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The company's 100-qubit gate-based quantum computer, code-named Hilbert, is launching later this year after final tuning and optimization work.

By cooling atoms down to near absolute zero and then controlling them with lasers, a company has successfully created a 100-qubit quantum processor that compares to the systems developed by leading quantum players to date.

ColdQuanta, a US-based company that specializes in the manipulation of cold atoms, unveiled the new quantum processor unit, which will form the basis of the company's 100-qubit gate-based quantum computer, code-named Hilbert, launching later this year after final tuning and optimization work.

There are various different approaches to quantum computing, and among those that have risen to prominence in the last few years featuresuperconducting systems,trapped ions,photonic quantum computersand evensilicon spin qubits.

SEE: Building the bionic brain (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Cold atoms, on the other hand, haven't made waves in the quantum ecosystem so far. ColdQuanta's 100-qubit quantum processor, however, could seemingly compete against the industry's highest standards: for example, IBM's current quantum system, Hummingbird, supports 65 qubits.

And in the next three years, ColdQuanta is hoping to create a system surpassing 1,000 qubits. This again aligns with IBM's roadmap for quantum hardware,which should see the company releasing a 1,121-qubit quantum computer in 2023.

"We hear a lot about superconducting and trapped ions and in some respects cold atom is the new kid on the block, but we believe it has great promise in terms of scalability," Paul Lipman, president of quantum computing at ColdQuanta, tells ZDNet.

ColdQuanta's approach consists of treating atoms like qubits, and bringing them down to extremely cold temperatures, where their quantum properties can be manipulated with great precision. This is because, in such an isolated environment, atoms are protected from environmental noise and can retain their quantum properties for much longer.

Cooling down particles to exert better control over them is not new to the quantum world: Google and IBM's superconducting processors also require placing qubits in huge dilution refrigerators, where temperatures are brought down to zero kelvin (-273.15C).

But ColdQuanta's cold atoms approach goes one step further. Atoms are cooled down to the microkelvin level that is, a thousand times colder than in the superconducting method.

Rather than using large refrigerators, however, ColdQuanta traps the atoms with lasers to cool them down, before using a combination of lasers and microwave pulses to arrange them into the gates that make up a quantum circuit.

"Because we cool them down with lasers rather than dilution refrigerators, we don't have the same scaling challenges in terms of building enormous fridges that can hold large numbers of qubits," says Lipman. "We cool them down to microkelvin, but we do that in a device that can fit in your hand at room temperature."

What's more: atoms are ten-thousand times smaller than superconducting qubits, according to Lipman, meaning that many cold atom qubits can be packed closely together on a much smaller space. What would require square-meters worth of space for a superconducting quantum processor can sit on a cold atom system the size of a nail, according to the company.

"Cold atoms have this intrinsic scalability that is very attractive," argues Lipman.

Cold atoms' ability to scale rapidly is one of ColdQuanta's key selling points, but there remain some engineering challenges that, for now, still limit Hilbert's size. The company's scientists are looking at how the use of lasers changes when the qubit count increases by orders of magnitude, for instance, and testbeds are already underway in the lab to determine the best path forward.

The fundamental principles of the approach, however, are tested and proven, says Lipman, and cold atoms already perform similarly to leading-edge quantum processors. Not only on qubit count: the company's data also shows thatthe system is comparable to IBM and Google's quantum computerswhen it comes to connectivity, which refers to the number of qubits that can interact with one another, and coherence, which is the duration of time that quantum properties can be maintained.

On fidelity, however, the processor lags slightly behind the devices developed by competitors, meaning that the accuracy of ColdQuanta's system isn't as high. But part of the optimization work going on now, says Lipman, is dedicated to boosting Hilbert's performance on fidelity.

Lipman is confident that these promising results will set ColdQuanta apart in an ecosystem that is growing at pace. New milestones are announced by quantum companies large and small at a rapid pace, and the number of approaches to quantum computing is multiplying fast, each with their own benefits and challenges making it increasingly difficult to distinguish hype from reality.

