secret handshake in public, with every move being observed, but no one can replicate it. Like lattice-based cryptography, its complexity offers possible defense against quantum computer attacks, making isogeny-based cryptography a viable option for post-quantum cryptography.

Code-based cryptography is based on challenging-to-decode general linear code. It is based on creating puzzles with error-correcting code, which is a set of mathematical tools used to detect and correct errors in data transmission. For example, if a message sent over the internet gets corrupted before it reaches its target, an error-correcting code would be used to recover it accurately.

In code-based cryptography, it should be straightforward for anyone with the right key to decode a message but challenging for anyone else. Code-based cryptography is considered to have quantum resistance potential because decoding random linear code the basis of code-based cryptography is not known to be efficiently solvable by quantum computers based on current algorithms, including Shors and Grovers.

In 2022, the United States Department of Commerces National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced it had chosen the first set of encryption tools designed to withstand attacks by quantum machines. The four selected algorithms will become a part of NISTs post-quantum cryptographic standard, which is set to be finalized in 2024. They are:

The future of PoW cryptocurrencies in the quantum era is a topic of significant interest and concern within the cryptographic and blockchain communities. Scientists from the University of Sussex estimate that a quantum system capable of utilizing 13 million qubits could break the cryptographic algorithms (that secure the Bitcoin blockchain) within 24 hours.

The mining component of PoW may be impacted by quantum computing. Although quantum techniques, like Grovers algorithm, can accelerate mining through a quadratic speedup in the search for a nonce that meets the PoW criterion, the potential disruption to cryptographic security outweighs this benefit. Nonetheless, the processing capacity required to significantly influence PoW mining is not yet available.

To protect PoW blockchains from future quantum attacks, the blockchain community is actively investigating and creating cryptographic algorithms resistant to quantum attacks. For instance, QuEra, a startup founded by former researchers from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has released an incredibly ambitious roadmap for a Quantum machine set to be released soon.

The company plans on releasing a quantum computer with 100 logical qubits and 10,000 physical Qubits by 2026. It has been claimed that the machine will demonstrate a practical quantum advantage, meaning this computer will be able to perform tasks that todays bit-based computers cannot.

Quantum computers are still unable to crack cryptographic algorithms like those used in Bitcoin due to their small size or lack of fidelity. The field is progressing, though many technical obstacles, such as qubit coherence durations, error rates and others, have yet to be solved.

Written by Aditya Das

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An overview of post-quantum threats to proof-of-work cryptocurrencies - Cointelegraph

Quantum computing startup Diraq raises $15M to build qubits using traditional silicon chips – SiliconANGLE News

Australian quantum computing startup Diraq Pty Ltd. said today it has closed on a $15 million capital raise that will be used to advance its research into a novel concept for building the physical qubits that power quantum computers.

The Series A-2 round was led by Quantonation, a specialist venture capital fund thats focused on quantum computing technologies, and saw participation from Higgins Family Investments and the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The round extends Diraqs original $20 million Series A raise, which closed in May 2022, according to PitchBook data. All told, Diraq has now raised more than $120 million, with the bulk of those funds coming from various Australian and U.S. government funding programs.

The Sydney-based startup is working on the development of quantum processors that rely on electron spins in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor quantum dots. In other words, it claims to be able to make quantum chips using existing chipmaking technologies. The main advantage of using silicon-based qubits the quantum version of the classic binary bit is that this technology could potentially leverage the semiconductor industrys existing infrastructure, meaning they can be manufactured without investing millions of dollars in new quantum chip fabs.

Diraqs silicon-based qubits are very different from the superconducting and ion-trapped counterparts being developed by companies such as IBM Corp. and IonQ Inc., although the research is perhaps not quite as advanced. Although those rivals have already made cloud-based systems available to customers, Diraq is not yet ready to do so. However, the startup insists that its technology remains the only viable way to scale quantum computers to support commercial-scale applications.

Most experts agree that quantum computers will need millions, if not billions of qubits to obtain an advantage over classical computers. But at present, most existing quantum machines can only support thousands of qubits.

Diraq says its approach will allow it to build a full-stack quantum computer that can move the nascent industry toward truly fault-tolerant computing. Already, it claims to have demonstrated superior qubit control with enough fidelity to allow for scalable error correction. This is necessary because in existing systems, the qubits are inherently unstable, introducing errors into quantum calculations that get worse as those systems scale.

