Intriguing Quantum #19
Daniella Pontes, CISSP
? ? Product | Solution Marketer ? ? Quantum Ambassador ? ? Planning & Executing to Market Success
[December 18, 2024]
Welcome to the 19th issue of the Intriguing Quantum newsletter! IQ newsletter is curated by Oliver Rochford and Daniella Pontes, CISSP , and summarized using AI. Join us in scanning the horizon for the beginning of the Quantum Age.
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SPECIAL EDITION
The Roadmap to Quantum Value: Insights from Q2B 2024 Silicon Valley
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A Thriving Quantum Ecosystem
“Team Diraq found Q2B24SV very valuable, in terms of strengthening key connections with the global quantum eco-system and building our awareness of some of the latest breakthroughs and challenges of competing quantum technologies.”
Andrew Dzurak - CEO & Founder
The Q2B 2024 Silicon Valley conference brought together the global quantum ecosystem through stimulating discussions, engaging talks, and vibrant networking events. Ranging from technical sessions and real-world use cases to visionary panels, the conference highlighted the state of the art in quantum computing, sensing, networking, and applications, offering a platform to bridge academia, industry, and policy.
As the theme of the conference, 'The Roadmap to Quantum Value,' unfolded, we were able to reflect on both the persisting challenges and the exciting breakthroughs, with a wave of new approaches to tackle key obstacles separating us from quantum value. Quantum computing is currently available for purchase in the cloud or as dedicated machines on premises. Cost and maintenance complexity are not the only aspects to consider.? Quantum computing is still far from turn-key solutions; a comprehensive tech stack, including control systems, calibration and tuning tools, error modeling, simulation tools, and hybrid computing, should be considered when choosing an overall solution. The road to quantum value offers multiple lanes, including algorithms, qubit and gate quality, error correction, hybrid computing, networking integration, standards, and, ultimately, the development of killer apps. Progressing along all lanes takes us closer to the quantum era. Let’s dive in!
The Challenging, The Exciting, and The New
The Challenging: Getting to Fault-Tolerant Application-Scale Quantum (FASQ)
“The path to economic impact is the road through fault-tolerant quantum computing. And that poses a daunting challenge for our field and for the quantum industry.”
Professor John Preskill,?Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics & Director of the Institute for Quantum Information & Matter
Prof. John Preskill set the stage with a sobering yet optimistic view. In the current NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) era, delivering practical, commercial value remains elusive. Yet, meaningful technological progress is evident across algorithms, error-mitigation, error-correction, and hardware quality. While FASQ machines capable of executing millions of error-corrected operations remain a distant goal, they are no longer unimaginable.
Emerging platforms are from the get go aiming to deliver the scale, accuracy, and performance required to achieve fault tolerance. While pursuing quantum advancements, such as high error syndrome accuracy and fast gate operations, they are also tapping into classical computing advancements in machine learning (ML) and AI to implement error corrections in real time.
But quantum challenges are not solely technical; policies and ethics will also play an important role as we immerse ourselves into a world powered by quantum technology. Thoughtful consideration must be given to put in place policies that allow equitable access for education, research and know-how development. We must balance national interests with enabling collaboration and democratizing quantum technology to prevent widening disparities. Finding this balance is a true challenge, but failing to do so could lead us toward a less humane world.
The Exciting: Error Correction Breakthrough
The biggest buzz during the conference was the unveiling of Google’s Willow Quantum Chip, a quantum chip that represents a major leap in quantum computing by exponentially reducing errors as the number of qubits increases. Historically, adding more qubits leads to increased errors, but Willow achieves ‘below threshold’ error rates, meaning it scales qubits effectively without overwhelming the system with errors. Willow also offers a path toward fault-tolerant quantum computing through real-time error correction, a breakthrough necessary for practical quantum computations.
An extraordinary achievement of Willow was its performance on the Random Circuit Sampling (RCS) benchmark, completing a task in under five minutes that would take classical supercomputers 102? years (10 septillion years)—or, to put it in striking terms, 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. This milestone demonstrates Willow’s potential to perform calculations that are beyond the reach of classical computers.
Key advancements in Willow include:
These developments represent significant steps toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems. However, Willow is still in the early stages, the tests were conducted with a single logical qubit quantum memory, with the next challenge being realizing its potential and scaling the system to hundreds or thousands of logical qubits. While much work remains, Willow’s performance signals that we are closer than ever to achieving practical quantum computing.
The New: Ideal Qubits
The path to scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers is still evolving, with various hardware platforms vying to meet an expanding set of demands. What was once a race focused on quality, speed, and volume is now also shaped by new considerations, including chip integration with control systems and networking, more flexible operating environment requirements, manufacturing scalability, and supply chain reliability. The competition to build the ideal qubit platform is intensifying, with several strong contenders emerging.