"It's too early to tell which modality will win the race," admits Lipman. "If you roll the clock forward two or three years, there might even be modalities that we don't even have publicly available information on today, but may come to the forefront."

"We'll learn more once the computer is released, but our focus now is to work with potential customers to deliver tangible near-term value."

ColdQuanta has not publicly announced any customers yet, but the company is working particularly on optimization problems, which could find applications in logistics, material science and telecommunications.

The firm also has a long-standing partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which awarded ColdQuanta a total $7.4 million to develop a scalable cold-atom-based quantum computer for defense applications such as resource allocation, logistics, and image recognition.

Hilbert is expected to launch later this year and will be available over ColdQuanta's private cloud. The company is also in talks with Amazon, Microsoft and Google to eventually make the quantum computer accessible over AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.

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Quantum computing: This new 100-qubit processor is built with atoms cooled down near to absolute zero - ZDNet

Issued on: 05/07/2021 - 15:05

Researchers at theFrench Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission(CEA) in Grenoble are confident of reaching a key milestone at the end of this year in their quest to build a quantum computer.

Maud Vinet and Silvano De Franceschi from the CEA along with Tristan Meunier of CNRSare leading a multidisciplinary teamof around 50 scientists and engineers to build a silicon based quantum machine, the first critical step of which would be to operate a network of two qubits in the coming months.

How quantum computing works

Qubits are the units of information in quantum computing. They are the quantum equivalent of bits. Unlike classical computing where bits can exist as either 0 or 1, in quantum systems they possess both values at the same time. This property is called superposition.

The other key quantum property is called entanglement. It refers to the almost instantaneous effect two qubits have on each other even at a distance after having been initially coupled. Entanglement and superposition give quantum computers their phenomenal calculating power.

But keeping qubits entangled is a big challenge. It is subject to interference from the environment. Any disturbances, whether thermal, electrical or mechanical, can cause errors, De Franceschi says.

One way to limit the errors caused by these factors is to operate the qubits in a deep freeze mode.

When qubits are cooled down to sufficiently low temperature, typically below a few degrees Kelvin, they are no longer susceptible to undesirable thermal excitations and their coherence can be preserved, Vinet says.

Though the system to cool qubits uses the similar principle as that of a household refrigerator, it is much bigger and way more complex.

The CEA has several cryostats that use helium to achieve a temperature between 15 millikelvin to 1 Kelvin.

That corresponds to 272 degrees below waters freezing point. Besides the above-mentioned cryostats, the CEA also boasts of a cryogenic prober that can carry out automatic measurements of 300 mm silicon wafers below 2 Kelvin or minus 271 degree Celsius. There are only two such machines in the world.

The French approach

There are four major approaches to fabricate the qubits: photons, trapped ions, superconductors and semiconductors like silicon.

Vinet and De Franceschi have adopted the last approach which involves the use of the magnetic moment of an electron in silicon to create the two different states of the qubit. They have chosen silicon even though it seems to be lagging behind the others in terms of the number of interacting qubits in a network.

The other three approaches seem to have made more progress. But we are sticking with silicon. Thats because building workable quantum computers is not a short term race. It doesnt matter where you stand today. What matters more is the growth potential for the future, De Franceschi told RFI.

According to Vinet, in order to build a practical quantum computer, scalability will be the key. In this regard, theres no better candidate than silicon, which is central to the semiconductor industry. With silicon we can fabricate millions or even billions of qubits that can be assembled in a relatively compact system. Its also convenient for control electronics.

Moreover, according to De Franceschi, when it comes to performance, the silicon qubits are on par with the other platforms in terms of fidelity and speed of operations. De Franceschi contends that some of the other approaches may be appropriate but they may not be equally suitable when it comes to effective, massive and easy manufacturing.

You need to consider how good you can scale up and handle the controlling of qubits once the processor size grows. There are other problems such as possible interference when you are manipulating qubits. The successful approach will be the one that copes the best with all these issues, he says.

Researchers at CEA have a unique advantage as both the physics and the engineering requirements necessary to build a quantum computer are available under the same roof.

While De Franceschi and his team are engaged in perfecting the fabrication and interactions between qubits, Vinet and his group are working in parallel to make qubits truly scalable and to build the other components of a quantum computer.