The startup claims to have patents covering a detailed CMOS-based architecture for billions of qubits, capable of full error correction, together with advanced methods for qubit control, quantum memory, as well as innovative CMOS device designs.

Diraq co-founder and Chief Executive Andrew Dzurak (pictured, center) said that billions of qubits will be required to see useful quantum computing deployed cost-efficiently in a commercial timeframe. We are working closely with our foundry partners to drive qubit development based on tried and tested CMOS techniques coupled with our proprietary designs, he explained. We are focused on delivering energy-efficient processors with billions of qubits on one chip contained in one refrigerator, rather than thousands of chips and refrigerators requiring hundreds of square meters of space in a warehouse.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said Diraqs confidence in its approach to quantum computing makes it a promising proposition. It would be a major breakthrough in quantum computing if Diraq is able to use existing CMOS infrastructure to build those incredibly unstable qubits, Mueller said. Its too early to tell if the approach will be successful, but the funding will certainly help, and those who have a stake in the quantum revolution would do well to keep an eye out for whatever Diraq comes up with next.

Quantonation partner Will Zeng said the startups main focus going forward will be to develop a working quantum device using a standard semiconductor foundry. This milestone will serve as a proof point, solidifying the viability of Diraqs technology and propelling the companys ambitious scale-up program aimed at constructing the most powerful quantum computers in the world, he added.

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Quantum computing startup Diraq raises $15M to build qubits using traditional silicon chips - SiliconANGLE News

The future of quantum computing | The TechTank Podcast | Brookings – Brookings Institution

Quantum computing promises to solve problems that are impossible for todays computers, including key problems in cryptography, drug discovery, finance, and data analysis. By leveraging the quantum properties of individual atoms and elementary particles, these computers can store and manipulate information in a fundamentally different way from classical computers, opening the door to new algorithms and new solutions.

Although modern quantum computers are still small and error-prone, they have come a long way in the past decade, and continued investment, both from governments and the private sector, promises further breakthroughs. In the past year, there have been important developments, including a thousand-fold increase in the length of time that information persists, large improvements in algorithmic performance and error correction, and the first quantum computer with more than 1000 quantum bits. Once only a theoretical possibility, this emerging form of computing continues to move closer to being a practical reality.

In this weeks episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Darrell West delves into the future and capabilities of powerful quantum computers. To aid in comprehending these revolutionary machines, Darrell West is joined by Joseph Keller, a visiting fellow in the Foreign Policy programs Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings.

You can listen to this episode and subscribe to the TechTank Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast.

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The future of quantum computing | The TechTank Podcast | Brookings - Brookings Institution

Diraq Secures $15M in Series A-2 Funding to Advance Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing Development – HPCwire

SYDNEY, Feb. 12, 2024 Diraq, a global leader in quantum computing based on silicon quantum dots, today announced the successful completion of a Series A-2 capital raise of US$15 million. The raise will advance the companys cutting-edge research and development initiatives to realize the full economic and commercial potential of quantum computing.

The funding round was led by Paris-based specialist investor Quantonation, the worlds first venture capital fund dedicated to quantum technologies, with participation from John Higgins Family Investments and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. The round extends Diraqs Series A of USD $20 million led by technology investor Allectus Capital bringing the total funding of Diraqs technology to USD $120 million, with research funding from Australian and US government programs included.

This new Series A-2 funding will be used to expand our team in Australia and launch in the U.S. as well as capitalize on our existing international partnerships, said Andrew Dzurak, CEO and founder of Diraq. We are working closely with our foundry partners to drive qubit development based on tried and tested CMOS techniques coupled with our proprietary designs. We are focused on delivering energy-efficient processors with billions of qubits on one chip contained in one refrigerator, rather than thousands of chips and refrigerators requiring hundreds of square metres of space in a warehouse.

We are excited to lead Diraqs Series A-2 round as the company continues to evolve as a key player in the global silicon quantum ecosystem, said Will Zeng, a Quantonation partner who will join Diraqs board. The primary technical focus in the next 18 months will be on the development of a quantum chip through a standard semiconductor foundry. This milestone will serve as a proof point, solidifying the viability of Diraqs technology and propelling the companys scale-up program aimed at constructing the most powerful quantum computers in the world.