Spin Qubits
Spin qubits are resetting the qubit race. Diraq , one of the promising “new faces” featured in the conference, leverages CMOS technology to integrate millions of qubits on a chip, promising scalable solutions within a decade. “Our foundational IP is in the highly controlled device fabrication, design and operation of silicon spin qubits compatible with advanced CMOS foundry manufacturing. We have developed advanced techniques to encode qubits in semiconductor spin carriers that can be produced and integrated at the scale required to build the world’s first sustainable, cost-effective, and commercially viable fault-tolerant quantum computers”, says Andrew Dzurak - CEO & Founder. Building on top of the mature CMOS semiconductor manufacturing industry, Diraq is positioned to deliver error-corrected quantum computation and quantum memory at scale.
Another emerging player, Quantum Transistors, is developing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center qubits, a type of spin qubits with information stored in the spin state of an electron trapped within an NV center in a diamond crystal. NV center spin qubits have desirable characteristics, including long coherence times, room temperature operation, and optical readout capabilities for direct interface to quantum networks.
Silicon spin qubits are gaining traction for their compatibility with existing semiconductor manufacturing, charting what seems to be the shortest path to bridge today’s chipset mature technology and supply chain with tomorrow’s, maximizing the benefits of this continuity while maintaining a strong focus on innovation to fulfill demands of a quantum era.
Dual-Rail Qubits
Quantum Machines presented a novel dual-rail qubit encoding system, enabling precise error detection without disturbing quantum states. This innovation could pave the way for real-time error correction, a critical milestone for scalable systems.
Cat Qubits
Alice & Bob introduced a roadmap for achieving 100 fault-tolerant qubits by 2030 using cat qubits, which are naturally resilient to bit flip types of errors. Their approach reduces the complexity of error correction since it is left to deal with practically only phase errors, putting them in a better position to apply more advanced error detection and correction methods. They deliberately skipped NISQ, putting all their efforts and focus into building fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Cloud vs. On-Premises
Quantum computing can cater to organizations at different stages of quantum adoption. Using broad strokes, cloud offerings , Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), provide accessible entry points for research and experimentation without large capital investment and the overhead of setting up and running a quantum computer.
For some industries though, such as? government, defense, regulated, IP-centric sectors, or even high-education institutions with advanced quantum research programs, on premises deployment fits better with their compliance, security and access requirements. While blind quantum computing could enable secure cloud-based quantum computing, dedicated machines can speed up learning and development with direct access, integration with HPC (High-Performance Computing) and no delays.?
HPC centers are emerging as quantum computing’s perfect partner. Organizations using HPC are already at the fringes of classical computing trying to tackle hard problems. Introducing Quantum computing can provide an incremental but valuable increase in accuracy, speed or efficiency of computed results, by off loading specific “tough” workloads to run on QPUs. Quantum Machines and ParTec worked together to create QBridge, a solution to seamlessly integrate HPC and Quantum Computers.
Quantum Computing Techstack
Quantum computers are not plug-and-play. They require bootstrapping, including qubit bring-up, characterization and tuning, which can take days without good tools, even for skilled teams. Some amount of instrumentation is required before the quantum computer can be used to run programs. To best utilize a quantum computer, tools for simulation, noise modeling, optimization, and other mechanisms are required to accelerate the path to value.
Q2B 2024 conference offered the opportunity to see the value added by this “invisible” techstack ecosystem. Companies like QuantrolOX demonstrated how challenging it is to understand information encoding and output at the qubit physical level and how much easier it becomes with a tool that automates qubit characterization and tuning. Going up in the stack, Classiq can turn functional models into optimized quantum circuits and execute them on any gate-based system and cloud provider. Another interesting tool from Quantum Elements provides high-accuracy simulation that includes error profiling of the specific qubit implementations to make simulations during algorithm development more accurate.?
These tools are critical to reduce investigation and testing time, save resources and accelerate application development.
Applications Focus
Real-world use cases of quantum technology and quantum inspired applications are emerging across sectors. Multiple sessions and panels showcased inspiring initiatives.?
See below some key areas with applications and use cases being implemented, under investigations and/or with a roadmap:
Fostering the Quantum Industry
The conference underscored the importance of fostering a vibrant quantum ecosystem.??
Geopolitical strategies to establish centers of quantum innovation are driving significant funding from both public and private sectors. Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), established with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is part of the United States Federal strategy for advancing quantum. Among the services provided by QED-C, it identifies gaps in technology, standards, and workforce and helps address those gaps through collaboration with players in the market. These efforts are crucial for nurturing talent and creating opportunities across the quantum landscape.
Final Thoughts
Q2B 2024 Silicon Valley reaffirmed that the quantum industry is thriving, dynamic, and ripe with opportunity. From technical breakthroughs to visionary discussions, the conference not only showcased the latest advancements but also inspired meaningful conversations about the future we are collectively shaping.
As quantum computing continues its ascent, fostering innovation and education of a qualified workforce will be critical to breaking barriers and unlocking the immense potential of this transformative technology. Ultimately, the continued collaboration between researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers will be essential in unlocking the full potential of quantum technology.
This publication is a result of a free gift in the form of the Ticket to the event.
