Quantum Computers: Startups in the race!
It’s Quantum Wednesday! I decided to write a weekly article on quantum computing, such an exciting field in rapid acceleration. This is the fourth article in the series.
- Quantum Computers: Optimism and Pessimism
- Quantum Computers: Models of Computation
- Quantum Computers: IBM, Google, Intel, Microsoft
This week we will continue our review of the players investing R&D in quantum computers by looking at very promising startups: IonQ, Rigetti, QCI and D-Wave Systems.
IonQ
IonQ’s differentiated approach is using individual charged atoms as qubits. From initial small scale entangled demonstrations, the company is now able to build bigger systems. According to Christopher Monroe, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, growing beyond 50 qubits will require sophisticated control engineering to not only trap the ions but also move them around the device. A benefit from their architecture is that the patterns of wiring between the qubits are not fixed and can be entirely reconfigured. This can lead to great benefits for programmability of the quantum computers.
Computation Model: Universal Gate Model
Modality: Trapped Ions
Maximum qubits: 7 physical qubits
Near term applications research: quantum chemistry, material simulation
Funding: $20M Series B (announcement)
Rigetti
Rigetti’s approach is building hybrid quantum/classical computing solutions from the software layer to the hardware. Rigetti’s cloud computing platform, an API for the quantum computing world is called Forest. Forest provides free developer access for up to 26-qubits of their Quantum Virtual Machine and private access to their quantum hardware systems for select partners.
To compensate for the size limitations and noisiness of quantum computers in the short term, Rigetti is investing in a hybrid approach that will leverage the devices as accelerating quantum co-processors within classical computing units.
Computation Model: Universal Gate Model
Modality: Superconducting Qubits
Maximum qubits: 36 physical qubits (announcement)
Near term applications research: quantum simulation, optimization, machine learning
Funding: $64M Series A+B (announcement)
QCI
Quantum Circuits Inc is building the practical quantum computer based on superconducting devices. According to Rob Schoelkopf, Cofounder of QCI, they are pioneering a couple of new approaches to make quantum computation more robust and scalable: hardware efficient error correction and a modular architecture.
By contrast to Google and IBM who make quantum processors in the form of big 2D grids of qubits, QCI believes that the future of quantum computing is a reconfigurable network of simple, reliable processors. This modular approach is hoped to be much easier to scale.
Computation Model: Universal Gate Model
Modality: Superconducting Qubits
Maximum qubits: N/A
Funding: $18M Series A (announcement)
D-Wave System
So far, the research presented has been in the Universal Gate Model computation model. D-Wave Systems, a Canadian company, has the most advanced offering in the 2nd model of Quantum Annealing. This model is most useful for optimization problems, a use case with wide applicability in industry. They commercialize a 2000 qubit quantum annealer with plans to rapidly expand the number of qubits. D-Wave clients include Google, NASA, USRA, Lockheed Martin and Volkswagen. An example use case publicly announced of the later leverages D-Wave technology to fight Beijing traffic by optimizing taxi routing.
Computation Model: Quantum Annealing
Maximum qubits: 2048
Funding: $100M+ (details on Crunchbase)
Who else is involved in quantum computing? Many public-sector organizations and university are also involved in this research. QuantumComputingReport.com has a handy scorecard of the major players in the field.
Next week we will discuss a new topic: quantum networks!