Diraqs U.S.-based chairman, the Hon. William Jeffrey, former Director of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said, This funding round shows international recognition of our capabilities and potential impact. There is a key advantage to our technology which is based on modified transistors the same components that are integral to our daily lives. As one of the few global companies pursuing the goal of achieving millions of qubits on a single chip, we can leverage over 50 years and trillions of dollars of investment in the semiconductor industry.

Diraq is dedicated to building a full-stack quantum computer that bypasses the current era of large, error-ridden systems and moves the industry directly to fault-tolerant computing. The companys spin-based technology in silicon has demonstrated qubit control with sufficient accuracy to allow for scalable error correction, published in over 30 papers in the highly prestigious Nature group journals, including breakthroughs last year.

By taking on the complete process from quantum hardware through to the application layer, Diraq aims to bring the transformative power of quantum computing to a variety of industries with a powerful, cost-effective and compact quantum processor to help solve the worlds most challenging problems.

About Diraq

Diraq is a world leader in building quantum processors using silicon quantum dot technology. This leverages proprietary technology developed over 20 years of research by Diraq and its predecessor research program at UNSW, which have formed 11 Diraq patent families. The companys approach relies on the existing silicon manufacturing processes used by foundries to produce todays semiconductor components, known as CMOS, forging a faster and cheaper road to market. Diraqs goal is to revolutionise quantum computing by driving qubit numbers on a single chip to the many millions, and ultimately billions needed for useful commercial applications.

Source: Diraq

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Diraq Secures $15M in Series A-2 Funding to Advance Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing Development - HPCwire

Telcos jostle for position ahead of quantum leap – Light Reading

In a thought experiment that would be inadvisable to put into practice, Erwin Schrdinger argued that if a cat were placed in a sealed box with a mechanism that may or may not trigger the release of poison to kill the animal, it would be both dead and alive at the same time. Besides inadvertently raising the blood pressure of cat lovers a demographic thatshouldn't be messed with he was trying to demonstrate the idea of quantum superposition, the theory behind qubits and quantum computing.

Conventional computers as well as phones, tablets and everything else with a computing element rely on bits, the smallest possible units of information. Each of them can only hold a single value at a time traditionally represented as a one or zero. Anything stored or processed in a computer is, deep under the surface, converted by programming languages to ones and zeros the lowercase letter "a," for example goes by "1100001." A single GB of data, about the volume of streaming Netflix for an hour, represents over 8.5 billion bits, meaning ones or zeros. Printed out, that would be almost 3 million pages (don't try this at home.)

That slightly abstract piece of information gets much more complicated when it comes to quantum computing. Quantum bits, or qubits, can flicker between the two states a little like a tossed coin except with differing probabilities. Crucially, qubits can also be entangled to always land on the same result, which means a single string can store multiple pieces of information simultaneously.

Quantum in the cloud

As a result, quantum computers are said to have the potential to store and process more information than even the most advanced supercomputers relying on conventional bits. Scientists expect they will lend themselves particularly well to tasks that require the analysis of different combinations of factors, such as discovering new materials, battery chemistries orplanning traffic.

Still, these use cases are not here yet. The quantum computers available today cannot do anything conventional computers can't and there are some significant quirks that still need to be overcome. Crucially,the number of qubitsinside a quantum computer will need to increase, and the technology's susceptibility toerrors caused by environmental noisehas yet to be fully resolved.

None of this has prevented companies, including many telcos, from hopping aboard the bandwagon. For example, Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems, which providesdigital and IT solutions to businesses, already offers cloud access to quantum computers.

It has teamed up with several companies producing quantum computers, giving customers access to different types of the technology, with each company creating qubits in a different way. For now, the platform includes computers from market heavyweight IBM, alongside IQM and AQT.

T-Systems has also partnered with European platform PlanQK, which is developing a quantum computing ecosystem. As a result, customers have access to ready-made quantum algorithms andapplications. While these do not currently outperform conventional computers,PlanQKsays the idea behind the project is to allow developers to gain knowledge about specific hardware platforms and build the skills required.

In future, more telcos could venture in a similar direction. Andrew Lord, the senior manager of optical networks and quantum research atBT, told Light Reading during an interview that the company would consider selling access to cloud computers in future, perhaps as part of a broader computing platform.

The issue, Lord says, is that quantum computers alone will not be able to solve many of the problems put to them. The goal, then, is to provide a more generic service with quantum as one of the elements included.