NEWS COVERAGE
ROAD TO QUANTUM ADVANTAGE
Summary: The article highlights major quantum milestones of 2024, including Google’s "Willow" quantum chip achieving benchmark computations in under five minutes—tasks that would take today’s fastest supercomputers 102? years. It also emphasizes progress in quantum error correction, aided by AI, signaling advancements in stability and scalability for quantum systems.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Move Aside NISQ - John Preskill Sets New Quantum Target: the Megaquop Machine Summary: Prof. John Preskill proposes a new quantum computing target: the “megaquop” system. This fault-tolerant system focuses on executing a billion quantum operations with minimal errors, aligning with the theme of advancing the quantum value roadmap. This sets the stage for long-term innovations in scalable fault-tolerant quantum systems.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Long-term
Summary: Google’s Willow chip demonstrates exponential error reduction, achieving improved logical error rates as qubit distances increase. The article highlights advancements in real-time error decoding, reduced leakage errors, and stable quantum operations, laying a foundation for scalable fault-tolerant systems.
Sentiment: Strong Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
QUANTUM COMPUTING
Summary: Microsoft plans to deliver an advanced quantum computer by 2025, featuring innovative fault-tolerance mechanisms to mitigate errors in physical qubits. This development promises increased reliability for complex computations and marks a key step in quantum hardware evolution.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Short-term
Summary: Dr. Alan Baratz highlights D-Wave’s focus on solving real-world business problems using annealing quantum computers. Emphasizing accessibility and practicality, the discussion reflects optimism for broader industry adoption of quantum solutions.
领英推荐
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Short-term
Summary: This Reddit discussion explores future quantum computing materials, including superconducting qubits, trapped ions, and topological qubits. Each material offers unique benefits and challenges for scalable quantum systems.
Sentiment: Neutral | Time to Impact: Long-term
Summary: IonQ’s new quantum operating system aims to integrate quantum computing seamlessly into enterprise environments, offering enhanced scalability, security, and interoperability. This innovation strengthens the role of quantum in business.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Summary: The article discusses how businesses are leveraging quantum computing for IT optimization and problem-solving. Public-private quantum ecosystems are growing, fostering innovation and adoption across industries.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
QUANTUM NETWORKING
Summary: Researchers, guided by AI, propose a simpler method to achieve quantum entanglement without relying on pre-entangled pairs or Bell-state measurements. This novel approach simplifies entanglement generation for quantum networks.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Long-term
QUANTUM CYBERSECURITY
Summary: Naoris Protocol introduces a post-quantum Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) to enhance cybersecurity and trust by transforming devices into decentralized validator nodes. This innovation strengthens digital defenses.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
POST-QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY (PQC)
Summary: AWS outlines its migration plan for post-quantum cryptography, preparing to safeguard data against potential quantum threats. The strategy prioritizes proactive security measures for a quantum-ready future.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Summary: Quantum eMotion develops quantum-safe solutions for blockchain, healthcare, and IoT, leveraging its patented Quantum Random Number Generator. These efforts ensure secure and efficient operations in the quantum era.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
QUANTUM NATIONS
Summary: The U.S. Senate announces the establishment of the National Quantum Algorithm Center, designed to advance quantum-classical hybrid computing and strengthen the nation’s quantum leadership. This initiative focuses on driving algorithmic innovation and fostering collaboration between academia and industry.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Summary: Israel unveils its first domestically built 20-qubit quantum computer, utilizing superconducting technology. This achievement represents a collaborative effort between government, academia, and industry, highlighting the nation’s commitment to advancing quantum research and technology.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Summary: China announces the "Tianyan-504," a 504-qubit superconducting quantum chip, marking a significant leap in quantum hardware capabilities. This development underscores China's competitive position in the global quantum race.
Sentiment: Strong Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Summary: The University of the Andes launches Colombia’s first quantum computer, focused on advancing research and education. This milestone supports the growth of the country’s technological ecosystem and fosters talent development in quantum computing.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Summary: IBM and the State of Illinois collaborate to establish a National Quantum Algorithm Center, aimed at integrating quantum and classical computing to accelerate algorithm development. The center emphasizes hybrid supercomputing capabilities.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
QUANTUM LAWS, REGULATIONS, AND STANDARDS
Summary: DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking program explores the use of quantum computing for applications like quantum chemistry and protein structure prediction. It aims to set performance standards for quantum systems, providing benchmarks for future advancements.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
USE CASES
Summary: Researchers propose a quantum engine powered by entanglement, replacing traditional fuels like oil and coal. This innovation demonstrates the potential of quantum technology to revolutionize energy systems and reduce reliance on conventional resources.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Long-term
Summary: The NSF announces six pilot projects for the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory, focusing on secure quantum networks and advanced computation. These projects aim to accelerate quantum technology development and address critical challenges in the field.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
QUANTUM STARTUPS AND THE MARKET
Summary: BosonQ Psi secures $3M+ in funding to enhance simulation capabilities on quantum platforms. The startup aims to achieve a 1000X acceleration on future quantum computers, enabling breakthroughs in engineering simulations.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
Summary: Spanish quantum AI startup Multiverse Computing secures funding to advance its CompactifAI platform, focusing on energy-efficient quantum solutions for enterprise applications. This development highlights growing investments in sustainable quantum AI technologies.
Sentiment: Positive | Time to Impact: Mid-term
EVENTS