What we are trying to do here is build a full stack quantum computer. We are developing the quantum chip, control electronics, implementation of the quantum algorithm as well as an interface that translates the algorithm into electrical signals, Vinet says.

Quantum appeal

Quantum computers have elicited huge interest from not just research labs but also IT giants, start ups and governments. In January 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a 1.8 billion euro Quantum Plan initiative for supporting research and development of quantum technologies.

The enormous appeal of quantum computing lies in its promise to easily outperform even the worlds most powerful supercomputers on certain types of calculations.

They are expected to solve complex problems such as protein simulations, calculating air flow on aircraft, finding new materials such as possibly room temperature superconductors, Vinet says, adding researchers still dont know how powerful these machines will turn out to be.

Continued here:
French researchers on the verge of quantum computing milestone - RFI English

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This week, the UK government and IBM hope to make new discoveries and develop sustainable technologies in areas from life sciences to manufacturing, 210 million ($ 297.5 million) for five years. Announced a collaboration between IBMs artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

The program employs 60 scientists, invites internships and students to work at the Hartree Center in Daresbury, Cheshire, with the support of IBM Research and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom. The newly established Hartree National Center for Digital Innovation (HNCDI) applies AI, high performance computing (HPC), data analysis, quantum computing, and cloud technology to areas such as material development and environmental sustainability. Promote research in. IBM Said in a statement..

Artificial intelligence and quantum computing have the potential to revolutionize everything from the way we travel to the way we shop. Thats exactly what I want the UK to lead, said the UK. Said Amanda Soloway, Minister of Science.

The Hartree Center was opened in 2012 by the UK Research and Innovation STFC as an HPC, data analysis, and AI research facility. It is housed in Sci-Tech Daresburys lab for research in accelerator science, biomedical, physics, chemistry, materials, engineering, computational science and more.

The program is part of IBMs Discovery Accelerator initiative to accelerate discovery and innovation based on the convergence of advanced technologies at research centers such as HNCDI, the company said. This will be IBMs first European Discovery Accelerator Research Center.

As part of the HNCDI program, STFC Hartree Center participates in more than 150 global organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, with access to the IBM Hybrid Cloud. IBM quantum network.. The Quantum Network is an assembly of premium quantum computers and development tools by computing giants. IBM also provides access to commercial and experimental AI products and tools to work in areas such as Material Design, Scaling and Automation, Supply Chain Logistics, and Reliable AI Applications, the company said.

IBM has been busy dealing with Discovery Accelerator and its partners this year.The company invested $ 200 million last month 10-year joint project At the Grainger Institute of Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Similar to HNCDI in the UK, the IBM-Illinois Discovery Accelerator Institute, planned at UIUC, will build a new research facility and hire faculty and technicians.

Earlier this year, IBM announced a 10-year quantum computing collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, laying the computational foundation for a global center for future Cleveland Clinic pathogen research and human health. The project will set up the first US-based on-premises private sector. IBM Quantum System One, The company said. Over the next few years, IBM also plans to install one of the first next-generation 1,000 qubit quantum systems on another Cleveland client site.

At the time of the announcement of the Cleveland Clinic, IBM Chair and CEO Arvind Krishna said the pandemic urged the challenge of leveraging quantum computing, AI and other cutting-edge technologies to solve the most pressing problems in medicine. Said that he was added.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created one of the greatest races in the history of scientific discovery, which demands unprecedented agility and speed, Krishna said. Said in a statement..

At the same time, science is undergoing unique changes. High-performance computing, hybrid cloud, data, AI, and quantum computing are being used in new ways to break the long-standing bottleneck in scientific discovery. A new collaboration with Cleveland Clinic combines world-renowned expertise in healthcare and life sciences with IBMs next-generation technology to make scientific discoveries faster and expand their reach than ever before. I will, says Krishna.

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The technology industry is rooting for a bill the Senate passed earlier this year. The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act authorizes $110 billion over five years to fund research in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing and related technologies. For why at least one sector likes this bill, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry (ITI) Council Jason Oxman.