"The challenge is, how can you orchestrate between that? So how do you take a problem from a customer and say, the best way of solving this problem is in this combination of compute, whether it's high performance computing, quantum computing, other types, and how do you orchestrate between all of that." The result would be a holistic computing and networking environment, where a customer only pays for the computing time they need. "So that that then becomes a resource scheduling kind of problem, which we're good at," said Lord.

Quantum radio

Yet another area of quantum relevant to telcos is quantum sensing. It uses quantum physics to create what Lord calls ridiculously sensitive sensors that can "pinpoint the location of something down to millimeters," pick up on the vibration of a fiber to deduce that a car has driven on a road above it, or provide alerts about leaking pipes.

Such functionalities could help telcos, which often run extensive fiber optic networks, to better utilize those assets. Because of quantum sensors' higher sensitivity, which can increase communication ranges, the technology could also yield better radios. In the long run, quantum radio could improve mapping and cell phone communications indoors, underwater, underground and in urban canyons.

In 2022, BT trialled quantum antenna technology that relies on excited atomic states, increasing sensitivity compared with traditional technologies. Its atomic radio frequency receiver can pick up weaker signals, and it could be placed inside passive optical receivers in hard-to-reach areas to improve mobile coverage. According to the company, the technology is still in its early stages, but it could eventually make smart cities, IoT and smart agriculture cheaper to implement.

The demonstration used digital modulation within one of EE's main commercial 5G frequency ranges. And earlier this year, the company used a quantum optical radio receiver to make a three-way Microsoft Teams call between three UK locations using EE's 4G spectrum. While a lot of quantum technology might still be far from deployment, BT reckons this particular technology could be deployed in three to five years' time, reportedTelcoTitans.

Although quantum computing and sensing have clearly caught the eye of the telecom industry, it's impossible to tell when these technologies may be ready for prime time, especially in the case of quantum computing. But unlike Schrdinger's unlucky cat, we at least know they are alive and kicking.

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Telcos jostle for position ahead of quantum leap - Light Reading

Taiwan connects its first home-grown quantum computer to the internet – The Register

Taiwanese research institute Academia Sinica has connected a home-brew quantum computer to the internet.

A January 19 announcement of the connection reveals that the machine has five qubits and is available as a test bed for the university's project collaborators, with other researchers able to use it as a development platform for their own efforts using the machine's ultra-low temperature CMOS and parametric amplifiers. Collaborators include the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, so this machine's success may assist US quantum development efforts.

The machine has already had an upgrade from three to five qubits, the announcement states, adding that cubit logic gate fidelity was measured at 99.9 percent which suggests the computer is nicely stable.

Details of the machine's operating environment are absent in the University's statement, which focused on its strategic significance as a sign of progress in the drive to develop the island's quantum capabilities.

Taiwan has, of course, famously come to lead the world in semiconductor manufacturing. Framers of the island's aggressive industry policy will not have missed the likelihood that the rise of quantum systems may make its silicon prowess less relevant.

Indeed, local media yesterday reported that Taiwan's Semiconductor Research Institute has gone shopping for a five-qubit machine from Finland's IQM manufacturer of a machine called the Spark which matches that spec.

The Spark is billed as "An affordably priced 5-qubit superconducting quantum computer, professionally designed and calibrated as a turnkey solution." That makes it sound a little more mature and easy to deploy than Academia Sinica's effort which, as illustrated below, has a few rough edges.

Academica Sinica Quantum Computer Click to enlarge

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Taiwan connects its first home-grown quantum computer to the internet - The Register

Alice & Bob Advance Quantum Computing with Fewer Qubits Needed for Error Correction – HPCwire

PARIS, Jan. 23, 2024 Alice & Bob, a leading hardware developer in the race to fault tolerant quantum computers, in collaboration with the research institute Inria, today announced a new quantum error correction architecture low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes on cat qubits to reduce hardware requirements for useful quantum computers.

The theoretical work, available on arXiv, advances previous research on LDPC codes by enabling the implementation of gates as well as the use of short-range connectivity on quantum chips. The resulting reduction in overhead required for quantum error correction will allow the operation of 100 high-fidelity logical qubits (with an error rate of 10-8) with as little as 1,500 physical cat qubits.

