Now That Commercial Quantum Computing is Being Made Possible, May One Say “Because Quantum is Here”?
Thorough report focusing on the need to move qubits onto chips. That is, if we expect to move beyond quantum supremacy to quantum advantage. Because Quantum is Coming. Qubit.
Commercial Quantum Computing Made Possible
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ Quantum computers are no longer just a dream. D-Wave has been selling special-purpose adiabatic quantum computers specializing in optimization for a decade. Likewise, Switzerland’s ID Quantique has successfully specialized in quantum computing cryptography, U.K. cybersecurity firm Post-Quantum and Australian cybersecurity firm Quintessence Labsin quantum cybersecurity, and Japan’s Quantum Biosystems in quantum-based DNA sequencers.
Reynolds believes that to make quantum computers as affordable as today’s classical computers, they must be integrated onto chips so more qubits will fit into smaller spaces. “Horse Ridge is the first step in the direction of integrated control logic inside the refrigerator, letting us get away from all those bulky copper tubes that define the large size of a quantum computer today.”
+ “Intel, as a technological and market leader in the semiconductor space, is a natural to position itself in this critical part of the overall QC hardware stack by consolidating an assembly of otherwise complex electronics into a single SoC [system on chip] that can sit alongside other cryogenic QC components,” said Sorensen.
+ “Currently, emphasis in the QC development community centers on the advance of better performing–and more numerous–qubits. With Horse Ridge, however, Intel has taken a major step in addressing one of the many other key QC hardware essentials needed to assemble a fully functional QC system, that of essential qubit control capability and QC processor communication with the world outside the refrigerator.”
+ To create general-purpose quantum computers with built-in error correction, according to Reynolds, the industry needs to scale up to hundreds of thousands of qubits. That will allow the error correction that is needed to make them a commercial success.
+ Today, error correction is not economical because of the QC’s giant size. But with hundreds of thousands of qubits in a compact supercooled enclosure with integrated control circuitry, QCs will “begin to start solving some heavy-duty problems,” said Reynolds. “Horse Ridge is how we will get to the necessary number of qubits; it is on the path to one of the 10X jumps we need to get to general-purpose use of quantum computers in the 2030s.”
Source: COMMUNICATIONS of the ACM. R. Colin Johnson, Commercial Quantum Computing Made Possible…
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