Tom Temin: Jason, good to have you back.

Jason Oxman:Thanks, Tom. Its good to be with you.

Tom Temin: And this bill, of course, sets up regional technology centers lots of money and grants. What is industrys general take on what it will do?

Jason Oxman:Well, this is an enormously important bill, were strongly supportive of this legislation, glad it moved through the Senate, hope it moves through the House quickly and to the presidents desk. Its really critical for expanding Americas technology leadership. It has, as you mentioned, a lot of investment and focus on technology leadership, on economic competitiveness, U.S. innovation including funding for development of technology centers, research, high tech jobs theres really a lot in it thats going to be important for the U.S. economy and important for our technology leadership around the world.

Tom Temin: Yeah, and of course, this is aimed at least all the accounts Ive read in the summary of it at China. And I guess, maybe industrys view, it kind of gives industry the backup that maybe Chinese industrial counterparts have from their government?

Jason Oxman:Yeah, thats a really important point. And nowhere is this more evident than in the semiconductor provisions in this bill, theres funding in here $52 billion for something called the CHIPS Act for America. The CHIPS Act is focused on investing in manufacturing capability here in the U.S. for semiconductors. Weve all heard about the shortage of semiconductors across all industries around the world. And as the semiconductor industry looks to increase manufacturing capability, we think its enormously important that we do that here in the United States. China provides enormous subsidies for companies to invest in semiconductor manufacturing there. We think its more important that it happened here. Its important for manufacturing, its important for job creation, its important for national security. And this legislation has the funding in it. We need it to become law in order for that to become realized, but we think thats enormously important to have happen.

Tom Temin: Yes, because short term, the world is relying on Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing. And just as China came in and kind of smashed Hong Kong, it seems like Taiwan is probably next in their sights. So theres a short-term worry, because of that, correct?

Jason Oxman:Well, the long-term interest of the U.S. is to have companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) build manufacturing capability in the U.S. Its a great company, Intel is a great company. There are other great manufacturers of semiconductors that do so in the U.S. like Texas Instruments. We love AMD all these companies are terrific and we want them to continue to grow their supply. But we want them to do it in the U.S. We dont want them to build their next generation of plants elsewhere. We dont want it built in China, we want it built in the U.S. So the CHIPS Act has that funding in it to help semiconductors be built here in the U.S. And we think thats what we should be doing.

Tom Temin: And I guess maybe the larger question then is, what are the policies that gave rise to the exodus of chip manufacturing from the United States in the first place? I mean, wed still refer constantly to Silicon Valley, which used to be Silicon Valley. Now its Software Valley, and Lord knows what else but the [Facilitating American-Built Semiconductors] have closed up and moved elsewhere. Maybe theres something in our policies that could foster industry to stay here in the first place?

Jason Oxman:Well, its an enormously important question. And it is the driving force behind this legislation, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act is designed to replace those national policies that we used to have to encourage manufacturing in the U.S. with a new generation of policies that invest in national security and global economic competitiveness. So youre absolutely right. Just a couple of decades ago, in the 90s, well over 25% of the worlds semiconductors were manufactured here in the U.S. Today, that number is closer to 11%. So we really have lost in almost an entire generation of manufacturing capability. So the policy change that needs to happen is reverting back to policies that support manufacturing here in the U.S., support job creation, support research and development. And thats exactly what this legislation does. And were hoping to reverse the trend that weve seen in the last couple decades of the manufacturing of semiconductors moving outside of the U.S. Lets bring it back to the U.S.

Tom Temin: Were speaking with Jason Oxman, president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council. Because you wonder if someone proposed a million-square-foot FAB somewhere in California, or in Washington state or even Texas for that matter how long such a thing would be tied up with environmental reviews and regulatory red tape, that is both federal, state and local.

