AWS Ocelot - News that Should have been Big?

Last week we've talked about the Majorana 1 chip and how Microsofts marketing team oversold the results, today we want to discuss some technical news that were less prominent, but in my opinion more note worthy. As you saw already from the title I am, of course, talking about the Ocelot quantum chip, just introduced by Amazon Web Services (AWS) .

Before we dig deeper into why I think that this announcement is big news, lets discuss the technological aspects of the Ocelot chip. I found the Amazone Science article and the Nature paper very helpful to better understand the technology.

At its core, the Ocelot chip represents a new approach to quantum error correction by combining bosonic cat qubits with superconducting transmon qubits. If we think about classical computers, cat qubits can be loosely compared to RAM (Random Access Memory)—they store quantum information temporarily while computations are performed. However, unlike traditional RAM, cat qubits don't just passively hold data; they exist in a delicate quantum superposition, allowing them to process information in ways that classical memory cannot. Another major difference is that unlike RAM, the cat qubits are on individual qubits level, not on chip level. Additionally, their unique design naturally suppresses certain types of errors, making them a more efficient and scalable solution for quantum computing. Transmon qubits, on the other hand, act like error-detecting modules, helping to correct phase-flip errors and stabilize the system.

This hybrid approach is part of a broader effort to make quantum computing more practical and scalable by reducing the number of physical qubits needed for error correction—one of the biggest challenges in the field today.

Of course, AWS is not the only company experimenting with similar qubit implementations. Quantum Circuits, Inc. , Nord Quantique , Atlantic Quantum , IBM , Alice & Bob (*edited* I deleted Google and added 3 more companies thanks to input from Enrique Solano ) and other companies are working as well on bosonic cat state based error correction. However, AWS is the first company presenting a fully integrated chip to the world. But, it is also clear, that there is still a long way to go to scale these chips to a qubit number that allows for any relevant computation. Currently, the 5 bosonic cat qubits and the 4 transnom qubits form only one logical qubit. The ratio of 9 physical qubits to 1 logical qubit is amazing, but it has to be seen how the archtecture will scale to thousands or even millions of logical qubits.

In my opinion, the marketing team of AWS played it here just right. Is it big news for insiders and experts in quantum computing? I would say it is. Even though we are only talking about 1 logical qubit the scaling and manufacturing process of the proposed archtecture seems possible and likely much easier compared tp other error correction schemes. Is the announcement big news for the general public? No, it isn't! Even though it is a leap in the technological readiness of cat qubit based error correction, it is likely still years away from reaching any meaningful qubit numbers, if possible at all.

What do you think, is the Ocelot chip announcement big news or just another minor technological advance? Let me know in the comments and remember to suscribe! Read you next time!