Over 90% of quantum computing value depends on strong error correction, which is currently many years away from meaningful computations, said Jean-Franois Bobier, Partner and Director at the Boston Consulting Group. By improving correction by an order of magnitude, Alice & Bobs combined innovations could deliver industry-relevant logical qubits on hardware technology that is mature today.

This new architecture using LDPC codes and cat qubits could run Shors algorithm with less than 100,000 physical qubits, a 200-fold improvement over competing approaches 20 million qubit requirement. said Thau Peronnin, CEO of Alice & Bob. Our approach makes quantum computers more realistic in terms of time, cost and energy consumption, demonstrating our continued commitment to advancing the path to impactful quantum computing with error corrected, logical qubits.

Cat qubits alone already enable logical qubit designs that require significantly fewer qubits, thanks to their inherent protection from bit flip errors. In a previous paper by Alice & Bob and CEA, researchers demonstrated how it would be possible to run Shors algorithm with 350,000 cat qubits, a 60-fold improvement over the state-of-the art.

LDPC codes are a class of efficient error correction codes that reduce hardware requirements to correct errors occurring in information transfer and storing. By using LDPC codes on a cat-qubit architecture, this latest work not only shows how the qubit footprint of a fault tolerant quantum computer could be further reduced but overcomes two key challenges for the implementation of quantum LDPC (qLDPC) codes.

Alice & Bob recently announced the tape out of a chip that would encode their first logical qubit prototype, known as Helium 1. When logical qubits with a sufficiently low error rate are implemented and using the cat qubit LDPC code technique, Alice & Bob would be capable of harnessing the computing power of 100 logical qubits with as little as 1,500 physical qubits, to run fault-tolerant algorithms.

As leading superconducting quantum computing manufacturers like IBM offer up to 1,121 physical qubits, outperforming classical computers in the simulation of quantum systems (quantum supremacy) is a milestone that would become attainable within current hardware capabilities using Alice & Bob new architecture.

In previously proposed qLDPC codes implementation, most notably IBMs last years paper, long-range qubit connectivity and high-weight stabilizers were required, which represent a daunting technical challenge. In contrast, Alice & Bobs combined approach of cat qubits with classical LDPC codes allows the use of short-range, local qubit interactions and low-weight stabilizers.

This simpler architecture enables for the first time the implementation of a fault-tolerant set of parallelizable logical gates without additional hardware complexity. Allowing for logical gates is a necessary step for the implementation of quantum algorithms and practical quantum computing altogether.

About Alice & Bob

Alice & Bob is a start-up based in Paris and Boston whose goal is to realize the first universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob has already raised 30M in funding, hired over 80 employees, and demonstrated experimental results surpassing those of technological giants like Google or IBM. Alice & Bob specializes in cat qubits, a technology pioneered by the companys founders and later adopted by Amazon. Demonstrating the power of its cat architecture, Alice & Bob recently showed it could reduce hardware requirements to build a large-scale useful quantum computer by up to 200 times compared to competing approaches.

Source: Alice & Bob

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Alice & Bob Advance Quantum Computing with Fewer Qubits Needed for Error Correction - HPCwire

Taiwan’s first home-grown quantum computer is now connected to the internet – TweakTown

A Taiwanese research institute has connected to the internet what is being reported as the nation's first home-grown quantum computer.

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The announcement of the successful connection occurred on January 19 and details Taiwan's first domestically built quantum computer that will be used as a test bed for researchers both on-site and elsewhere around the world. Collaborators on the project include the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the National Changhua Normal University, the National Central University, and the National Chung Hsin University.

Academia Sinica's website states the quantum computer was completed back in October last year, but it was only connected to the internet in January this year, marking a milestone in Taiwan's exponential development into quantum computing. The intent of this step forward in the quantum computing industry is to demonstrate the capabilities of the new technology by solving basic problems. After that has been successfully demonstrated, researchers can move on to the next breakthrough application.

"The success of this project at this stage should prove the characteristics of technological research and development," said James Liao, president of Academia Sinica. "Only after a period of patiently solving basic problems can the next application breakthrough be achieved."

"It is hoped that Academia Sinica's small step will drive the development of quantum research and related industries in Taiwan, attract more domestic and foreign talents to participate in the event, and seize opportunities for Taiwan in the field of quantum technology," added Liao

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Taiwan's first home-grown quantum computer is now connected to the internet - TweakTown