Jason Oxman:And this partnership among all levels of government, with the federal government leading the way, is enormously important to addressing those kind of concerns. What weve in recent years is really industrial policy from other areas of the world China leading the way such that it becomes much more expensive to build a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the U.S. than outside of the U.S. for all of those reasons you mentioned, ranging from the time it takes to get the permitting to actual funding from government, to help secure the investing to tax credits that helped make it more economically viable to build those facilities. So other countries are doing this around the world. Hence, the reason that semiconductor manufacturing has moved outside of the U.S. If we can get the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, and the CHIPS Act funding moved forward, signed into law by the president, we have a real opportunity to re-engage with the R&D, the tech talent and the manufacturing capability here in the U.S. Its going to have enormous economic benefits, its going to have enormous national security benefits we really need to get it done.

Tom Temin: And when you look at chip manufacturing, in some ways, its the final step in a long chain of suppliers Air Products, companies like that construction, all sorts of high tech semiconductor manufacturing equipment. And then of course, a semiconductor chip is the expression of millions and millions of lines of code etched into hardware. So theres all this software development. It seems like these could really be great economic engines.

Jason Oxman:No question. The semiconductor industry really is the backbone. Its the building block for everything. There is not a device on the market today that doesnt have semiconductors inside it, ranging from the phones that were talking on right now across the world, to artificial intelligence to supercomputers to cars and vacuum cleaners and everything in between. So no question these are the backbones they are the essential building block for every device thats manufactured. So we have an opportunity to increase the manufacturing capability. We really have the opportunity to build every industry thats built on top of semiconductors. So it has enormous spillover benefits for economic competitiveness.

Tom Temin: And the bill deals with more than simply semiconductors. Theres quantum computing, theres artificial intelligence, a whole string of things that would seem to create an ecosystem that seems to be ebbing at the moment in the country.

Jason Oxman:Its all of those things, its funding for all of those areas that you just mentioned. Its also a really important focus in this legislation, on training and trade and economic and manufacturing jobs, high-skilled jobs in the U.S. We need more high-skilled jobs and we need more high skilled workers. And retraining, reskilling is enormously important. But also STEM education to get people into these high-skilled jobs is important. So theres a lot of programs in the US innovation and Competition Act that would advance that as well. It really is an omnibus bill that looks at the global economic competitiveness of the United States, and takes concrete steps in a number of different areas, to build out capabilities that will help grow the U.S. economy and help the U.S. compete internationally.

Tom Temin: And do you ever think that perhaps this could also help some of the economically underprivileged, if you will, areas of the country that drive through large swaths of Appalachia, through the Rust Belt, Youngstown, Ohio; and parts of Indiana and states like that, where you see vast former factories, or gigantic sites that are nothing but you know, rubble at this point. It seems like theres a great opportunity for training people and building facilities where you already have open land that used to be a factory of long ago.

Jason Oxman:And the technology industry really has taken a lead in doing that. Companies like Intuit is one I think of that is invested in technology jobs in West Virginia in the middle of Appalachia and is creating hundreds of new jobs and retraining and reskilling people. And thats why the workforce components of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act are so important because we do have an opportunity to transform areas of the country that have maybe seen their heyday with different types of manufacturing transform into high tech manufacturing. But it really is about the skilling of workers and also the STEM training and making sure that we make our STEM training start early enough and makes it attractive to people in areas that may not have had STEM training, starting in middle school, starting in elementary school, working through high school into associate degrees, making sure we dont view the four-year college degree as the only potential path to getting a good high-paying job. These are all provisions that are in the U.S. innovation and Competition Act and one of the reasons that the tech industry, which needs these workers, and has these jobs available, is so supportive of the legislation.

Tom Temin: And what is ITI doing to make sure this advances in the House at this point?

Jason Oxman:Well, we have worked hard to get it through the Senate and we were very pleased to see it passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. Now we need to move to the House. ITI and the tech industry that we represent, all 80 of our member companies that are global technology and innovation powerhouses are telling the story of how the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act will advance the U.S. economy, will help create great jobs and help move forward our economic competitiveness. Were telling that story in the House. Were there every day and meeting with folks and helping them understand the importance of this legislation, and were doing everything we can to move it forward.

Tom Temin: Jason Oxman is president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council. Thanks so much for joining me.

Jason Oxman: Thank you.

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Why industry supports the government's $110 billion bet on technology R&D - Federal News Network